Year One, Part Two: 105 Days In The Desert. (written 02/16/06, updated 03/04/06)

We unloaded the Tahoe and discovered that our awesome new landlord didn’t bother getting the rest of the appliances or having the gas turned on. We had no fridge, a stove that had no gas and a nuker. So we went down the hill to Vons for the very first time and bought ice for our cooler and microwaveables.

Later in the evening, we were unpacking boxes and we heard boisterous laughter coming from outside. We looked out the blinds and saw our neighbors outside partying. Katie and I decided to take a break and say hi. We went outside and introduced ourselves over the six foot block wall. (I’m 5’9” and she’s 5”2”)

Our neighbors, Clint and Shawn (from Seattle and Iowa) and their buddy Randall (a rare find who is actually from Vegas) invited us over to play some poker. We play a game of Hold ‘Em with a hundred dollar pot, and Katie and I are knocked out in the same hand. AK and AQ to Shawn’s pair of eights. Tough luck.

It turns out that Clint is also a proficient Madden player. The only problem is, he plays on X-Box, and playing with the X-Box controller when all you’ve ever played on is PS2 is like painting with your toes. He whips my ass 21-3 and Shawn has our $40.00.

We went back home feeling pretty hosed our first night in Vegas, but we’d made some friends in the process.

Since we don’t live in Cleveland anymore, we have to go to a bar at 10 in the morning to watch the Browns games. So our first Sunday in town we got up at 9am and went to the Tap House, one of a few local bars owned and operated by Clevelanders. We watched the Browns take on the Tennessee Titans and mingled with some fellow Buckeye Staters.

A lady sitting next to us asked where we were from. I told her that I had moved from Rocky River, but I was originally from Medina. She immediately lit up, apparently her son in law, Dale is from Medina. Not only that, I’d get to meet him, since Dale and her daughter Helen were meeting them there later on in the game.

Sometime in the second quarter, Dale and Helen show up. The lady, Esther introduces us. Dale is a giant with long black hair and a meticulous goatee, Helen is an elegant, mediterranean girl with a smile and handshake perfect for networking on the West Coast. Esther explains that I’m from Medina and Katie is from Boston. Dale seems to get a kick out of the fact that I’m from his hometown, but as I or anyone else can tell you, meeting someone from Medina usually isn’t all that interesting.

We don’t really talk much during the game, we were all busy watching the Browns squeak out a victory against the Titans while eating pizza and chicken fingers for breakfast. After the game the four of us sit at the table and talk about all things Ohio/Nevada. Dale and I were in the same school system at the same time, but he was a Senior in High School when I was in first grade. Helen is from Canton, which is about 25 minutes from Medina. It turns out that she went to some of the same concerts I did back in the 90’s.

We inquire as to where they live, and they have a house about 3 miles away from from us, But they’re selling that, and building a new house about a mile away from us. They invite us down to hang out with some friends of theirs at a little bar called Bomas just down the street from our house.

So we go down to this bar and it’s actually a fancy restaurant that has a pretty happening bar attached to it. We’re greeted by a fellow named Charlie who’s wearing a ravens jersey and slightly resembles Brian Engblom. Within seconds of being introduced, I’m already giving him a hard time about being a ravens fan. He makes no excuses about it. “Hey, Indy stole our team, we stole yours.”

He has a great sense of humor about the situation as do I, as should anyone who roots for an AFC North team. Much less bloodshed that way. We all sit down at the bar and Charlie goes back to playing the Game King with Andrea, his roommate and another guy named Tice who is a Charger fan.

Dale and Helen, Katie and I play musical chairs talking to one another for about 6 hours. We all completely hit it off with one another and knew after just one day hanging out that we’d be good friends.

As the evening progresses, it comes out that D&H are big Star Wars fans. Katie chimes in that “Aaron knows everything about Star Wars.” Well not everything, but a lot. Helen is still in love with Han Solo and is awed by off screen tales of Han freeing Chewbacca from the subjugating Imperials.

We parted ways about 10 o’ clock after having traded four phone numbers eight different ways and planned to get together later in the week.

Is was around that time when I decided on what type of car I wanted to drive out here. After shopping the entire Lexus line, I went over to the Audi dealership with my Sister. She was leasing a new A4 turbo. I looked around the lot and fell in love with a pewter, 2001 A6 with 40k miles. I drove off the lot with it that day and learned what it means to love the precision of German engineering.

Katie and I went back to the seemingly never ending project of unpacking our 70 something boxes of crap and ended up going to a comedy show with D&H at the Tropicana that week.

