Sober Trip to Las Vegas

What follows in the next section is what I had written and meant to post last Thursday. Instead, I posted Sober in Vegas. I wrote that and decided to publish it the same day because that is how I was feeling. The trip was good. It was also hard for me. Those things do tend to go hand in hand with me at times.

First, I include what I had originally planned on posting, and then I will tell you how my best-laid plans for me went. Remember that I did not succumb to the desire to start drinking my face off suddenly. So, there is that. I am proud of myself.

The Original Sober Vegas Writing

I know, I know, sobriety in Las Vegas doesn’t exist, can’t exist. After all, it is a sin city; after all, alcohol is available everywhere, and open drinking is not frowned upon in other areas of the country. It was a paradise for the ‘before times’ me. No one looked twice as I drank my way through the day.

Mimosas or bloody mary’s with breakfast? Yes, please! After breakfast, beers? Yes! Lunch beer? Of course! Late afternoon beer? You know what I am going to say, right? YES! Dinner beer or perhaps wine? Oh hell yes! Bring on all of the alcohol! And it was, still is, socially acceptable to do that.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? Sure, unless you are an alcoholic. That follows you everywhere and anywhere.

VEGAS, BABY!!!!

And in this situation, it is following me back to Vegas. My first sober trip to Vegas is happening this week. And oh boy, is it triggering A LOT of anxiety. I mean, let’s face it, Vegas is anxiety-inducing all by itself. There is so many people, so much noise, so much to be aware of (hypervigilant anyone?). It is exhausting for me.

I have not spent time in Vegas sober; that is true. I know that there is so much to Vegas than the drink all day, everyday push that seems to be the unofficial moniker of the city. And that is what I am going to be focusing on. I am sure that I will have much more to write about after the Vegas trip. For now, I am working on engaging in decidedly alcohol-free things.

Dig This! Vegas

One of the things I thought about was, what are the things that I always thought would be super fun and cool, but that didn’t involve alcohol and therefore was unappealing to the before times me? One of the first things I thought about was Dig This! Vegas. Do I get to drive heavy equipment and move dirt around? Yes, please!

Also, they would frown upon drinking while driving those huge earthmovers and not being intoxicated before getting in the cab of those. Okay, that sounds like it will be awesome. I don’t care if no one else wants to do that (luckily, that is not true – I am not the only one who finds it super cool to be able to drive one of those things and shove earth around). 

Cirque de Soleil – Ka

The other is not necessarily alcohol-free, but I imagine it to be more amazing sober than intoxicated, and that is a Cirque de Soleil show. I have only ever seen Cirque shows drunk, sometimes quite intoxicated, to the point that I barely remember the show.

How is that for drowning out my anxiety for you? I drowned out my anxiety, AND everything else around me, even the super cool things that I wish I had been sober for. But I can’t go back and change that. That was the before times me, and now I am looking forward to being absorbed and probably a bit overwhelmed (in a good way) by the exceptional talent of the Cirque de Soleil performers.

Museums

I am also going to some museums. Yes, Vegas has MUSEUMS! And they are pretty amazing. I have been to (list out the museums I have been to). On this trip, I am going back to the Mob Museum. I am on a mission of sorts, unofficially, of course. During our RV road trip, we visited a now-defunct casino in Arlington, TX, called Top O’Hill.

Before Vegas, Top O’Hill was all Vegas offers on a much smaller scale. It is currently the Baptist College. What a history, right? There is a connection between that place in Arlington, TX, and the formation of Vegas as the gambling mecca that it was and still is for the most part. I want to slowly go through the mob museum and look for any mention of the connection between Top O’Hill and Vegas.

That is one of the things that I know I should do when I visit someplace, give myself a reason, something to look for, like this connection between Vegas and this clandestine casino in Arlington, TX. Whatever I find, I will share it with the curator of the Top O’Hill. I know that she would be interested in what I see.

What Ended Up Happening

I got to Dig This! Vegas and that was as much fun as I knew it would be. And I learned new skills just in case I needed to know how to operate equipment during a zombie apocalypse.

I also did go to Cirque de Soleil’s show KA. I highly recommend it. And it was so much better sober than intoxicated. Go figure, right? A fantastic acrobatic show better as a sober person?

As the days went by and it looked like I would not get to The Pinball Hall of Fame and The Mob Museum, I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. As I write this, I am sitting here thinking. I am not going back to Vegas anytime soon, so why didn’t I do what I wanted to do? Why????

Sober Sunrise

I was up every morning at 6 am and watched the sunrise. It was amazing. Before times me never would have been up that early. It is those moments that I know that I never want to go back to the before times me. I missed so much over the years.