People Never Cease to Amaze Me

[kaasirpent]

I make no secret of the fact that I can't stand most people. Not you, of course; I'm talking about them.

 

I'm in Las Vegas for TAM, an annual meeting of skeptics from around the world. Vegas gives me lots of examples to illustrate my problem with people.

 

The buffet opens at 8:00 am on Saturday. I know this because I saw it on the huge sign that said "Saturday/Sunday Brunch -- 8:00 am - 3:00 pm."

 

When I went down for brunch, it was 7:34 am. No one was in line. I decided, "Eh, why not? I got nothing better to do for 26 minutes." So I got in line.

 

Immediately, people got in line behind me, as though they were waiting for a catalyst.

 

And what did every single person ask me when they got in line behind me? That's right! "What time do they open?"

 

I'd like to point out once again that I was standing right beside a huge sign that answered their question.

 

Then, they'd look at their watches and sigh. And about half of them walked away, grumbling under their breath about how they didn't have time to wait that long.

 

So, let's get this straight: you'll sit in front of slot machines for hours feeding them coin after coin after coin for hours, but a 20-plus-minute wait for breakfast is where you'll draw the line? Interesting.

 

Then we have the people who approached the buffet, walked past the line of people waiting to get in, cut in line in front of me and asked the cashiers, who were getting things ready, "What time do you open?"

 

Alternatively, those same people who walked past all the people waiting in line would then walk into the dining area and act stunned when they were then told, "We're not open, yet." What in the actual fuck did they think all of us waiting in line were doing, exactly?

 

Then came the pièce de resistance. A woman dressed in very nice cream-colored business clothes and a name plaque barged in front of the line and said, "I have a large party of six."

 

When told, "We open in 15 minutes," she said, "Can't we go ahead and be seated? I have a large party."

 

The cashier said, "Ma'am, we aren't open, yet. The line is over there."

 

The woman huffed off. A minute or two later, she comes back with a guy in tow. Once again she wants to be seated. Once again, she is told to wait in line. Once again, she huffs off. Finally, she comes back again and ends up convincing the cashiers that she will wait in line, but her party will wait in a separate line.

 

Grinning, she hurries off. Soon, five people, all in business clothes, break in line in front of me and are told, "No, your line is over there."

 

They go and instead of standing in their own, special line, they barge into the dining area, and have to be told, again, to form their own separate line.

 

And people wonder why I hate people.

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Comments

Welcome to Vegas

[jeffreynbaker.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

I went there for a slot machine convention with my company. Pretty much I wanted to punch everyone in the face for the three days I was there.

There were people literally tethered to the machines with a cord attached to their playing card that was inserted into the machine. Coins are old school, now you can digitally lose your money faster than ever!

[buckeyebrain.livejournal.com]

Actually, the 'tethered' card is a club card type of thing, so that their comps can add up automagically. You still have to put money in (and get your cash-out in a printed ticket, which you take to another machine for cash (or to another slot machine to play with).

But since you're in a slot machine convention, I'm sure you already know that.

Re: Welcome to Vegas

[kaasirpent]

I only want to punch about every third person in the face. Most of them because they stop in the MIDDLE of the walkway, standing 5 abreast, and have a leisurely conversation, and don't seem to understand why people are being so RUDE as they sidle past. Alternatively, it's because they're walking along, texting or talking on their cell phones, and barge into people.

[temporus.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the special people. In their own minds anyway. Same kind of people that will cut off an entire line of cars waiting to get off the highway, because they can't be bothered to wait like everyone else.

[kaasirpent]

Oh, do not EVEN get me started on THOSE people. :)

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Guess I'll pass on visiting Vegas. Ever.

[feuervogel]

Las Vegas is absolutely awful. Every fucking hotel makes you walk through their nasty, smoke-filled casino before you get to the elevator that takes you to your room, and it's not like a quick hop past a few tables, no, of course not; you have to walk through the whole fucking thing so you stink like an ashtray when you get out. And if you're me, who gets migraines from cigarette smoke, or my brother-in-law who has severe asthma, you're sick by the time you get out.

Fuck Las Vegas.

[kaasirpent]

The cigarette--and cigar, and pipe--smoke are definitely the worst aspect of the whole Vegas experience if you don't gamble. If you DO gamble, I suspect the whole 'losing your money' thing is probably worse. I had dinner with an old friend last night and he had to cut it short because another old friend of his called because he had just lost his entire life savings and couldn't get home because there was nothing left in his banking account.

Vegas, baby! Vegas!

But I digress. It disgusts me beyond understanding that the entire hotel smells like smoke except for the area past the elevators where the guest rooms are. The conference center is non-smoking, so it's fine up there, but to GET there, I have to run the gauntlet. And if I expect to, you know...eat, I have to go into the thick of the smoke (pun intended) to navigate to one of the nine restaurants inside the casino.

And all of the casinos are the same. I came out here with some friends in the spring of 2006 for a real vacation just to do some sightseeing. We went to most of the major casinos just to see what there was to see. I was gagging the entire time. The most fun I had during that trip was the drive we took up to Red Rock Canyon, and the drive-through wedding chapel where two of said friends renewed their wedding vows.

