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Ch 0.5 - Downfall

a Ten Pound Bag side story

Las Vegas in mid-winter. What a miserable place to be, not cold enough to be called anything but chilly and a near constant wind offering nothing but misery. I didn't like the city, I didn't like the weather and I really didn't like the desert. Don't get me wrong, I used to like Vegas. But that was before the corporations took over and now everything was over-priced, over-extravagant and overly cheap under the veneer. They should rename the fucking city to *quot;Overly*quot;.

But there I was attending the industry conference, why couldn't they hold this stupid conference someplace fun like New Orleans? Now that was a city I enjoyed, amazing music, food and atmosphere. I attend conferences all over the world; I work for a global firm and have to do business most of the major financial centers worldwide. I tried to keep it to four conferences per year, one each quarter and try to balance them between Europe, Oceania and the Far East; well then there was always this one here in Las Vegas. I was scheduled to participate in two discussion panels here and attend several after parties.

Back home in Southern California the weather was magnificent; I missed it the minute I stepped out of the airport looking for a taxi. Back home I had a comfy little house where a good woman named Trish and her three young sons awaited me. I was in Las Vegas for four days and I fervently hoped they those days would pass by quickly.

The taxi was fully up to Las Vegas standards, which is to say it was cramped, dirty and had a strange odor coming out of the seat. Why did only London have good cabs? To be honest the cabs in Japan and Germany were always fastidious and clean but the famous London Black Cabs were an entirely different standard.

The hotel room was listed as Five-Star of course, which translates to Three-Star in the rest of the world. Don't bother ordering room service and the coffee is almost always atrocious. The only thing Five-Star about Las Vegas hotel rooms is the glitter in the house casino and the prices they charge.

Per usual the conference was a bore. The Keynote speaker basically made an overly long sales pitch, the display floors were crowded