Surviving Vegas

One day...the story you are a bout to read will be a movie or perhaps a novel or at the very least a chapter in the story of my life.... one day.. At that point the real events will be fictionalized for humor. This however is the real story, just as it happened. I'll do my best to remember all that happened so that one day I'll be able to bastardize this trip into something more comical for entertainment purposes. You can read this story and be glad you stayed home this spring.

The story you are about to read is real and for those who can't handle long tales here are the highlights: 
-Room was canceled and I found out one day before the trip
-Second degree burns
-Twisted ankle
-Delayed flight (no flight until 24 hours actually)
-Overnight hotel stay in lackluster hotel 20 min from airport
-Stolen luggage
-Room had no bed
-Nose bleeds
-Freezing weather I wasn't prepared for
-Really big hair
-Alex ate a scorpion


It all started in Jan. My boyfriends birthday is in March. March 26 to be exact. It is so expensive to rent a nice room in downtown Nashville, I decided why not just go some where. The average room downtown goes for about 500 bucks plus taxes.No kidding. For just a bit more I could just take him somewhere. So why not!!!
So I look at several destination but as weeks go by i see airfare going drastically up. More than I though it would. A few of the places I planned on going were now to expensive..so I decided on Vegas. It was the most affordable place to go. After booking everything I discovered why...his birthday landed on Easter weekend this year. Great. this was the fist mistake at the tipy top of this rabbit hole.

The Friday before we left for the trip I call Hotels.com to check on the room. They had cancelled it. I dont know why..but the canceled it and never told me. I mean they took the money...but somehow on Feb the 3rd the rooms were cancelled. I call the hotel to confirm this..yes..they had been cancelled. I re-book through them. The total was to be 375 and I was to pay 150 now. Ok I do this, because at this point I already have plane tickets so what choice do I have? ..I'm still out the original money mind you.

The day we are to leave I burned my finger on the curling iron. Badly. I didn't feel that my finger was on it at first. I screamed bloody murder once i did. Ice didn't even help. The pain was horrible and I ran to the pharmacy for help. They suggest this burn ointment. It hurt even more. I am running up the stairs to my house and turned my ankle..falling hard. I twisted my ankle and landed on my arm. My arm still hurts. I saw on the internet to try mixed up jello. This also didn't help. I have to leave at this point or risk us missing the plane so we are off..me holding my finger out of the window so air can blow on it. I took jello with me because the internet said so. I was worried it would get my bad checked by TSA.

I get there and they tell me my flight has been delayed and I am going to miss my connecting flight. They also tell me the next flight ..out of Denver..to get to Vegas is the next day at 10pm. NO KIDDING. There we are..with only a few minutes to figure out what to do about the trip. Cancel it completely or what. I have no idea what to do. I suggest to Alex a flight out of Denver may be cheaper than booking another flight out of Nashville. So we decide to take the flight and Alex bought us tickets the next morning with another company at 7am. I called the hotel and let them know what was up.I let them know I wanted to check in now because I needed the room as soon as I got there because I'd be exhausted.

We get to Denver and I am not dressed for an over night in a place just pounded by snow the day before. I was literally shaking as we got off of the plane. One teenage girl told me..we at least you look stylish. Yeah..I didn't for much longer. We asked for a refund for the leg of the flight we couldn't take. They tell us ok (I still dont have that money) but that they can't get us a hotel room for the night then..because this means we are cutting ties with the airline. Wait WHAT?  Its midnight and we are in the Denver airport with no idea what to do. We push for the room. Then finally after dealing with the guy for several minutes get the room. TSA took our luggage because they didn't think we would want it??? We wait another hour for our luggage. We get the shuttle to our hotel that is 20 minutes away from the airport. It is just as lovely as I am sure you imagine. I am freezing.

So the next day we get to the airport and we have breakfast vouchers for anywhere in the airport except the one place I choose to eat..because of course. I walk away from the food and got something else. we get on the plane and land in Vegas. Alex luggage gets stolen by some couple who brought six bags with them. They bring the luggage back and blame Alex for them accidentally taking his bag. RIGHT...  Anyway we get to the hotel by about 9am. The hotel gave my room away the night before. Let's recap here. I paid for the room (200 bucks I find out and not the 150..but who's counting money at this point right?) but there is no clean room available. After about ten minutes at the desk they send us to a room..with no bed...to hang out in until something else is available. the room is awesome..swanky actually..except for the no bed thing. They told us we could stay there if we want..but you know...no bed in there and all.

