Travelblogue: Joviality and Introspection in Reno

I gambled a twenty in Reno, just to watch it die...

This past weekend, Brenda and I loaded up in my car with issues of Bust and the Economist, minimally-packed clothes, and too-few toiletries, to head over the Sierras for a day in Reno. I'd scheduled the trip secret-ninja style, and I never really developed a plan for what we'd actually do there besides sleep in our hotel room at the Silver Legacy. However, despite the lack of planning, we ended up having quite a fine time. I managed to not think about work, the housing market, the Bush administration, or any of my other constantly-looming bugaboos for more than a few seconds. A successful mini-vacation indeed...

Part of the success of the trip was due to the fact that we were staying in a casino. Now, prior to the trip, I'd had some hesitation about doing this. I thought I'd just find the casinos trashy, and I had an aversion to gambling. However, by the very fact that casinos are designed to keep people in the building, they make an enormously easy vacation-destination. From the restaurants & shopping in the facility, to the bathrooms at every corner, to the cheap room-service, and even to the ultra-fast elevators making the traversment of the 38 floor building a breeze, the casino provided an opportunity for a pre-packaged, no-effort vacation. No figuring out where to eat, no driving anywhere... And on top of all this, there's free entertainment if you can resist the allure of gambling - the sheer spectacle of the casino, directly connected with another two, differently themed, casinos, made certain that one could entertain oneself for hours simply by walking and staring as the indulgent, bizzare weirdness of it all.

Amid the over-stimulation of the casinos, I didn't have many opportunities to let myself worry about "the little things," and this helped force some rexation on me. My greatest concern was my agoraphopbia - which did flare up a little bit, though mainly in Circus Circus, amongst the screaming throng of children, and once again amongst the screaming throng of Korn fans exiting the Korn concert on the premises - but overall my inherent fear of/discomfort in crowded situations stayed at a meer simmer, mainly because everybody seemed to be much more laid-back and much less high-strung than I am used to in California. Yes, it was a crowd, but it was a crowd of happy people.

After eating in the buffet - a classic casino experience if there ever was one - Brenda and I wandered around the adjacent casinos a bit, and then finally ventured down to gamble. It was my first time gambling, and Brenda's first time, at the pathetically small and grungy Alturas Rancheria, didn't really count, so this was her first substaintial gambling experience. We tried out some quarter slots, then some penny slots, and then got sucked in way farther than we ever thought we would. Looking back on the time, I am astonished at how, under the influence of the flashing lights, spinning images, and clanging noises, I lost rational control. But I had my fun. I turned five of Brenda's dollars into $23, then into $1, then back into $13, at which point I cashed out and handed it to her. Then I decided to try my luck with $20 of my own. And, slowly but surely, I lost it all. At that point I had enough sense to step away, but I had grown to understand the siren-song of gambling. Do I regret it? No. Did I have fun? Yes. Do I wish I'd left with net gains? Hell yes. But so it is...

Anyway, that's as much as an account as I'm going to commit to blog-space for now. More words may follow, and pictures will most-definately follow...