Title: The Seventh Surprise
Tags: Venetian Birthday Surprise
Blog Entry: The whole trip was supposed to be a surprise, revealed only a few days before we departed. We were going to treat Mom Gee to a super special birthday in Las Vegas. This venerable soon to be 80 years old on October the 28th was a Vegas devotee of the first degree, but she very rarely got to go there anymore due to a very limited income. Her only visits in the recent past had been low roller, very low budget trips tightly controlled by my husband's sister, who was graciously and generously paying, but who had very little in the way of disposable dollars either. But the financial fairies assigned to oversee our ups and downs seemed to be waving their wands for once for our benefit, conjuring up a rather nice chunk of change that would appear right before Mom's birthday. No brainer! As we usually did with these fairy-dust gifts, we would go to Vegas. This time though, we would take Mom along and treat her like a queen. Even the Vegas goblins seemed to be colluding, because we had some fantastic offers from the Venetian that would make our rooms pretty close to cost free, which they weren't either the week before October 28th or the week after. It was karma, ya know. We booked. We live in the Southeast, Mom, husband's sister and her family live in Colorado. We haven't seen Mom for about five years, though we talk every week, so some cooperation and quite a bit of inside information about Mom Gee's abilities was needed from sister, who gladly assisted with both. We learned of Mom's minimal limitations and medical requirements, and what would best suit her needs based not just on her physical restrictions but a phobia for heights that I had not known of (that meant a low room, sigh, say goodbye to that Strip view). With Sis in the know and sworn to secrecy, the game was on and all booked more than a month out. Now we had the anticipation of springing this wonderful surprise on Mom. Except someone threw the proverbial spanner into the works. One thing was critical to this trip happening well, and that was for Mom to be in good enough health and be fully rested in order to participate. She has a condition that requires careful monitoring of her eating, and just being eighty makes her more susceptible to illness, injury, and the debilitating side effects of exhaustion. We needed her healthy and rested. Yet two weeks before our planned trip someone comes up with another Vegas trip for Mom, and this one was not at all to her benefit or even had her best interest in mind. Here's the gist of it: Sis had an ex husband, and the reason he was an ex is that he is - well how to put this nicely? Judge for yourself. I will start by saying that he came to the United States from what was then East Germany to play in a band that never made it, and he hasn't had a steady job since. Sis and he have a son, who has grown up into a very nice young man, but, as with many youngsters, he doesn't have much common sense yet. The ex and the son had to get to the German consulate in Los Angeles for an appointment on October 12th, for the son, a born American citizen, to get a German passport (don't even get me started on that tack). Well yes, I will get started on that tack. You are an American citizen. By accepting dual citizenship what are you doing? Hedging your bet???? Grrrrrr. I've calmed down now. Anyway, niether father nor son have much money. I'm guessing they don't even have gas money to get from Colorado to LA and back, and they certainly don't have the funds for an overnight stay in the very expensive City of Angels. So they come up with this plan to stop overnight in Las Vegas and stay in the cheapest room they can find. "Oh, Mom (Grammie) you love Las Vegas! Come along with us. You can help with the gas, and we'll share a room!" Doesn't sound right, does it? It gets worse. The room two grown men have in mind to share with one elderly lady is at the Sahara. And the sharing part, because they know that isn't right, doesn't mean sharing at the same time. No, they'll have it at night after they've been to LA, and she can sleep in it during the day. When they come back to sleep, she goes down to the casino, the wonderful, safe, Sahara casino where she can wander around all night, and where she can try to make the twenty dollars she has for gambling last. Which is why she called us and told us about this plan. She needed some money. Words cannot describe my husbands reaction. Uh, livid? Outraged? I've rarely heard him use the F word, and never to his mother, and he didn't now - he covered the phone and told me "this is NOT going to fucking happen". But he could not convince her it wasn't a good idea. To her it was a chance to get to Vegas. She couldn't see that it was also, basically, a shake down, and a horrendously dangerous thing for a elderly woman with health problems to do. Even if we hadn't got our own trip planned for her, our reaction would be the same. Not only no, but hell no. But as I watched husband plead with her not to do it, I could see he was failing so I said, "Tell her." If she was going to be in optimum shape for our surprise it couldn't stay a surprise. So he told her she shouldn't go because a few weeks later we were taking her to Vegas, and it wasn't some cheapskate diversion to the Sahara (no offense to Sahara fans - but it doesn't stack up against the Venetian). She was overwhelmed and happy, elated, all that. Of course now she understood why she shouldn't put herself through such a harrowing trip. She didn't go on the boys debacle, and I don't know where they got the money from. However, now we had lost the value of the surprise. And it's not much of a special birthday if there is no surprise involved. So I came up with a birthday trip with surprises embedded in it. Since it was Vegas, and in keeping with the theme, there has to be seven, right? Most of them we were going to do anyway, and instead of our original plan of sending her a card detailing the whole trip, we're not going to tell her until she's there. The surprises are: Limo pick up at the airport. First days gambling money in a pretty envelope. Next day (her birthday) another envelope with gambling funds A gift card for the Venetian shops, so she can buy what she wants A gondola ride, with a well sung Happy Birthday To You Phantom of the Opera (best seats we could buy) - That's only six. I've been struggling with the seventh. It could be the return limo ride to the airport, but that's cheap since she might be expecting a round trip. A promisary note telling her we will rebate every bit of the money she's gambled to take home, so she can relax while sinking money into the machines? But that could get expensive - she's not stupid and can be conniving, what if she goes hog wild??? The fairies weren't that nice to us. I've thrown out the red roses delivered to her room, because I'm just not willing to plonk down a C note on flowers she would only enjoy for a day. What to do? I'll figure it out, maybe while she's there. But at least one thing is for sure, we are going to spoil her absolutely rotten.
VIEW FULL VERSION: Link