Viva Las Vegas (pt. I)

On Wednesday, October 6th I boarded a flight in Düsseldorf headed for my homeland of the U. S. of A. My flight was direct to San Francisco. Now for all of you out there who don't know your geography (side note: shame on you!), that means not only did I have a trans-Atlantic flight, but I had one that once making it over the 2nd largest ocean on planet Earth, I then flew clear over the 2nd largest country in the world (no, that's not a mistake, I flew over northern Canada and then down over Washington state and Oregon into California. But I'm glad you caught that. You're right, the US is in-fact the 4th largest country, following of course 1. Russia, 2. Canada, 3. China. How's that knowledge feel?!). I luckily had a window seat on this extra long flight, so at least I had something to rest my head against and attempt to sleep (although I can never sleep on planes. damn.). After being on the plane for some time I remember thinking to myself, "okay. I have to be at least half way by now". I then looked at my clock on my iPod, and nope. I had only been on for a solid four hours. Out of 12. Only 1/3 of the trip complete and the little plane on the digital map said I was currently somewhere over Greenland. I tried to read and listen to some Ricky Gervais podcasts, and even watched one of the in-flight movies (I believe the first one was After the Sunset with Pierce Brosnan--love him by the way, he's just so handsome!). After the semi-cheesy movie that made me wish to be in the Caribbean somewhere, I was brought back to reality of sitting on a plane. Still. The man next to me, I saw from his customs paper (I should be a spy), was an American but has been residing in Vietnam. He looked to be maybe a few years older than myself, so I offered him some of my German chocolate I was about to start eating (I'm very polite) and attempted to make small talk. He was not having it. He seemed very awkward and shy so I just left him alone. I then checked my clock again thinking I had to pretty much be there by now, and I still had another 6 hours left on-board. At around the 5 hour marker, I developed a splitting headache. I don't know if it was from the anticipation of seeing everyone mixed with just stress or what, but it hurt like hell and everything seemed to make it worse. There were a few times I thought I was going to be sick. But I powered through it and just counted down to the last second until I would be able to get off the plane. After close to about 12 hours we were finally readying for landing at San Francisco airport. Again, I had a window seat and was lucky again to be on the left side of the plane (thanks luck dust). The captain came over the intercom to tell everyone to prepare for landing and that "for those of you on the left side of the plane, look out and you can see downtown San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and that small island there is the famous Alcatraz".  It was a super cool view. I looked out the window and said out-loud "oooh look! There DJ Tanner, about to get busted for holding a beer by Uncle Jesse!". I then chuckled to myself, because hello, that's hilarious, and everyone else around that heard it just kind of looked at me. Although I could hear a guy behind me laughing, so at least someone got the joke. We finally landed and I knew I had to pick up my bags and recheck them for my last flight onward to Vegas. I had about a 4 and 1/2 hour layover so I had some time. After retrieving my bags and going through customs I was on a one-woman mission to get my hands on some extra-strength Excedrin. My head had literally felt like an ax was in it for the last 5 solid hours of the flight. It was horrible.I found a small kiosk place that sold aspirins and such and quickly found some Excedrin. I pulled out my few US dollars I had that Sue had sent me and fumbled with the change. It was strange to be using this familiar but also foreign currency again. I then took the pills, and headed off in search for something to eat. So with that said let me digress for a second. Where in the world do airports get off charging 10 dollars from something that would be 3 on the outside?!? I found a small food court which had a little Mexican place similar to something like Chipotle. I went up to take a glace at the menu and the cheapest thing was like 12 dollars--and this was by no means a "fancy" place. So I said screw that and kept walking. I finally found a small diner type of place where I was able to buy a chicken sandwich for about 7 bucks and sat and ate waiting for my headache medicine to kick in. Once I was done eating I found an outlet and powered up my US cell phone for the first time in almost a year. I spoke to a number of friends on the phone and texted a few others--it was nice to have access to the people I love again. I talked with my dear friend Jas for well over an hour. She filled me in on her life and we just gossiped and told stories and laughed like we have done so many times before, it was really nice, and not too mention a great way to waste time during a long layover. It was finally time to board my hour flight on to Las Vegas, and at this time it was about 6pm (but 3am Germany time, so needless to say I was pretty exhausted). I got on the flight an almost immediately fell in a semi-sleep. I awoke as we were landing and the lights from outside the plane had made it official: I was finally back in Sin City!

