ABOUT WOMEN

By Leila Wai
Advertiser Staff Writer

On returning home from a trip to Las Vegas and Los Angeles last month, I realized I was down a little over a thousand dollars.

About 40 of the lost dollars were on an "educational" game of craps. The rest of the cash you can see me wearing in the near future.

Bypassing nearly all the gambling, I became the happy owner of new pants, skirts, tops, and two pairs of shoes.

Don't you love it when your suitcase returns fuller than when you left? I brought an extra duffel bag and filled that too.

Las Vegas, that beautiful city of lights ... and outlet malls.

I didn't give a second glance at the slot machines.

I was on a mission to find the best deals so I could wear new clothes, proud my new skirt was 25 percent off the sticker price.

I didn't even get swayed when Uncle Mike turned $5 into $80. To me, that five bucks could have been used for lip gloss — far more bang for the buck.

Later, he said, he lost the winnings. This only proves my point that women shopping get more from their money than gamblers.

With three full days in Vegas, my family and I — there to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday — hit two malls a day.

My younger cousin Whitney and I set off to use the credit cards I had been hiding the past three months so I could go crazy on the Mainland.

Isn't it strange how shopping seems surreal when you're on vacation? You spend a lot, but it never quite hits you until the credit-card bills arrive.

(By the way, telling yourself the clothes are work-related does wonders for that little voice inside screaming to remember the tiny bank account back home).

It's kind of like all of the infamous Vegas buffets: My family marveled at eating "all the seafood you can eat" for $5 (plus coupon), then couldn't speak any more because our mouths were full. It was a mission, like shopping or gambling.

When I saw the food, I stopped paying attention to what they were saying.

And I didn't have to worry about gaining weight, not when I was sprinting from one store to the next for my daily exercise.

So, after the obligatory drive to Hoover Dam, we were off to Los Angeles.

Vegas may be where fortunes are gained, but watching my grandma's face when we went on her favorite ride "It's A Small World," and putting her hands in the air as we went on a five-yard drop on "Pirates of the Caribbean" shows that Disneyland is the happiest place on earth.

We went to Disneyland at night — and that freed our days for more shopping.

We're back. The credit-card bills haven't come yet, but every time I rip a price tag off my new clothes, I remember where I bought them. Ultimately, this is the best part about the trip: happy memories.

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.