On this day, we arrived in Las Vegas! Neither of us could sleep the previous evening though. It wasn’t just the excitement of this wedding-vacation but the dozen other things to be done before leaving town for a week.
We thought we would get great seats on the plane because we were early. HA! Seems that 75 other people had the same idea so we were placed in the rotten, backwards seats near the exit. Flying backwards really calmed my nerves. Even if it did, the little girl facing me, kicking my seat for over 30 minutes would’ve undone it. To be fair to her parents, they weren’t inattentive, their kid just didn’t care to listen.
Upon arrival, there was the dash to the Clark County courthouse for our marriage license (they only take cash) and then to Costco. Or was it the other way around? I can’t remember clearly thanks to all the sleep deprivation, a situation that continued until my birthday.
The room wasn’t ready at the Aladdin so we got to hang around its mall and lobby until late afternoon which was early evening on my body clock. Nelson and Tammy had arrived and were gracious enough to let us hang out in their room. I nodded off briefly in a chair. Then they took us to dinner which was wonderful.
No sleep yet. I promised to pick up Jose at the airport and his flight landed around midnight. He had it rougher being a resident of Eastern time. Somara volunteered to stay in the car at the parking lot. This gave her the opportunity to sleep in the back, probably freaking out any possible car thief. How I miss the days when airports weren’t havens of extreme tension because it’s great to meet a friend in the terminal. Pleasantries were kept brief and we dropped Jose off at the Stratosphere.
I hadn’t had such a crazy, non-stop run in my life since Finals at Marquette. My rushed move from Austin to Raleigh and back were caffeine-fueled frenzies too yet those only lasted 36 hours. Las Vegas 2003 kicked off from when I clocked out at Apple on Thursday evening until we checked out of the Mirage Monday morning.
How I can’t wait to go back to Vegas in 50-plus days!