Me & Vegas Part 1

Or should it be Vegas and I?  Whatever.  After the somewhat emotional trip to the airport with Gavin there was a weight off my shoulders.  Brandon, Little E and I pissed around all weekend doing pretty much nothing.  E left to go with his dad on Sunday morning, so Brandon and I headed to the water park with big Brandon (who we'll talk about in my next post) and spent the day there.  Sunday afternoon my mom came and got Brandon and I was off to work Sunday and Monday night as a last ditch effort to have money for Vegas.  Both nights were decent and Monday night I actually got to see fireworks right out the front door of the bar. 

I had decided on Sunday that I wasn't going to work on Tuesday because it would just be a countdown looking at the clock all day and being unproductive.  Honestly, I knew after two nights closing down the bar I would need a little rest before heading out on vacation.  I called Southwest to see if the direct flight out at 3:45 was still available.  As luck would have it, it was still available and since it was a free ticket, they changed it at no charge and even gave me $2.50 back in security fees because I no longer had a stop on my way out.  Woo hoo! Score 1 for me!  Brandon took a half day off work so that we could sleep in and indeed we did.  Oops, maybe a little too late seeing as I hadn't packed or anything.  Ugh.  I just really didn't think about getting myself put together over the weekend while I was trying to get rid of everyone else.  I mean it really couldn't be that difficult, throw some shorts, tank tops, bathing suits and a nice dress (just in case I hit big) into a bag and I'm off.  I have lunch with Brandon and I'm off to the airport.

I park waaaaaaaay out in the economy parking because my car will be there for 6 days and I couldn't find anyone who would be around Monday to pick me up.  I get on the shuttle and head into the airport.  As soon as I get in the door to the airport I realize that the smaller bag with my money and ID are still in my car.  What.The.Fuck?  I'm running super late with only about an hour until my flight, so I really can't get back on the shuttle and wait for it again to come back into the airport.  I end up grabbing a taxi and taking it out there to get my stuff.  Tara -$20 before even getting to Vegas.  I was hoping this wasn't an omen of things to come, but I know me better than that....

I get back to the airport, through security and to the gate just as we're getting ready to board.  Awesome.  I hate waiting.  Unfortunately even with paying for early check-in I'm still unable to get the coveted exit row seating, so I settle for a couple rows in front of them and promptly fall asleep because I have a huge splitting stress headache. 

When I wake up I see that I'm sharing a row with an early 20's girl and a middle age woman.  Yay, that's fun.... NOT.  I remember that I have drink tickets somewhere and dig around for them.  I offer the girl next to me a drink and explain that maybe that will help my headache and we get to talking.  She's a 21 year old heading to California to be a horse dentist.  I had no idea horses even needed dentists.  We proceed to talk about her travels and that she's staying on a ranch with some rich guy who has people come out and work in year long cycles, all expenses paid to take care of his animals.  Kind of creepy, but her friend had already been out there doing it, so she was excited.  To each their own, ya know?  Anyway, we arrive in Vegas and I'm a little bummed it's daytime because I like to see all the lights at night.  I grab a shuttle to NYNY, where I'll be spending my first two days of vacation. 

Vacation never hits me until I walk in the door to my hotel.  This time was no different.  I proceed past the ridiculously long check-in line to the invited guests desk where nobody is waiting in front of me and get checked in with a quickness.  I don't try and con the guy out of a better room or anything, because quite frankly, I don't care.  It's just me there and I've seen it all before.  I get a room with a view of the mountains and the roller coaster.  Woo hoo.  I'm starving again, so I head downstairs to get a slice of pizza and piss around on the slot machines.  The slots are unkind as usual and I'm in bed by like 10pm Vegas time because I'm still exhausted.

Back up and at 'em early, like 6am early.  Yuck.  I lay around for quite awhile not really knowing what to do by myself during the day.  By 9 I'm incredibly bored, so I head down to the pool.  I try no make a habit of not gambling during the daytime and being as my bankroll for this trip was incredibly small in the first place, I didn't want to lose it before everyone else got there.  I hang out by the pool most of the day, then head down to Planet Hollywood to check-in there.

I was double booked room-wise on Wednesday night.  It was free, so I thought that wherever I decided to gamble for the night, I'd be close to a room.  The check-in line for Planet Hollywood (PHo) was ridiculously long, so I went up to the Miracle Mile ABC Store and got a bottle of Limon and a can of Red Bull.  I went back down and got in line hating the fact I'm only a Gold member with Cesaer's Entertainment and stood in line with the common folk.  While waiting I polished off half the bottle of Limon and the Red Bull.  I'm pretty sure there were people in line tweeting and facebooking about the girl that kept dumping liquor into her Red Bull can in the check-in line.  Oh well.  I was amusing myself.  I get all checked in there and head up to the room to check out the view.  This is what it was

We got the movie Backdraft room and it was amusing that Kurt Russell was staring at me every time I was in the bathroom...  The helmet on the wall sucked though because under it was really the only place to throw the bags and many times I cracked my head on the corner of it!

