Memorial Day Weekend 2014 Las Vegas: Operation MDW14

Thursday, May 22nd

It is the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend, you watch the tiny clock in the corner of your computer monitor as if it may simply stop moving forward if you look away. The stale air and button-down boredom of your office has slowly been pulling your soul away one keystroke at a time, one pointless meeting at a time, one fake smile at a time. None of that matters now, with seconds to go until the clock strikes five your escape plan is already in motion. As calmly as you can manage you power down your computer and check your iPhone passbook ap for your boarding passes. Your flight to Las Vegas leaves in two hours, Operation MDW14 begins now.

The Boeing 737 touches the tarmac with a jerk and you wake from what you imagine will be the only sleep you may enjoy the entire weekend. It is dark already by the time you get to the cab line outside McCarren. You quickly check in to your hotel, dump your bags, and jump in the shower to wash the filth of the day off. Just as you are toweling off your phone lights up with a message from your friend: “Skrillex @ XS tonight, be there.” It sounds like the beginning to an amazing weekend so you throw on some clothes and hail a cab to the Wynn.

Friday, May 23rd

It’s 11A.M. at Daylight Beach Club and you wonder how your friends somehow managed to drag you out of bed. Soon the sun is warming your face and a fruity rum cocktail is cooling your hand while Miami’s GTA gets this pool party officially started. The smell of suntan lotion and coconut fill the air and suddenly you remember you haven’t eaten breakfast. It is after 2 P.M. by the time you get to The Quad. 12 hours of partying and travel have famished you beyond explanation so your crew heads up to Hash House A Go Go to refuel and plan for tonight. Your friend wants to see Benny Benassi at Marquee and his girlfriend wants to see Hardwell with Fergie at Hakkasan. The waiter tells you that Steve Angello is playing at XS but you tell him you were there last night. You know tonight has to be big. Tonight, you tell them all, we see Krewella at Light.

Saturday, May 24th

You have no idea what time it is when your phone rings the next morning. A hoarse voice answers the phone that you quickly realize is your own. Your friend on the other end is far too excited and frankly too loud for this time of the day. As he jabbers on you notice an ashy cigarette taste in your mouth which worries you because you don’t smoke. A series of fragmented memories run through your head as you sit up in bed and soon your friend is accusing you of not listening. “Whatever,” he says, “Just meet me at Ichiza in Chinatown. I’ve got a surprise for you.” Within the hour you stumble through the doors of the Japanese bar and sit down by your grinning comrade. You beat him to the punch and ask if he want to see Tiesto at Hakkasan or David Guetta back at XS tonight. He slides a piece of paper over to you with your names on the guest list for Kaskade at Marquee. You would kiss him but you realize your breath still smells like smoke.

Sunday, May 25th

The effects of three nights worth of Las Vegas are starting to seep in. The sun is nearly up when the hotel room door closes behind you. You hold up your phone and for a moment you think about checking your bank account. Perhaps it is fate that a text message pops onto the screen just then: “We are still going to the Hard Rock Hehab pool party with Puff Daddy at 10A.M. right?” You punch your answer into the phone, change into your swimsuit and crash out on the bed for a couple hours.

Hours later, still moist from the pool you are stuffing your face with German food and holding a beer the size of your head at Hofbrauhaus. In the interest of fairness and in the Vegas spirit you decide that the only fair way to decide where you will go tonight is a game of chance. The three of you head across the street to the blackjack table at Hard Rock and lay your money out. If you win you all go see music mastermind Nicky Romero at Eclipse, if your buddy wins it’s AVICII at XS, and if his girl wins you all go see Calvin Harris at Hakkasan. Monents later, shamed at having been beaten so badly you and your friend sheepishly pay for the cab ride to Hakkasan and never speak again of this defeat.

Monday May 26th

It is past noon when you finally get up. Your phone has long since gone dead so you plug it in only to be flooded with an avalanche of messages. Apparently at 3A.M. Carl Cox did a late set at Light and you missed it much to your friends disapproval. No matter, tonight Martin Garrix spins at Hakkasan but all three of you are pumped for Carnage’s Black and White Party at Marquee Nightclub & Dayclub at The Cosmopolitan. Just then you realize that you brought neither anything black nor white to wear to the party. You text your friends to meet you at the Fashion Show Mall in an hour. This is going to be a great night.

Tuesday, May 27th

You collapse into the seat of the aircraft completely spent, still wearing the white jacket from the previous night and sunglasses not nearly dark enough. For a moment you dread being back in your cubicle tomorrow. These past days have been amazing however and have given you back the soul that was being stolen from you. As you drift off into exhausted slumber you smile knowing that your boss will never know how you and your friends turned Las Vegas upside down and lived like a high roller for just a few days. Only you and your accomplices will ever know about Operation MDW14.