Be-dazzled

Back from Vegas, and my thoughts about that place have not changed one bit. It is a miserable place (at least, the strip. I cannot speak for what it is like off of the strip. Never been). I still have not won anything gambling. I went through $100 on the roulette wheel in about 15 minutes, and another $30 on the slots. I finally started making tiny bets just to get free drinks in some sad attempt to get my money back from Caesar's.

I can report that Vegas has been attacked by the be-dazzler. Every store, from the high-end True Religion stores to the Luxor gift shop, displayed clothing with some metallic or bejeweled detailing. $500 jeans, $150 t-shirts, or $5 fanny packs. If it didn't have a little dazzle on it, you can bet it had a skull on it. Or gothic lettering. Or stitched detailing. Or, most often, all four types of detailing...on the same shirt. Don't get me wrong, I have some of this stitched, tattered-edged clothing. But after seeing it in every store, and on every single person, I must say, it is high time for this faux-rocker trend to end. That and untucked shirts under a blazer.

A quick report on the Consumer Electronics Show:

• Most amazing: Wireless flat-screen TVs. To be able to set up a flat screen and surround sound without one single wire....that is advancement.
• Most overwhelming: The 150" plasma screen TV. I mean, really?
• Most overdone: iPod accessories. Little rolling balls, barking dogs, a zillion types of speakers, telephones, TVs, game consoles...Do we really need yet another thing to plug the ubiquitous iPod into?
• Most frightening: The taser gun that also played MP3s. For the girl out jogging...who runs into her cheating ex-boyfriend, I guess.

For the first time since I moved here, my plane landed on time, and the trip was without delay.

And, for the first time since I moved here, it felt like I was really coming home. I had missed New York.