in reno
I’m in Reno, Nevada, as a last-minute trip for my mothers birthday. I’m in my hotel room blogging instead of gambling because I’m suffering from sensory overload - I just came back from Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago for a friends wedding - so while my mother hems and haws about how she lost a whopping seven dollars playing penny slots, I’m here in my safe cocoon of geekdom, away from neon lights and buffet signs and oxygen tanks.
Observations about the Atlantis Hotel and Casino, Reno Nevada
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While my mother knows I smoke, I refuse to smoke around her. When I don’t smoke for an extended period of time, I will get fantastically cranky. This has nothing to do with the Atlantis hotel, but I just wanted to throw that out there right now.
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The sentence “I’m reading a book called ‘MY SON IS A HOMOSEXUAL.’ It’s not very good.” will kill a car conversation INSTANTLY.
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A hotel and casino in Reno is just like a hotel and casino in Las Vegas, except the folks here look like they could be working at a Walgreens or a Costco or a Comcast paying station in east Oakland. At least in Vegas they put on the fake veneer of courtesy, whereas here they’ll answer all your questions with “whatever, next person please” and not give you eye contact.
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This made for some, uhm, customer dissatisfaction when I ran down to the front desk, complaining that my drivers license and credit card was lost. (Oh, PS, Paula at the front desk? You should really do something with those acre of bangs on your face.)
Thankfully, my drivers license and credit card were NOT lost, because they were camouflaged on this fantastically tacky comforter I’m sitting on right now. There’s a lot of orange and yellow and hot pink fish and kelp and seahorses; think Monterrey Bay Aquarium with a 70’s porn filter on LSD.
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My mother got lost at the buffet. As in, she was wandering around with a tray of food for 20 minutes, looking for the table we were assigned. I’m going to attribute that to the poor buffet layout rather than the fact that she might be turning senile.
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There’s a video slot machine based on “Pompeii,” except instead of a massive volcano burying villagers alive with toxic ash, it shows a massive volcano showering villagers with gold coins and a cumulative jackpot. Uhm… that’s kinda fucked up.
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Similar to the cruise ship, a good majority of the patrons in this casino are elderly people here on a slots tournament. A slots tournament is just like a sports tournament, except instead of athletes, they’re old people with oxygen tanks and they’re smoking cigarettes. Oh, and there is absolutely NO skill involved.
Now that I think about it… it’s 2:30am and she’s not back at the room yet. I think I’m going to look for her. (I swear to god, next year for her birthday, we’re going to the park.)
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