We started to go out together every Sunday to watch the Browns play. More often we’d go to Bomas instead of driving 25 minutes to the Tap House, which let us get to know Charlie and some of the other characters a lot better.

Charlie is great, he’s a complete psychopath about football. He bets just about every game and does pretty well. He’s the type of guy who could not only name you 25 or 30 guys on every team, he could tell you quite a bit about them as well. He, like Dale and Helen really seem like people you can count on.

At the Colts/Steelers Monday night game, we met Dwayne and Desiree, more friends of D&H’s. Dwayne has lived here all of his life but is a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I gave him mild static about being a Steeler fan. At this point I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Dwayne. Charlie looks like a friendly guy who can take a litt;e ribbing. Dwayne looked like he might break your nose.

I didn’t really talk to Desiree much that night but she seemed like a really nice girl, and her and Katie got along very well. She and Dwayne are building a house about 1/2 mile away from us. That same night, we met Jim Bob, (yes, Jim Bob). Jim Bob is another friend of Dale and Helen’s, he enjoys Golden Tee and beer, good guy.

We certainly didn’t have a problem staying busy in this town. Instead of just the typical vices that Sin City offers, we’ve stayed busy with more traditional forms of entertainment.

The first night we met our neighbors, I mentioned that I played bass, guitar, etc. Shawn said that he worked with a guy who was a drummer and into heavy music. He said that this guy and a buddy of his get together and jam a few blocks over. Two weeks later, Shawn stopped over and told us that this drummer friend of his was having a big poker game at his house and I should bring my bass rig.

Katie was sick at the time, but wanted me to go anyway. I packed up my stuff into the back of Randall’s truck and we went over to Berto and Gina’s house. Berto is a tall, skinny Dominican guy with perfect 90’s metal hair. He’s also one of the most amazing drummers I’ve ever seen. He and Gina have two kids and live in a slight upgrade of our house two developments over.

Berto’s friend who plays guitar is a guy named Lance. Lance’s guitar playing rivals Berto’s drumming. Maybe that’s why he’s sponsored by Washburn and Line 6. He’s also played on the Vans Warped Tour. What the hell am I doing here? We set up our rigs, and they show me a few songs they have written.

Well, I somehow managed to keep up... barely. These two guys are fast. Like Slayer or old Sepultura fast. We jam out for about an hour and then we go upstairs to play poker.

Gina is a poker shark. You know she’s a shark when you look at her. When you sit across from her you’d better not make any cute moves if you’re not sure where you stand. The first time we played, her and I cleared out seven other players in two hours. The first heads up hand, I tried to bluff her out of a big pot and she had a set of twos. Whoops. Nice game, Gina.

Lance, Berto and I go back down to the garage around midnight and put on another quick set. Despite missing just about every change, I managed to keep up with their relentless, attacking style.

They told me that I could leave my rig there if I wanted to. Either they wanted to sell my shit after I left, or they wanted to work with me. Turns out they liked what I brought to the table and we’ve been getting together regularly ever since. The tentative plan is to get something on disc by summertime and hopefully start gigging even sooner.

Katie and I have had some the best times of our lives in the last 12 months. Craps at the Suncoast, Rockstar Karaoke at the House of Blues, mountain climbing at Red Rock, canoeing down the Mohican River, Sunday dinners at my Mom and Dad’s house in Medina and in Summerlin, and quiet times alone together.

This past week we went to the Tennis Channel Open to see the men’s quarterfinals in singles and doubles. We got to see James Blake and the Bryan Brothers play. Katie got all of their autographs. We also met a dozen or so other top 50 players throughout the week. It was my first live ATP event, to me it was almost as big as my first Metallica show. I’m glad we got to share it with my Mom and Eddie. I know they got a huge kick out of it.

We also went to a minor league hockey game with Charlie this week. I’ve been to dozens of NHL, AHL and IHL hockey games, but my first ECHL game was an intriguing experience. The crowd constantly yells the word “sucks”. When they announce the opposing teams roster over the PA, the Vegas fans yell “sucks!” after each player’s name. After they announce the coaches name: “he sucks too!” Whenever the other team came back up to full strength, they’d yell “and they STILL SUCK!”

Great fun down there at the Orleans Arena, I’ve got to take my Dad to a game before the season ends. It’s the least I could do for introducing me to the game.

We’re going to see Ministry and RevCo at the House of Blues with D&H in May, and I’m probably going to captain another USTA team this spring. Katie’s parents are coming to visit in two weeks, and Schmidty and Lynnette will be out here in April.

Fun, fun, fun. Just in time for work.