Once I got off the plane I was immediately greeted by the sights and sounds of Vegas: flashy lights and slot machines. Let it be told that after a close to 18 hours of travel time, probably the worst place in the world to land is Las Vegas. I quickly headed to the baggage claim to wait for my luggage. When I got there, it was 7:30pm Vegas time. Germany time aka what my body thought, was a grueling 4:30 in the morning, so I was exhausted and irritable (with the blaring speakers announcing JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE LIVE IN CONCERT AT CAESARS PALACE!!!! is about the last thing you want to be experiencing). Because I am in the hyper-state of irritation and tiredness I proceed to my luggage carousel and my annoyance grows. Basically, I don't know who dropped the ball at McCarran International, but putting 3 incoming flights all on one carousel when all around are empty/un-used ones, is ass-crack backwards. I mean, it might have made some sense if they all happened to be from the same airline, which of course in this instance, they were not. Luggage from a flight from Chicago was already circling when they announced that the flight from San Francisco (my flight) would also be joining. And then after some time (and still no sign of my bag) the announcer came on to say that a flight from St. Louis would also be joining the fray at carousel 13. It seriously made no sense. Retarded. I sat there starting to get nervous as I saw countless bags passing by and still no sign of my giant black suitcase with it's red and black Cincinnati Bearcats ribbon that I had attached to it when I was 15 and my brother had just started attending UC (NOTE TO SELF: Replace that dastardly ribbon with Blue and Gold). As I waited, exhausted, nervous and annoyed, I feel a light graze on my shoulder and the sound of a familiar voice say "Megan!!!????!!!!" I slowly turn my gaze and rest my eyes on both Emily and Lindsey who are standing there with smiles of sheer excitement. My mother (who had already arrived in Las Vegas hours early), had told me that Emily and Lindsey's flight would come about 2 hours after mine--hence, I had no idea they would be there. I stare at both of them with my zombie eyes and then finally reply, "what.... are you doing here?" in the most uneventful and monotone voice I have ever heard escape my own mouth. Emily then responds through her double teeth layered smile, "we're SURPRISING YOU!!!!!!". I then just stare for another solid few seconds before I turn back toward the carousel and say "oh... I need to, uh, get my bag". At this point Emily and Lindsey are just staring at me completely dazed at my lackluster reaction to their 'surprise'. I finally see my bag, and pull it off the conveyor belt. I apologize for my delayed and lifeless response, and the three of us head for the airport shuttle that my mom had previously told us to take. We finally find it, pay for our round-trip ticket (which would later come back to bite us in the ass) and tell the driver to take us to Mandalay Bay (we stayed at the Four Seasons, which actually occupies the 35th-39th floors of the Mandalay Bay hotel, but aren't going to arrive to the secret luxuriant Four Season entrance in a black shuttle bus thing. We have WAY too much class for that). After our short shuttle ride, and dropping off other people at their hotels along the way, we finally made our stop at the Mandalay Bay. I had called my mom to tell her we would be there shortly, and because there is a "secret entry" into the Four Seasons elevators from the Mandalay Bay (which one needs a valid room key to enter), she said she would meet us in the lobby. This is when the real adventure began.

At this point, I was getting my 3rd or 4th wind of the extremely long day from the sheer excitement of not only being in Las Vegas again after so many years (and with my plans to win big money, who wouldn't be excited??), but also to see so many of my family and friends that I had missed so much in the last 11 and 1/2 months. Emily, Lindsey and I walked into the lobby which was rather deserted for it only being around 8:15pm (and yes, it was only a Wednesday, but come on, it's Vegas!). With luggage in hand I look around and out pops my mother from behind a large vase planter with teary eyes. It was so bizarre. We hug and say are hellos, and I ask her why she was hiding behind an over-sized vase, and mid-sentence there comes Bob Bucher, also popping out from behind an extra large pillar. It was all very strange and very hilarious. From this point we head up to the room to put our stuff down. Travis called and said him and the wife to be were finishing up dinner with Lisa's parents and were then headed down to the casino and that we should join them. So after being lazy around the room and catching up for about a half hour, we got all our things together and headed for the casino. From where we stood waiting for the elevators, we had the most amazing views of both the Four Seasons and Mandalay Bay pools (both of which are accessible for Four Seasons guests--boo-yah!) (View of pools during the day; work cited: I took this picture from Brian Rousey's collection.. thanks Brian! :P ) After the quick express elevator ride down to the casino level, we made out way toward the "Crazy 4 Poker" tables that Travis had said they all were. We said hello to Lisa's mom and dad and brother, David, and then a quick hello to her aunt Harriet and uncle Paul (quick! how many noses noses does a slug have?! Answer: FOUR!), and then all headed over to the sports betting area. After hanging around there talking and catching up for about 20 minutes, Lisa made the astute observation that in-fact the betting windows were closed for the night and we were all standing around looking at giant boards with sports spreads for no reason. At this point it was going on 10:30 or so at night and I was exhausted (it was 7:30am Germany time). We all were pretty hungry as well, and seeing as how it was Vegas wanted to try and find something to eat before going up to our room. Well, everything was closed. Which again, this is Vegas, nothing is supposed to ever close! At that point I was crashing hard and didn't care about eating at all, all I wanted was to lay down and shut my eyes. We all went back to the room and for this night Lindsey was going to be crashing in our room as well since her mom and Randy wouldn't be arriving in Sin City until the following day. She set up shop on the over-sized chair and made what looked like, actually, a really nice little bed. After all unwinding we all climb in bed (mind you, Emily and I were sharing a room with my mom and Bob... note to self: separate rooms next time, read on to learn why....) We all finally turn the lights off and go to bed and it was probably around 12:30 at night. Again, German time would be 9:30am the next day, so not only was I beyond exhausted after being up for a solid 24 hours or so, I also was pretty out of it. But it was finally time to sleep and I feel asleep almost instantly after I laid down on the heavenly bed.