High Rollers

high roller: n. Slang

1. One who spends freely and extravagantly, as for luxuries or entertainment.

I guess you don't know what the high life is until you actually get to live it. This past weekend five of my college friends and I spent went to Vegas to party for my roommate's 21st birthday. I learned two great lessons:
#1: it pays to have a friend with a dad on the board at the Hilton, and
#2: Even unlimited money can't guarantee good room service in the middle of the night.

My friend Zack Oates happens to be the son of a former NFL player who now happens to sit on the board at the Hilton in Las Vegas. Zack told us he could get us some discounts on rooms, so we decided to plan a Vegas trip. Little did we know just what it means to be an Oates.
After we had some car trouble on our way to St. George Zack placed a call to the Hilton explaining how difficult it had been for us to make it. "If there is anything at all you can do," he said, "to make our stay more comfortable, we would appreciate it." Well, that line apparently doesn't just work in movies.
When we got to the hotel Zack walked past the check-in counter lines to the VIP lounge where he was greeted by name by one of the employees. "Hello, Mr. Oates. We have been preparing for your arrival for a while." Zack emerged from the lounge with two VIP suites, VIP passes for all of us, and a little buzz word that made all the differnce in the world: "Comped."
Comped . . . yes . . . our rooms and anything and everything that we charged to our rooms was completely comped. All of the hotel's shows, restaurants, roomservice, etc was on the house. It's good to be an Oates.

Diet Cokes and Chocolate-covered Strawberries . . .

Sandy and I decided to add a little comfort into our beautification on Friday night before we went out for dinner and clubbing. Love that word, comped.

Party like a Rock Star . . .

We spent two days in Vegas partying like rock stars, VIP passes and all. We ate the Bellagio, went clubbing at the Wynn, ordered a cart of room service at 3:30 am, shopped, saw a show, and basically had the time of our lives. You know, if this really is how the other half lives, I might need to reconsider my profession. :)

All That Korean and a Bag of Chips

This is my token foreign roommate--Sun Hee Kim. She's a 1984 from Korea studying Property Management, one of the coolest girls I know, and the only person I am aware of who spent Thanksgiving break watching Titanic ten times.

The other day we were coming back from the store after buying chips and dip for a party. Sun Hee was getting the last groceries out of the trunk and somehow managed to accidentally close the trunk right onto a bag of tortilla chips. Forget the munchies, this was one of the funniest moments of the semester, and I almost died with laughter right there in the parking lot (and by "died with laughter" I mean that I almost wet my pants.)

This just really got me thinking about how happiness in life is all about the people you know and the small moments you share. It was Thoreau who said, "That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest." Amen to that. I hope that I am always easily pleased by the small and simple things in life, like a bag of chips shut in a trunk and a quirky Korean roommate. Cheers!