I've never seen a place like this in my entire life...oh, it's America the beautiful all right ...until you leave the hotel!
i arrived here on Tuesday to perform at Catch a Rising Star at the Silver Legacy hotel.
Of course, my Tovah gets an infection in her sinuses and hasn't been to school since i left. And then every day Aviva calls: "Mommy, I know you can't but if you could.... would you please leave your job and come home?"
I'm never going to make a living with these kids and i can't make a living working in casinos! it's not for me! The smoke is so harsh in the casino that my teeth are a crazy shade of beige and I don't even smoke! There are people tearing off the ends of their cigarettes smoking them to the end! One guy picking his face explained: "at $8.00 a pack...ya gotta get every puff!" I thanked him for the explanation as I really didn't understand why people were tearing off the filters of their cigarettes but that doesn't matter. What matters is that I was almost hospitalized.
I came down with chills, shaking uncontrollably in my room. I called room service for hot tea and the poor guy notified security when he saw me. So this obviously wasn't a pretty sight. Suddenly a policeman walks in asking me if I'm on any drugs and stupidly I ask if birth control pills count.
So I am delirious and my husband calls at the wrong time, (with the kids in the car.) He screams: "Who are those men in your room?" I honestly respond with: "I don't know!" There's a gurney in my room, the paramedics are taking my temperature and my blood pressure and the decision is made: Sunda Croonquist is going to the hospital in Reno, Nevada.
The hell I am! I've only ventured out of my hotel once during my six-day stay, that should tell you something. I'm from Jersey and I consider myself a tough chick but these people are scaring the black out of me!
They wear Mohawks here...naturally! They're sporting flags of a different nation. Every t-shirt says "freedom!"
I am so afraid of dying and was thinking about my kids. I couldn't stop the shivering, the shaking and numbing of my fingers. "It's the flu," the one paramedic says. The hotel security guard asks: "Are you the feature act or are you "the show?"
The "show" I weakly respond, and I can see that he knows this business better than the cops when he says: "She has to try to finish her run...tonight is the last night." ... and I'm thinking that tonight may very well be my last night! But... the show must go on, so I went on and then came right back to my room to finish this column as i promised my editor I would (days ago!)
I'll have more to tell you after I get outta here! Next time I travel I'll make sure to tell the police to contact VJ! Where we tell you like it is and like it was! Now let me just get to the plane!
