The New York New York casino names gambling areas after boroughs of New York City such as Queens and Brooklyn. I wasn't planning to stop there for more than a night, on my way to more interesting destinations like Death Valley and a couple of other corners of flat-lined desert. But Las Vegas had something special in store for me. It turns out I was pregnant. Being Lamaze-less, I needed a little birthing relief, which a set of midwives dealt me with the indifference of croupiers at Bally's.
Weird things happen here.
Area 51 is in the neighborhood. The site where the military exploded 300 nuclear bombs to keep the Cold War nice and chilled is 65 miles northwest of the city. Maybe they were connected with the Las Vegas tourism bureau, which wanted to make sure that my stay in town was long and painfully memorable. By 4 my abdomen was staging the re-enactment of a meteor impact over and over. Still under the impression that men couldn't be pregnant, I was thinking appendix, and I was thinking that the time was nearing to haul myself to a nearby hospital for the excision.