"Look at those fly honies. THIS is the line we wanna be in!" -- Rachel, Vegas: Part 4

At some point in the night (during our nap), Nappy texted me suggesting some places we try and that we probably want to get there early if we want to avoid another ridiculous wait. Somehow, I managed to read it, soak it in (maybe?), and ignore it all in the span of about a hot second. I fell back asleep. Eventually I woke up and saw that it was... 1 am. I was torn. I was tired. I was really really tired, and no doubt, the girls were tired too. Maybe we should just sleep and then have a really nice early morning tomorrow? But then I thought... WE ONLY HAVE TWO NIGHTS IN VEGAS, WE ARE NOT SLEEPING ALL THROUGH IT! I was torn. Would the girls hate me or love me for waking them up? Love, right?

Come on, the beds were pretty comfy

Thankfully I didn't have to wait long to find out the answer to that question. Rachel stirred in her bed (Najia was lying passed out next to me). I took this opportunity to say something, "Hey! So... you ready to go out or what?" Silence. Nothing. I thought I had missed my chance. I sat still debating on what to do. I think I texted Nappy saying, "Umm... so we're still asleep... what to do." He assured me that there were after hours clubs that would still be open... "The night is still young," he said. Then... almost a full minute or so after I thought I had officially lost Rachel to the night, she said (with her eyes still closed), "Yeah, okay, what time is it?"

"One," I quietly replied.

She flew straight up in bed, turned toward me and with her eyebrows arched she yelled, "It's WHAT?!"

"Yeah... it's one. We didn't set an alarm, and it's one," I said. This time I let my voice get a bit louder in hopes that we'd "accidentally" wake up Najia with our conversation. It worked.

Rachel got out of bed and went straight into the bathroom saying, "Well we are NOT sleeping and wasting our second and LAST night. Let's GO!"

Done and done

So we did. At almost exactly 2 am, we were dressed (in our Vegas finest) and ready to go in the cab queue. We felt absolutely ludicrous for JUST NOW going out, but we were just really proud of ourselves for rallying. In fact, I think one of the other two said that in the car, "Way to rally, girls!" We made our way to Drai's, the club Nappy suggested. Literally the SECOND Rachel stepped out of the cab, she got the good ol', "Say girl, what's your name?" To which she quickly retorted, "YOU DON'T CARE WHAT MY NAME IS!" Najia and I were VERY pleased with Rachel's dress that night... in case I haven't mentioned that in a previous post. Rachel did NOT want to buy/wear it, but she and I made a deal, she'd get her SLBD and I'd get one for myself.

There is nothing not awesome about this dress...

We walk through Bill's which is the casino the club is in. This has got to be the seediest of all the casinos we walked through. And it wasn't even that seedy. Something about the fact that there weren't doors but a giant opening that led directly to the strip made the place seem less... casino-y. It was no Bellagio.

Like I said, a classy joint
So we find the entrance to Drai's which is apparently underground. We see about 5 or 6 women waiting in a line. They're all bigger, scantily clad, black women, i.e., fly honies. We had talked the night before about how Najia and I were hoping for less club/dance/house music and more... "TO THE WINDOW!!!!" music. :) We felt the demographic of this club may be the RIGHT demographics for the music we were looking for, you feel me? Not long after we got in line behind said fly honies, a giant bouncer man (with a lot of power, no doubt) walked up to us. And by us, I mean Rachel's incredibly hot dress. "Is it just the three of you?" This time we all replied (lest Najia screw this one up too, haha) "Yes," in unison. He asked to see our IDs and once we were all checked out, he opened up the rope and let us pass. Yes, we were the douchey girls who got to "skip" the line... and let me remind you, the line consisted of those fly honies. Oh well. They came in almost immediately after us. And THANK GOD THEY DID because that brought the total of people in the club to about... 15.

