Malinda Lo

I just got back from five days in Las Vegas, where I spent Thanksgiving with a bunch of my college friends in a mini-reunion. We get together every year at least once — not always at Thanksgiving, but often — so it’s a tradition I look forward to, since we’ve all scattered to different parts of the country (or different countries entirely). Here I am standing before the glowing Vegas night:

I’m not a gambler at all, and I didn’t even play one penny slot machine, but Vegas was sort of centrally located and relatively affordable, so that’s why we went to Sin City. I hadn’t been there in almost ten years, which was just long enough to forget how much I love non-smoking policies! I did have a great time with my friends, but I wasn’t a fan of the relentless ringing of slot machines, cigarette smoke wafting in your direction from all directions, and guys slapping “Girls Direct 2 U!” fliers at you while walking down the street.

OK, actually, nobody ever tried to give me a flier. This was a little strange, because all my friends were accosted by people trying to sell them tickets to shows/girls/Chippendale’s/you-name-it, but I did not get offered a single flier. I think I must project a don’t-give-me-your-damn-flier attitude while walking down the Strip behind agonizingly slow-moving tourists holding giant beer bongs.

Despite the weirdnesses of Vegas, we did a lot of fun stuff. We went dancing! At a gay club! (Krave.) I haven’t been dancing in ages and it was refreshing good fun — plus, like usual, gay clubs play awesome music. And we went hiking at nearby Red Rock Canyon, which is full of incredible rock formations like this:

Doesn’t that look like the set of a Star Trek episode or something?

And, of course, since we were in Vegas over Thanksgiving, we made a lip-smacking Thanksgiving dinner consisting of roast turkey and gravy, sweet potato casserole, brown-butter mashed potatoes with fried sage, pork-apple sausage stuffing (OK, I think it’s technically dressing), sauteed spinach with garlic, cranberry sauce and home-made apple pie.

What I ate on Thursday, with leftovers on Friday and Saturday

Yes, my friend Vincent and I cooked that entire plate of food! (I’ll blog in more detail about the pie later this week, since pie is My Thing.) We were staying in a condo with a kitchen so that made all the cooking possible, although we did have to buy a meat thermometer and a rolling pin, among other things, to enable the culinary excellence.

I’m still recovering from the gluttony as well as the excess of Las Vegas, but I had a wonderful time. Happy belated Thanksgiving!