مکالمه

I’ll tell you, when I think about you going to this college in Vegas; it just.. it’s so hard for me to believe because I think of myself going to college when I was 18 and y’know, I just, I would have been like a kid in the candy store there.

Yeah, well, you do run into a lot of temptations there. Y’know, especially as a college student and you’re hanging out with other folks and you know the bars are open all night.

It’s your first time living on your own.

First time away from home. Exactly.

So, is UNLV actually on the strip?

It’s close. You’re like about a couple of miles away from the strip but it’s, y’know, it’s probably like walking distance from some casinos because y’know, not all the casinos are on the strip. Y’know, some of them, some of them are off the strip. But there is, y’know, there’s even like bars where they have like video poker and..

On campus?

Like right across the street.

Ah, man. Y’know that they just want to entice the students to come out and gamble.

Yeah. Y’know, some people, they get, y’know they have a problem or whatever or they get caught up in the moment and they just start gambling and then they lose and then they start hitting the ATM and losing some more try to win it back and y’know.

It’s an ugly cycle.

I had a couple of good friends who y’know, they just kind of through their lives away almost, just gambling all the time.

Wait, did they gamble, were they gamblers before they arrived in town? Or…

Y’know, maybe a little bit. But it’s just, it’s always right there. There’s always that temptation, y’know? And, y’know, I don’t know, none of them really had, had the kind of money to where they should be, could be gamblin’, y’know the, the amounts that they were talkin’ about. Like, uh, Gina’s friend Foo, one time he had to borrow like 5,000 dollars from us to cover some…

What?

…yeah, yeah, he had gambled away some money off his mom’s credit card.

Oh man, did she find out?

Uh, no, coz that’s, that’s why he wanted to borrow the money from us.

Y’know, so…

Oh, I got you, to pay before she saw it.

Yeah, yeah coz if his parents saw the bill and, and figured out that he was gamblin’ away the money on their credit cards, they would totally lose their cool.

Yeah.

I mean…

Yeah…

They would, they would flip out on him.

Yeah, I’m not surprised. My parents would have killed me… [laugh]

…if that would have happened. Y’know, they wouldn’t have been laughing, I’ll tell you that.

Oh yeah, well, y’know, you lose that kind of money, it’ll make, it’ll make even the, the hardened, y’know, guy break down and, and cry, y’know.

Yeah, yeah, I’m sure.

[laugh] It’s no fun, man. That’s why, y’know, I never really got into gamblin’ that much, uh, y’know. I just, I, I did, like they flew me out there for my recruiting trip, to be on…

Wait, wait, recruiting trip?

Yeah, I was on the diving team there…at UNLV.

Oh at the college?

Yeah, springboard diving.

Wait, you mean like what we see in the Olympics?

Yep.

Oh, man. I can’t wait to see…

Yeah.

next time we go to a place where there’s a pool and a diving board, you’re gonna have to show me some of these tricks.

Yeah, y’know, I’ve got some, uh, I’ve got some tricks that I…

…that I can use. Y’know, I would do, y’know, the worst are the hardest ones. I would do like a front three and a half or, y’know, a back two and a half. I did three meters and one meter springboard. Y’know, we did practices. So I didn’t really get the chance to gamble that much. Coz after classes, y’know, I would have to go to, uh, go to diving practice and bang out my dives… Yeah.

…so, um…

I mean, I just, uh, I would just imagine though, since you’re actually there it’s like when in Rome, y’know, like you’re gonna start gambling.

Yeah, y’know, for a lot of people it’s just a quarter here or there. Like, y’know, you’ve got to do your laundry so you, you pop a quarter in the machine as you walk by and…

Oh, they have them at the laundromat, too?

…if you win. Oh yeah, at the 7-11s…

Oh man!

My gosh. Y’know, it’s just like, it’s, no matter where you go there’s gambling round the clock.

Yeah, yeah, I mean it’s, it’s definitely, y’know.. They’re, they’re definitely watching, uh watching people gamblin’ around the clock. Of course there is no clocks there, which makes it easier for you to lose track of time.

Yeah, you know what I hear is, uh, they actually, uh don’t put the clocks up. So when you’re in the casino you never, like, think of “oh it’s too late, I need to leave.” Yeah, exactly, uh, y’know, you just, the only way you know is, is when you’ve lost all your money and…

Oh, and then it’s time to go home.

…game over! Time to go home.

But I guess if uh, if you, actually, uh, made enough money and you met a pretty girl then maybe it’s time to go get hitched [laugh].

Yeah, well, y’know, I, uh, Vegas is the, the town with the most wedding chapels per capita in, in the entire world. So there’s a lot of people there tyin’ the knot, y’know, gettin’ hitched. They have signs there. Michael Jordon got married there and Elizabeth Taylor and, y’know.. It’s a pretty big deal.

Yeah.

I got married there, um, but…

Yeah.

…that’s, that’s, uh, that was a long time ago. Eight years now we’ve been married.

Wow. Well it’s all worked out so that’s great.

Yeah.