Friday, January 06, 2006

The best laid plans...

I'd hatched such a beautiful one.

About a month ago, I opened my mail and found an offer for a discounted room at the Wynn Las Vegas (the most expensive hotel on the strip), and thought it would be nice to go for a couple of days - just to soak up the swank (I can't afford the Wynn at anything other than a deeply discounted rate, so I figured I should go while I could. Fate may not throw me another rich boyfriend anytime soon). I talked one of my girlfriends into going with me, and we were planning on having the girls' weekend in Vegas - breaking the hearts of old men, being generally fabulous, getting massages in the spa while drinking something overpriced and fruity with a little umbrella in it.

Since neither one of us are gamblers (over two days, I'll blow about $40 in the casino - and most of that's tipping the waiters), we'd planned to bring another friend who does gamble like crazy - after all, the more money you lose in Vegas, the more love you get from the hotel.

I was pretty sure that Gamblor wouldn't spend enough to comp our room, but he'd probably manage to get us another discount room offer in the future.

Right? Right.

Wrong.

Gamblor has the flu and can't go - AND my girlfriend just called and bailed.

Not a problem, except that we were going to go Sunday, and had to cancel the room by noon today. It's now almost 6 pm.

Since I have to pay for the room anyway, I'm just going to go by myself. I won't have as much fun as I would with my friend (and not splitting the hotel bill with anyone puts a serious dent in my mad money), but since I haven't had an actual vacation (you know, where I have some quiet time and can do whatever I want) in a very long time, I'll still have a good time.

I've got a few calls out to folks (including one to my ex-boyfriend who probably won't want to go, but I called just to be sure), but so far no one's called me back.

I just hope my aging vehicle makes it across the desert and back - I sure as hell can't afford to rent a car now.

UPDATE: Girlfriend just called. She just got a check that she wasn't expecting, so she can go after all! Yay!

Look out, fellas.. here we come (well, not right now. Since we're not going until Sunday, you're safe over the weekend)!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was going to volunteer to fly down and meet you, but now you don't need me! :-)

Have fun!

Peggy Archer said...

You can still fly down Dave!

We'll all have fun!

Anonymous said...

I decided to read your entire blog before making any comments, and even I agree with some of what you say, I don't agree with a lot of what you write. I've been doing this (electric) for 15 years, and never got hurt as much as you describe. Guess you must be careless or be around the wrong crew. But what piss me off the most is your comment about the grips. If you think that they are smarter than us, then, why don't you join their local? I'm sure they have room for a dumb electritian who is willing to move up in the darwing theory. Evolve, move up and join your 80 brothers, that way you won't get burned, hit on the face with a 100A bates connector or hurt your wrist from wrapping cable. Our job is not as bad as you make it look. Just have to be around the right people.
I'll be your pain in the ass "sister" Be watchin' U.


Your pain in the ass.

The Unsomnambulist said...

Why are the rude posters always the anonymous ones? Oh yeah, that way they can be easily ignored...

Anyway, be careful in Vegas - CES and AVN are both happening this weekend, so I'm surprised a room, especially a discounted one, is even available.

Have fun with all the computer geeks and porn stars!

Anonymous said...

Well Mr. Pain-in-the-ass, maybe you haven't worked as hard as our Peggy here? ;-)

P.S. Pain in the ass is not something to be ignored. Go see a butt-doctor.

Peggy Archer said...

Since everyone is entitled to his (or her) own opinion, Mr. (or Ms.) Anonymous:

If you feel my description of the job is completely wrong, then why don't you do a guest post for me - give everyone your side of the story, if you will.

Feel free to email me at randomblogmail (at)yahoo dot com.

Spike said...

What Roscoe said.

ROFL, Josh.

Anonymous said...

So when they turn your blog into a movie, who will play you?

Anonymous said...

What's the difference between a grip and an electric?... The Electric takes the dishes out of the sink before he pees in it.

Anonymous said...

