Big Show

I'm not making this up, but there's a new act making the rounds here in Vegas that I've got to see. It's a KISS tribute band, four guys covering all their songs and wearing the makeup. Gotta love that--Vegas needs a few more 'tribute' bands--we're famous for Elvis impersonators, female impersonators, and a Neil Diamond impersonator, but we've got no Steel Dragon. Anyhow, the greatest hook that this KISS tribute band offers is this--they're all midgets! Hell yeah--Gene Simmons is like three feet tall! They call themselves 'Little Kiss', and currently they're playing gigs over at the Orleans Arena, entertaining the crowd between periods during the hockey games.

Once they play some sort of 'traditional' venue, where I don't have to sit through a minor-league hockey game to see them, I'll gladly give a full report. I'm just wondering how tall Ace's boots are.

I got another interesting email this morning. For the third time in the past month, I got a message from a recruiter representing my old employer back in Phoenix. Yeah, the same employer who laid me off on my birthday in 2001, the same employer who made 'unofficial' offers to rehire me twice, only to pull the rug out from under me at the eleventh hour, the same employer that laid me off for purely political reasons (I had the bad sense to ask a director a question he very much did not want to answer, about 72 hours before they announced that they'd be laying people off), the same employer who contributed to my credit score plummeting in 2002 and then having the gall last year to ask me to explain why my credit was bad.

Apparently, they need my services again. But I really don't know if I'm ready to go back to that world. I really enjoy the experience I'm having in Vegas, and once I actually get full-time status I'll be making money that I doubt they could match, at least not immediately. Yes, the whole Vegas experience has been kind of bumpy and sometimes it's been tough, but it's certainly been interesting.

More 'stability' would be nice, but no casino has ever laid me off--brokerages have done it to me twice. If the money was right, and if I could go back to working in the same type of job I was doing, and if I could teach the occasional options trading class, I'd consider it. But right now, I like living and working in Vegas too much. Besides, I don't have to make this decision until next December--my NASD registrations are good until Jan 2007. And I'm in the enviable position of not needing a new job right now, so if I go, it'll be on my terms.

But I sure miss the heady days of the late nineties, going to Aunt Chilada's Happy Hour every Friday afternoon for skirt chasin' and cigar smokin', taking the quarterly bonuses and heading off to Vegas with my buddies, after stopping at the Highlighter for the evening to share our largess with some of the local gals whose aversion to clothing was always a hit with my crowd. Those were some good times. But the two Eddies are now married, Derek and Neil now live in Texas, and the Frat House is full of people I don't know.

If I went, I'd be starting all over. Again. So I'll probably just stay here in Vegas. At least that's the way I'm feeling right now.

Mikey