This one's for Teeg

Per T.J's request, I am updating sooner so that you all don't feel as if you are on a whirlwind trip. Tuesday started off typically enough with me arriving to work at 5 (in the MORNING!) ready to assist the Aria housekeepers with opening up the house. For those of you not familiar with hotel lingo, to open the house basically means you determine which rooms need service for the day, what type of service they will need, and assign these tasks to the housekeepers. Should be simple, right? Not so much. For starters, no one knew why I was there. Literally. No one. One guy even went to ask someone else if it was okay to have me there because he didn't believe me when I told him what I was supposed to do. I was like, "Seriously? Who would get up this early if they didn't have to, especially when I had to wear a suit and heels?" Geez! So I make a few calls and find out that the staff I'm to work with is "running late". Ok, I'll grab some coffee... 3 hours later... the ladies that actually have a clue arrive and we proceed with the task at hand. I really should have just gone back to bed and started over. The day just got worse due to disorganization and sheer ciaos amongst the staff, not to mention the nerves that are ever present when opening the most anticipated hotel in the world. So I cut them some slack and stayed until almost 5 PM trying to help get things rolling more smoothly. My coworker, Anna, notified me she had Play Day Passes and Aria money for each of us, did I want to go? Duh. Again, if you aren't in "the biz", you may not be familiar with Play Days, but they are when a property opens for pretend to work out the little kinks prior to opening for real. We each received about $1000 in Aria money with which we were able to gamble, dine and drink to test the services of those entities. Very cool. So we played for a bit, but the lines for dinner were very long, so Anna and I chose to venture off to Vdara for dinner. We went to Silk Road, a restaurant whose name comes from the trade route spanning from Venice to the Far East and features "trans-ethnic" cuisine (basically a bunch of "fru-fru" food that I had to ask Anna what it was and how to eat it). We first received half of a prune that had been roasted and topped with goat cheese and arugula. Next, we were treated to some flat bread with garlic spread that was de-lish! As my entree, I order the Kobe steak. OMG. It was really good (not as good as when Dad grills steak, but you know...). Anna ordered some lamb stew or something that she didn't like and was subsequently in a foul mood. Well, that was until she noticed Dale Chihuly walk past our table. If you aren't familiar with him, he is a famous blown glass artist. I first saw his work while living in Indianapolis where his piece, "Fireworks of Glass", is featured at the Children's Museum. If you've ever been to the Bellagio here in Vegas, you would have seen a huge piece of his in the ceiling of the lobby. I left the table at one point after this to confirm that our meal was "taken care of" by the front desk manager (it helps to know people ;)), and while I was away, I noticed Mr. Chihuly and his party in the lobby and approached his assistant just to say I was a fan. Well lo and behold if he didn't call Mr. Chihuly over to introduce us and then Mrs. Chihuly offered to take my picture with him! It was very exciting! The Chihuly's departed to their suite, and Michael invited me to stop by The Gallery for a sneak peek the following day before the big opening. Wow. Just goes to show you never know how your day will turn out. After we finished our meal, Anna headed back to our hotel, while I joined some other coworkers (picture is of me and Sarah) who were still enjoying Aria's Play Day. Pretty great end to a pretty rocky beginning.

Today was both better and worse at work. I still didn't have anyone who knew how to open the house come in until 8, but today I was prepared for that and took something to do with me. I continued to seek solutions to the disorganization which is tough since I don't work for the property and don't really have a say in what goes on. My role with this project is basically to just sit back and answer questions related to Opera, but I have been granted permission to assist as needed regardless of the capacity in order to make the department run more smoothly. This was lovely news to me, and I was finally able to make decisions regarding procedures without going through all the hoops that were previously in my way. I actually got off work around 3:30 today! I departed the property and went straight to The Gallery where I was escorted by Michael to the area behind the velvet ropes to see the show prior to the public opening. This was a first for me, and I'll just go ahead and say that I liked it. Perks are good. I was allowed to take pictures (my 2 favorite pieces each carry a list price of $55,000), and when I was ready to depart, Michael presented me with two Chihuly desk calendars (one for me and one for Anna). Not bad for just another day at the office. Tonight is the official opening of Aria, and media coverage is 10x worse than that of Vdara. My boss and I were interviewed by Jim Murren, CEO of MGM Mirage, today as he was being followed around by a crew from some TV show. I'll let you know if I see myself on TV again as I did with the Vdara opening.

Until my next bit of news....

P.S. The pictures below are of Vdara. As I'm still currently working at Aria, I'm not allowed to post pictures, but don't worry, I have taken several and will post as soon as I'm able!