I take a shower and head to the pool. There aren't to many people there because it's like 70 out there, not really pool weather but I wanted some sun damn it. I am asked to move because the chair I picked was a rental chair.(part of the cabana it was close to) Right..there were so many people out there, I understand your dilemma here. Thanks pool police. (sarcasm-I realize some of you don't get it-there were not many people out there) We make it to dinner that night at the VooDoo Steak house, the view was beautiful but our hearts just wasn't in it..we were both running on copious amounts of caffeine and liquor to be able to move. We were in bed by 11pm.

During the night Alex gets a hellacious nose bleed. I hear him fumbling around in the night and wake up to a bathroom that looks as if a murder has taken place in there.on a side note we had no water either. It was cut off for about four hours I think.

The next day we were so exhausted we both just couldn't move. We didnt leave the room until 2pm. I went to Cabo Wabo and Alex went to gamble a bit and hit the gym. I am sitting out on the patio and it decided to turn cold and windy. I had to leave my nachos because it was so cold on the patio. It was so windy I was holding the basket of chips down because other wise they were flying in my face.  I go into the mall beside the restaurant..and get hollered at buy the guys in the kiosks in the middle of the mall. Hey..Hey (I put on my shades) Hey James Bond...Come back...(I keep walking)..fuck you fake blonde lady (I kid you not) I flipped the guy off. He was selling flat irons. Like I haven't seen these tired fucking flat irons in every mall I've ever been to. These guys are always so aggressive..and usually more so with me. I have no clue why. I'd never buy their bullshit cheap, no name hair products. I hate to be talked to by strange men to begin with..seriously sales guys..I'm not the one. I am the LEAST likely person to even tolerate you. I've had some of you guys fired before. I suggest you back off. Why this is allowed is beyond me. Yelling at people as they walk through the mall creates a hostile environment. I'd rather a guy tell me I had a nice ass than yell at me to come back to their freaking kiosk.

Anyway Alex tells me to come back so we can meet for dinner later that afternoon, we have plans for Fremont Street. I'm waiting at the monorail and don't see it get arrive. This lady is standing in the door and I assume to hold the door for me. I rush in, sit by her and tell her thank you for holding the door for me. Are you having a good time on your trip??  She is just staring at me. Finally her husband starts talking to her..in German. She moves to the other side of him. No kidding. I realize she had no idea what I was saying, she didn't hold the door for me..and probably thought I was scary. ..so ok then.

Bu this time it was freezing in Vegas (because of course it was) and I stopped to buy a hat as my hair was flying everywhere and flip flops because my feet were blistered everywhere from he past couple days, I'm seriously limping. I can't seem to find a sweat shirt. We don't stay on Fremont long because it's just so cold outside and the cold is making me more exhausted and we have both really just been running on fumes anyway. We eat at a place called Nacho Daddy that I in my exhausted state find hilarious. Their margaritas are terrible and the food so greasy I gt heartburn BUT they have scorpion shots. This is a shot of your favorite liquor with a scorpion in it. Alex did one. I told him I couldn't kiss him ever again now.

The next morning we check out and I have no idea what they are going to charge us for the rooms because the prices kept changing. all in all for three nights (one that we didn't actually stay there) we paid about 440. So Whatever. ( I went from originally paying 300-to 375 to 440 and I think they have a security deposit on me ill get refunded but i really just don't know about that).

I finally found a sweat shirt at the airport I pulled over my head for warmth (it was still cold) and the fact I needed a clean soft thing to wear. Plane rides always make me sick and take me at least 24 hours to recover from, So I mostly try to sleep through flights. You know those women who effortlessly look amazing? I am not one of them. First of all my hair is a weekly two to four hour process. It has to be babied even on trips or I start to look like a psycho in a horror movie. This trip didn't allow that. My skin is also pretty dry. face, eyes..all of it. So I start to wrinkle up and get a bit scaly..not just on my face either. Plus this is the dessert. Look my people are pale whiteys..we just don't fare well in dry hostile environments. At this point im looking about 10 years older and in a crazy way..the bags under my eyes aren't helping. My skin is also a bit blotchy and my lips chapped. My face, hands and body are also swollen at this point. I look totally different with my make up done right..but when I'm fighting all of this I just stop caring. I went from wearing designer clothes and well done make up to a pony tail and crazy amounts of lip gloss. I looked..a mess..the change was a slow process over three days..but it still happened. I felt bad Alex had to be seen with me..but I have never traveled well.  I kinda always look like I just finished up a fight I may not have won after a flight.

There was this sweet old lady next to me whose husband had recently past away and she was going to live with her daughter in Nashville. So I had no idea what to say to her, I just smiled and nodded. she was very sweet but that was uncomfortable and she certainly wanted to talk to me. Good grief. When I was finally home I just ate pizza and passed out.