I know I made a couple of mistakes in my spelling, such as the "darwing" one. It should have been Darwin, but like Peggy, and a lot of us, i was tired, hence, the lack of care on the way the letters went into the phrase. And I'm anonymous, because this blog is done by someone under an alias.
Just keeping it the same way.
The job description is close to what is in reality and have no need to add to your comments. But what still pisses me off is the remark about grips being smarter than electric.
Looking forward to a long relationship. Just like a marriage.

Your pain in the ass.

Anonymous said...

Sarcasm, like humor, is hard to read in this forum. You can't see somebody's wink as they say "Grips are smarter than electricians" but you have to figure it out for yourself. Grips and electricians usually share a truck, so we all have to get along and play nice.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, I know you. You're the eletrician who complains about taking the 12K's of the truck on a daylight exterier. You're the guy who wheels a baby junior across a stage floor, turns it on and thinks you've done something remarkable. You're the guy who uses a 50 foot stinger to power up a lamp twelve feet away from an edison box. You're the guy who will coil up a head feeder in a doorway (thereby restricting the producers from their favored spot).
Yeah, I know you. You're the one that doesn't recognise that while we're working to the same ends, we have different job descriptions. We're not smarter, we're a different catagory.
You know the difference between grips and eletricians?
Eletricians are a little disapointed in the direction their life has taken.
Grips are way fuckin' jazzed by the great job they have.

Peggy Archer said...

It's true that voice inflections are hard to read in print, and sometimes folks can misinterpret printed words.

In some areas, grips are smarter than we are. I sure as hell couldn't figure out how to do some of the crap they do.

In some areas, we're smarter than they are. They sure as hell couldn't figure out how to do some of the crap we do.

There's a specific 'type' that goes for each job, and one's not better than the other. We all work together towards the same end.

Can't we all just get along? All of us are way, way smarter than studio execs (no offense meant to any studio execs reading).

Meg - FWIW, I HATE sharing a truck. One department (usually grip) wraps before the other and there's a lot of standing around and complaining, since we're not allowed to have wrap beer anymore.

Anon - If some misquote (it's the nature of journalism. Why sweat it?) is what you've gotten your panties in such a wad about, maybe you need another hobby?

If you're going to be a troll (which is what you are right now), you may as well attempt to do a guest post. Or you can be a pussy and back out.

At this point, I'm going to ask the rest of you to please stop feeding the troll.

At some point, it will get bored and go away if we collectively ignore it.

Or, it can put it's money where it's mouth is and email me something resembling a coherent post.

Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, the vast majority of my co-workers who have busted me (apparently, my writing style is a dead giveaway) have had positive things to say about the blog, and I've even gotten a few "Wow, that's amazing and I read it every day now" comments.

I'm happy about positive comments from co-workers - I was really worried about what my 728 (my union local) brothers and sisters would think.

Dweeb - I got offered a book deal. Let's just get through that, shall we (since I'm not sure I can maintain a narrative thread for 200 pages)? Let's worry about the movie later.

Eric Bob - Why, oh why do producers love standing in doorways so much? I think figuring that out is the key to enlightenment.
And you're *SPOT ON* about the difference between the departments.

In case anyone was wondering - stingers (extension cords) come in two lengths. 25 feet and 50 feet. It's considered a beginner move to use a 50 foot stinger to power up something when you could use a 25 foot.

Anonymous said...

Ah Peg. It's almost 9:00 PM and you're replying to your blog. I've tried to leave you some words (nothing dirty) on a less public forum, but I can't seem to through in email. Damn!

Spike said...

I got offered a book deal.

Go Peg!

Why, oh why do producers love standing in doorways so much?

So they can make a quick getaway when everyone realises what a turkey it is?

Peggy Archer said...

Eric Bob - top left of the web page; right under the little photo of my feet, there's a link called "View my complete profile". Click that link, and you'll go to the profile page - on the right side, there will be an email link. You'll have to do some surgery to get it to work (remove the "removethistoemailme"), but it should send.