I laid down for a little bit because that headache was back and when I woke up, headed down to check out the pool.  I was thinking it was going to be something really great and full of beautiful people.  Ehh, not so much.  The pools are average with a huge tanning area in between them.  One pool is for everyone, one is 18+.  Seating around the pools is only about 30 loungers.  I knew if there would be any pool time here it would have to be first thing in the morning so I could get a seat by the pool and not in the middle where you'd be sure to fry.

After the pool I headed north on the strip, stopping at pretty much every casino along the way.  My mission was to get playing cards for my friend Chris at Wynn.  I got a player's card while I was there and the King Cash (my favorite) slot machine took me for $100 in like 10 minutes playing at quarter level.  I didn't even get the 150 points for the two free buffets!!  Ugh.  I can't catch a break!  I walk across the street through Fashion Show Mall for a bit, licking my wounds from Wynn and then decide I should probably head back down towards NYNY.  I casino hopped all the way back down, only this time on the other side of the street.  Once I got back to the hotel, had some dinner at my favorite Mexican joint, Gonzalez y Gonzalez and head up to the room to nap.  I sleep for a couple of hours, because that's all I can do anymore, and am back up and ready to go.

I ended up wandering around and playing at Luxor (loss), Mandalay Bay (small win) and Excalibur (didn't play) before I got to the Tropicana. The Tropicana is waaaaaay nicer now than it used to be.  It's very well lit and clean and they serve Limon and sugar free Red Bull, so I was happy.  I sat down to some $10 blackjack and played for quite a long time, getting ridiculously trashed in the process.  I ended up sleeping at NYNY because of my south strip wandering and was back up bright and early at 9 to pack up and head down to the PHo.

I dropped all my stuff at the room and changed to head down to the pool for awhile since I chose to walk from NYNY to PHo and it was already like 90some degrees out.  I get down to the pool and find no chairs in the 18+ pool, so I head over to the other one and manage to snag a lounger.  I hated how packed together the chairs were and the fact that there were like 8 cabanas, only one of them which was being used, which was the way it was all weekend.  Take that shit down and put some more chairs out!!

I fell asleep in my lounger for a bit and about jumped out of my skin when a big loud Russian guy who was so hairy he looked like he was wearing a fur coat plopped down beside me.  Shit, it's late!!  I need to get to the airport and meet Chip!  I head back up to the room to clean up and get my ID because I know he'll want to have drinks as soon as he lands.

Wait a minute...  What the fuck?  Where is my ID???  I threw everything all over the room looking for it.  It just wasn't there....  I remembered that the night before when I got back to the hotel I took off my jeans and dumped the pockets.  Fuck.  I bet it fell under the bed or something.  My stomach is in knots and the headache is coming back.  I need to leave now though, to get to the airport on time, so I head downstairs and catch a cab to the airport.  When I get there, I find where I'm supposed to meet him and call NYNY.  No ID turned in there and they won't send someone up to the room to look and see if it's there.  I'm sick.  She tells me that if they find it in the next couple of days they'll call me.  Ugh.  Think Tara, think.  After I was done getting Chip we could go to NYNY and call the room and have the new occupants look I suppose.  Ugh.  Then it hits me, the last place I had it out was Tropicana.  I look up their number and call.  They send me through to security and I almost cry when they tell me they have it.  Awesome!  I tell them I'll be there shortly to pick it up.

I wait around for another 20 minutes and I see him come down the escalator.  My partner in crime has arrived!  I know that I've talked about Chip before, but not at much length.  Actually, I'm not even sure I mentioned that he drove four hours to Kansas City when I was there to hang out with me for the one night I was in town.  If you just read that old post about me wanting to know if our connection was as intense in person as it is over the phone, well it is, and I don't even mean that in a sexual way.  We didn't even do it when we were in Kansas City.  When I decided to take a vacation, he was the first person I called and asked to go with me.  I knew we'd have a blast, but he said he didn't think he could swing it and I left it at that.  We didn't talk about it again until about 10 days before the trip when I told him I was going by myself because Brandon didn't want to go and that I wished he could come with me because we have so much fun.

I didn't expect to get a "get on Alegient's website and see if they have a cheap ticket, I hear they do from here."  Sure as shit, there were still tickets open for around $250 when everyone else was quoting around $600.  He had me book it right then.

We were going on vacation together......