*According to my estimation this trip cost about 990 dollars more than what I planned. Plus Alex had to pay for his own airfare for his birthday trip. I mean I was broke, I couldn't do it.  I'll just go ahead and say it was FRONTIER we booked with and I'll NEVER do that again. I've always flown Southwest but with it being Easter weekend fares kept going up leaving me with little choice. You can't just put someone on a flight an entire 24 hours later than the original flight. You don't get hotel deposits back. Southwest would have made it right. Lesson Learned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTsgqvmUPn4

The rise of Trump and Sanders

To start off I need to make one thing very plain, I am a libertarian and I do not endorse Trump, Sanders or the Republican or Democratic parties. In addition I follow Sanders, Clinton, Trump. Rubio and Cruz on all social media. I read their posts and the comments under them. I feel I have a decent handle on what the average american is thinking. I  have been following political ideas and thoughts on social media for a few years now, but even more so now that its "crunch time", so to speak. Now, lets talk about why two people with what seems like polar opposite views are surging in the polls and yes even though Sanders isn't winning he does have quite a bit of support, enough for it to be concerning for the Democratic establishment. For years I have been telling my conservative friends I thought there was very little hope for the republican party  and that if they didn't make some drastic changes, they wouldn't be winning presidential elections. Similarly, rise of Sanders fits that narrative, yes I blame republicans for his sure a bit more than democrats. What's going on? I think I have some decent ideas about that so lets talk about it..shall we?

1.Republicans are focused on the wrong things. 

In order to keep their party conservative they continue to focus on the wrong things and have completely misjudged the population. The average american isn't worried about social issues. They don't want to close planned parenthood, they believe abortion should remain legal, they don't care if gay people get married and so forth. It isn't even necessarily that they are vehemently pro these ideas, they just don't care about them. It's kinda like-oh we are talking about that AGAIN. When they see republicans going after planned parenthood or some crazy lady not giving out marriage licenses, they maybe entertained but they end up not seeing republicans in a good light. It isn't what they feel is important or what they think a politicians focus should be on...so while many of you republicans spend hours making meme's about gay marriage, the average american wants to know what you are going to do about the stagnant economy and wonders why this party seems so bent on being in everyone's business. Hey if this is the republican party, if this is what you want to be about, fine. Just don't be surprised when the bulk of Americans start to vote democrat. Currently about 42% of Americans identify as Independents, their opinions matter when it comes to elections.  http://www.gallup.com/poll/180440/new-record-political-independents.aspx "But the share of independents, which surpassed the percentages of either Democrats or Republicans several years ago, continues to increase. Currently, 39% Americans identify as independents, 32% as Democrats and 23% as Republicans"

2. People have been chronically out of stable work or underpaid for eight years.

I know republicans the economy is bad but people should just be able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps anyway. Democrats... oh yeah the economy is fixed? Right it's fixed, fixed so much we feel we need a seven dollar increase in minimal wage. hummm...could it be people can't find work that actually PAYS a decent wage, and people who normally would work a blue collar job is stuck at wal-mart? I have seen people say when speaking of Trump or Sanders..I just want a good job. I'm voting for him because I JUST WANT A GOOD JOB. People just want to make decent money and right or wrong a good amount of people feel either Trump or Sanders can help them. I know if you have a good job and your friends have a good job, it doesn't seem as if there are any problems. The fact is our good paying blue collar jobs are almost gone from the United States and middle management middle class positions are drying up. We are left with ten to twelve dollar an hour positions with little room for growth. People are putting of marriage and  having a family because of unstable and low wages. People aren't lazy, they are exhausted. So has the economy recovered if people can find work but it isn't work that can support them? It can make you hard core democrats and republicans angry but the average american just wants you to work on the economy. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/09/16/poverty-wages-remain-stagnant-despite-economic-recovery

3. People are disparate for a change.

The average american doesn't want free healthcare, the average american doesn't want to see endless social issues disputed in the news..the average american just wants work. Its easy to hope a man like Trump who runs a multitude of business can bring work back to the United States. I continually hear politician get on the news and say I want to win but I want to win with a conservative, republican..what does that even mean. FIX THE ECONOMY. None of the other people running exude the confidence that they can help bring back work to the average guy. It isn't about hate or borders or anything except money. This morning I just saw a republican pundit go on and on about Trump and planned parenthood as if this was a thing that made people vote or not vote for him in the first place. Sanders, Sanders is riding the same wave from the opposite view point..I'm tired, and I need better pay. I think this guy can make business pay me more money. I'm a hard worker, I deserve a decent income. Hey about ten years ago these people would have had those decent jobs. 

So republicans and democrats you can be realists and listen to me and change your narrates...or we can swear in president Trump in November.  It's fine to have ideas to expand on your ideas, but these are things to focus on AFTER the work is done. Clean up the economy, fix stagnant wages and bring back blue collar work and then you guys can go back to hashing it out over social issues.