And there are families with children running around that seem absolutely oblivious to the foul clouds of stench while I'm gagging. When I get home, I suspect the first thing I'll have to do is empty my luggage directly into my washing machine or I'll contaminate the inside of my house.

(I know I have friends / family who smoke who might be reading this. All I can say is: Stop it. You know you should.)

[feuervogel]

I had to go to a pharmacy conference there in December 2005. It was good, on one hand, because there was actually SUN, unlike fucking Oregon in winter, when it's RAIN RAIN CLOUDS RAIN COLD RAIN RAIN RAIN DID I MENTION RAIN? (Though the desert climate made my nose start bleeding :/) I played a couple dollars in the slots, just to see (because I was in Vegas, dammit, I ought to gamble once). I don't understand the appeal.

All my coworkers who went were like YAY VEGAS IT'S OUR FAVORITE PLACE TO VACATION! I boggled. I mean, from the west coast, Hawaii is only a few hours' flight, and it's SO much nicer.

My mom smokes. She smoked in the house while I was growing up. I never realized how gross smoke was until I moved away for college, though I'd still go out to bars and whatnot. I only recently became extremely sensitive to smoke particles (even lingering ones in furniture or drywall). My mom, age 58, a 42-year smoker, broke her femur when she slipped on wet pavement in the middle of May. She has osteoporosis, at age 58. Cigarette smoke constricts blood vessels and interferes with bone turnover. Her husband died of pancreatic cancer I guess 5 years ago now. He was about 50, and had smoked 30+ years.

But sure, smoking's risks are overstated by evil people who want to control your lives. Yep.

[kaasirpent]

From birth until I was about 14, both my parents smoked. Like chimneys, in the house. It permeated everything. I didn't like it even back then, but what could I do, right?

When my mother had a major medical crisis when I was 14, my father put down the cigarettes and never smoked again. My mother did not.

Daddy died in 1987 of lung cancer. Caused by smoking? Maybe. Probably. He was also a carpenter and didn't use face masks, so it's possible he had other carcinogens in there, as well, including asbestos.

My mother continued to smoke until fairly recently when she finally kicked the habit for good (I hope!).

I remember being at college and bringing my clothes home for her to do the laundry and then taking them back to my dorm...and opening that bag and smelling the stench of cigarette smoke. I'm sure everyone who sat near me in my classes thought I was a 2-pack-a-day smoker.

But it's hard to say to your mother, "Could you not smoke in your own house so that my laundry, which you're doing for me out of the kindness of your heart, doesn't stink?"

[feuervogel]

Oh god, when I was in 10th grade, I got this lung infection (which my mom never took me to the doctor for, despite the fact that I couldn't lie down to sleep & had to sleep sitting up in my bed) and being around smoke made me cough, this horrible gasping choking cough. She picked me up from the library one cold, rainy February Saturday afternoon (I was doing research for a term paper and had to use the literary criticism books). I asked her not to light the cigarette she had in her mouth because I was already feeling coughy. She rolled her eyes (my mom acts like she's 12, I fucking swear) and said I was just making it up and trying to get her to quit. So she lit the cigarette, and I started coughing. Because I couldn't breathe.

There are reasons I don't call my mother very often, and visit her even less.

[kaasirpent]

Oh, and about that dryness...

I loved coming out here last year because I had had a low-grade ear infection that kept a constant "bubble" of moisture in my middle or inner ear for MONTHS. We couldn't seem to get rid of it. Five days in Vegas? Dry as a desert. And it didn't come back.

This time, it's affecting me a bit more. My eyes feel like sandpaper and my throat is always dry. I have to keep hydrated because I can practically feel the moisture being sucked out of my body. :)

When I got off the plane the other day in Vegas, they told us the temperature was 112. My phone said 109. I walked out of the airport to where the hotel shuttle was going to pick me up and it was like being inside a convection oven. I do not know how people stand it.

But then we've been having flash flood warnings every day while I've been here because of thunderstorms. So hey. :)

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

It never rains, except when it storms ...

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I have a little experience with smoke, but although cigarette smoke doesn't bother me, that doesn't mean I like it. Anyway, with a few exceptions my plans to someday visit all 50 states don't include their major cities; I'm more of a country boy. The closest I want to get to Vegas is driving through on my way to some of the more natural wonders.

[kaasirpent]

I recommend Red Rock Canyon. It's near enough to Vegas that you could stay in a non-strip, non-casino hotel and not have to Run the Gauntlet of Smoke™, but still find interesting things close by.

Are there other cities in Nevada? :)

other cities in Nevade

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Reno! Which brings up a whole different issue ...

Re: other cities in Nevade

[kaasirpent]

Oh? What's Reno's issue?

Re: other cities in Nevade

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Prostitution. Or so I've heard. I've never actually been there myself, honest. Not once. Just rumors, something my masseuse whispered to me once. Not that I have a masseuse.

I hear the average citizen is very happy in that city. Hm ...