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Las Vegas, New Year’s Eve and Bruno Mars

| Sande Caplin |

I wanted to do something different for New Year’s Eve this year and decided upon going to Las Vegas! I love Vegas but have never been there for NYE! I was traveling on the budget plan so big extras like a ticket to see one of my favorite musicians Bruno Mars at the Park Theatre or Maroon Five at Mandalay Bay, was just not in the cards on this trip.

I spent the first day making my pilgrimage to the Bellagio Conservatory for their Christmas display. The amount of work and creativity that is put into these displays is amazing for adults and kids alike. We are talking about the Bellagio, one of the classiest hotels on the Strip with Chihuly glass displayed above head in the lobby to their famous fountains where hundreds of people gather every day to watch the synchronized musical water show.

I decided that maybe I could try to find a ticket to Bruno Mars for sale on Craigslist. So in between visiting the sights, I would be checking for new listings hoping someone would sell a ticket cheap. Instead I found a plethora of scammer alerts and tickets at outrageous prices that I would need to win a sizable jackpot to buy. Ok, back to sightseeing.

Skyline of Las VegasI knew one thing I wanted to do was ride the High Roller! The views are amazing so I bought my ticket early and was actually able to get on at sunset which is a great time to do this. I was in the pod with a great group of people. As the wheel moved us upward over Vegas the beautiful colors of the sunset were making amazing photos and as we went around darkness fell and a zillion lights twinkled across the desert. It is about a 30 minute ride on the High Roller and it moves so slow you can’t feel movement. It is a great experience.

On New Year’s Eve, I was still checking Craigslist for that impossible Bruno Mars ticket. I called an ad who said he had general admission tickets (No gen adm for this show) and I could sit anywhere I wanted in Row H.! He said I could send payment via a money app, I said “How about you send me the ticket and then I will send the cash”, He said “Oh no”! I hung up. It just wasn’t meant to be to see Bruno, so I decided to find other stuff to do. The Strip was shutting down to traffic at 6 p.m. and everyone would be on the street. There would be plenty to do and see for New Year’s Eve! I went to eat breakfast, came back to my room and just one more time checked Craigslist…..

Scrolling down there was an ad that said FREE BRUNO MARS TICKETS! I knew this was a super scam but I had to look. The ad said they had 3 extra tickets and wanted to make someone’s New Year by giving them a free ticket. They had a pair of tickets and a single, email if you are interested. Of course, you the reader know what I did! I waited for response for a few minutes and nothing. I thought they either already gave them away or it was a hoax! About 15 minutes later I got an email saying I had won the ticket! I called and spoke to Sean! He said he and his wife Miriam bought the tickets for their friends who ended up not coming to Vegas and decided to give them away!! We met at the theater and I met the other two “winners”, Kaitlyn Hoover and Emmet Washington from California who Sean found on the Strip when the other “winners” never showed up! We were all excited about this windfall on New Year’s Eve! Bruno was the hottest ticket in town and we were seeing him for FREE!

Sean and Miriam GordonThe generosity of what Sean and Miriam Gordon did goes beyond money. It is about thinking of others and feeling good about doing something nice for someone else! They could have sold the tickets or just not used them at all. They thought about how fun it would be to make some other people happy and have a great time doing it! I learned a bit about them as we waited in line to get into the show. They live in Houston and Sean has a trucking company. His wife Miriam has been a model since she was 9 years old! This was her first trip to Vegas and she was excited!

New Year's Eve in Las VegasWe went our separate ways to our seats just in time for the show and of course Bruno and the Hooligans were incredible. The crowd was at a fever pitch with it being New Year’s Eve. Bruno did an encore tribute to Prince of “Let’s Go Crazy” finishing the night with “Uptown Funk”! None of us saw each other again after the concert but we texted to say thank you and what a great show! What a great memory we will always have of the New Year’s Eve of 2018 and all of us for different reasons! I won’t forget the generosity of Sean and Miriam! What a way to start the New Year! Happy New Year to All!

photos by Vicky Sullivan / Rock the Lens Photography.  Photo of Sean and Miriam provided by them

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