My Michael Jackson Encounter

Wow….crazy news about Michael Jackson, eh?  I used to have such a crush on him when I was a kid, although he kind of lost me at the Bad album.  Probably since I was still pretty young.  Anyhow, I thought I would share my Michael Jackson story with you.

For Labour Day long weekend back in 2003 (I think…) my friend Cecilia and I booked a super cheap last minute trip to Las Vegas.  We stayed at the utterly craptastic Westward Ho (which surprisingly no longer exists) because it was the cheapest option on the strip.  It was wayyyy down on the strip next to Circus Circus.  The only thing I remember about it was that they had 99 cent margaritas and advertised it with a big blow up margarita out front:
My friend and I decided to go see the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur.  They had a drink special – some frozen concoction in a take home mug.  I like beverages!  And I like souvenir glasses too!  Sign me up!  I don’t remember what I drank, but my friend had a strawberry margarita or daiquiri.
After the show we wandered over to New York New York towards the bus stop.  We were sidetracked by a small group of people gathering outside the magic shop inside the casino.  We asked a few folks what was going on, and apparently Michael Jackson was shopping inside because he really liked magic!  My friend and I looked at each other and figured how many times would we have the chance to say that we saw Michael Jackson?  So we decided to wait.  And we waited.  And the crowd grew bigger.  What was maybe 10 people to start with wound up forming into a huge group of people that were pretty well taking up the entire walkway past the shop.

Finally it looked like Michael was going to be coming out.  I got my camera ready.  As soon as the doors opened up and Michael came out the crowd just went WHOOSH!! and moved inwards toward Michael.  Both Cecilia and I got pushed forward.  I lost one of my flip flops.  A guy a few folks ahead got pushed into a security guard and he got punched in the face by the guard.  All of a sudden it was just a crazy melee and I tried to grab a picture of Michael as he went past:
Cecilia taps on my arm.  She hadn’t finished her strawberry beverage and when we got pushed forward she accidently dumped the rest of her drink on to a lady’s white shirt.  We’d better get out of there, fast!  I scurried around to find my flip flop, then we made the long journey back to our hotel, amazed by the strange turn our night took.