I’m horrible at remembering anniversaries (as well as birthdays, weddings and funerals) – I’ve just realized that I missed the 6-month anniversary of my move to Vegas. Well, it’s been six months and five days, and let’s just say my first impression of this strange city was a bit off…

Yes, there’s eye candy. However, it stays indoors during the winter. This has been my first winter without any snow whatsoever (which is amazing, by the way), but it turns out Vegas isn’t hot 24/7/365. That’s something they don’t show on all those TV shows – this city gets a little chilly sometimes. I may be getting a bit spoiled here, but damn it, I thought Vegas always had the perfect sunny weather. Dust storms are pretty fun, though – the wind gets so strong that trucks flip over and entire trees get uprooted and fly around. Fun stuff.

The city itself is pretty huge… I never realized how good I had it in Reno, where almost everything was only five miles away (if that). Here you have to drive for ~20 minutes to get anywhere at all. The roads are great, but the drivers are terrible. Maybe they’re even more spoiled than I am by the very nearly perfect weather, but every time there’s any wind or even the slightest hint of rain, everybody slows down to 35mph, even if the speed limit is 50.

The real estate is still ridiculously cheap, but there’s an interesting caveat: it turns out that the only way to buy those dirt-cheap tiny $25,000 condos is if you have $25K in cash on you. Apparently, banks don’t like to issue mortgage loans for anything less than $50,000. Who knows, maybe I’ll take them up on that offer…

The people in Vegas (Vegasites? Vegans?) seem pretty average, but my data sample is relatively small. I find it interesting that the city that’s notorious for its risque shows and “anything goes” attitude is actually pretty conservative when you get past the Strip and Fremont Street. That’s not something you notice right away, but there are little signs here and there… I’ve got a great story to explain what I mean by that, but that would put this blog well into NC-17 category, and I want to keep it PG. At least for the time being…