I resorted to trying to take pretty photos since there wasn't a whole lot else to do

Apparently we were not quite after enough of the hours, because there was NO ONE THERE. Thankfully it didn't take too long for the place to fill up. I'd say in about 30 minutes (just enough time for us to speak to NO ONE and finish a drink or two) the joint was jumpin'. We made our way back to the bar to get ourselves a drink when we were accosted by a group of gentlemen. We referred to these gentlemen as "cholos." Apparently we were popular with them in Vegas. Anyway, long story short, somehow we got stuck talking to them, and Najia and Rachel even agreed to dance with some. I had not agreed to this, but I also didn't want to be the douchebag that felt she was too good. So I made my way to the dance floor with our expanded group and I caught sight of these two dudes that had been hanging out by themselves since we walked in the club.
Najia with our history teacher friend JamesMe with Phil the poker player
Long story short, I ditched our cholos and bee-lined to the only dudes who WEREN'T pushing 300 lbs in the club. I introduced myself to them and lucky me, THEY HAD ACCENTS! They were from "a city outside of Manchester, you've never heard of it." Eventually Najia and Rachel made their way back to me and the boys (Phil and James) and we spent pretty much the rest of the night chatting it up with our new Brit friends. I know I had to be a BIT drunk because I recall blurting out something like "I love Harry Potter!!!!!!" Because naturally, they not only love Harry Potter too, but they probably had to study A History of Magic & Harry Potter at school. Because they're English. Right? When I told them I was from Texas, one of them actually said, "Oh, from Austin?" I was quite impressed. He said he'd never been there, but he hopes to. The only other place in the states he's been was "Seattle... and it was dreadful. Never go there."

"Raquel!!!! Don't be afraid to TOUCH me!!!!" (Please say in obnoxious Puerto Rican accent)

We were also joined by our friend Paulie D (not his real name, obviously, but the name "Miguel" which we also called him might not be his real name either...), who liked to do a lot of dancing. He got his hands on Rachel and Najia and seemed like they had fun dancing in front of our table. Maybe a little awkward, but definitely amusing. Other things I learned about our English friends:- They were 22 and pretty fresh out of school.- One has a tramp stamp that was the result of a really drunk NYE in Thailand.- The same one has another tattoo that was a result of ANOTHER drunk NYE.- One got a degree in business and hated it (sound familiar) so decided he'd become a professional poker player (hence, their 5 week vacation there).- One was a history teacher.- One loves Taylor Swift.- When Najia asked one of the boys if the other was possibly gay, he replied, "I sure hope not, I slept naked with him last night." Yes. That is a direct quote. And please remember to read that with a British accent.- One paid $100 to get into the VIP room that us girls could freely walk in and out of.- The history teacher did not mind nerding out with me when I told him my love for Queen Elizabeth I, Victoria and Elizabeth II.- When asked if they've gone out a lot while in Vegas, they replied that it all depended on how well they did at the tables that day. I asked how bad a typical losing day might be. He replied "Umm... five figures or so?" WHAT. THE?! You're 22!- They had a third roommate who was on their journey with them but said roommate found a girl earlier at The Palms and they hadn't seem him since.- They were staying at the LAVISH hotel that I mentioned earlier: Bill's (aka the same place the club was in).

I told you the cholos loved us

Overall, despite more run-ins with cholos and some awkwardness, it was another fun and successful night in Vegas. The drinks were still insanely expensive and could not rival our beloved 6th street, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. By the time we headed back to our hotel it was... 6:30 am. AM. In the words of Najia, it was "daylight as dick." Naturally, what does one do at such an hour in Vegas? Why, they walk (looking like the ultimate walk of shame) through the Bellagio, of course!
"Now that dawn has broken, it's high time we walk through the lobby of the Bellagio for no apparent reason."-- Najia paraphrasing Rachel

Eventually, after traipsing around the Bellagio and part of the strip (getting cat-called at 7 am is a new one), we caught a cab and got back to THEhotel.
Once again, I passed out on our bed.