Las Vegas

I had to get up early this morning to make an early flight out to Las Vegas from the San Francisco International Airport. The security checkpoint was surprisingly empty at this hour of 6:00am, I'm sure passengers have heard enough about the heavy travel season to heed it's warnings. My flight was full but not oversold. I sat next to two elderly Italian gentlemen who own several Italian restaurants around the Half Moon Bay area and Palo Alto. I usually don't talk to my seatmates unless she's a cute woman or couple but Andrea, who was sitting in the middle seat, was speaking in Italian to Joe, on the aisle seat and pointing to my little picnic of blueberries and dried trail snack food. I offered them some, introductions were made and Andrea was telling me the story of his family owning a grocery store in Half Moon Bay and how they have lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and that I had a good idea to bring some food on board. Andrea stated that he heard of all the advisories of not bringing liquids on board and I told them that solid foods were allowed and you can buy water past security. They didn't look like the type to pack anything but their wallets! They inquired where I was staying in Las Vegas and I always stay at the Rio All Suite Hotel because I have a lot of comps with them and almost unlimited rooms available to me every month. Who needs to buy a condo? I have my airfare for basically nothing and hotel. I just have to get myself to and from the hotel by shuttle service from the airport. They were staying at the Luxor. As our flight landed, we parted ways and another human interaction was borne.
My flight landed about 8:30am and not having any checked luggage makes it easier to get out of the airport. I'm always the last drop off in the shuttle because of the location of the Rio Hotel which is located off of the Las Vegas strip. I check in at the Diamond and Platinum lounge and is cozily located away from the Gold check in. Behind the frosted glass doors pulled open by an employee awaits a generous amount of check in agents to help assist you. Fresh coffee while you wait, if there is a wait. They happily greet you warmly because this is their "creme De la creme", that's right, their high rollers, frequent players and just people that like to drop a lot of money. In my case, I play very little and have won a few significant jackpots to the point where I have accumulated W-2's to take home and file until tax time. I'm still waiting for that elusive "mega-pot"! The whole process of checking in took less than 10 minutes and Mr. Mcadoo is very personable. He knows by my profile that I have been here almost every month since March to take advantage of my complimentary room nights and asks me which tower would I like to stay in. I prefer the Ipanema Tower because Starbucks is located right there. When I need that early morning coffee, I can use my points or cash to get what I want there. For this particular trip, I am here to claim a DVD offer that arrived in one of my mailing promotions. Last month it was the Nintendo Wii which I sold on EBay for a nice price. My son already has an Xbox and isn't interested in the Wii. The DVD, I will give to Lynn as part of my Christmas present to her along with other things that I have accumulated throughout the month. The month before, I picked up an Ipod with speakers and gave that to Lynn's daughter which she highly prizes and plays constantly at home. All of the rooms at the Rio are nicely appointed suites. Easily sleeps 6 but can accommodate 4 in two double beds. My room consisted of a King bed and faced the "strip" and looked out across the pool area. Because I arrived early, I took a nice long nap in my room, watched T.V. as it was a Law and Order marathon day and enjoyed the peace and quiet. 4:00pm rolled around and it was time to go downstairs to the promotion desk to claim my DVD. There was a bit of a line but moved fairly quickly. Kawehi, a local girl, had me sign for the DVD and gave me a nice soft blanket as part of the promotion. Great, more stuff to pack in my one and only carry on! From there, I went on to find a slot machine to play. No luck at those machines and had better luck at the video poker deuces wild machines. Where you really score on those is the "double up". I had won a little over $300 on that one and finally had to leave the machine because I drank too many beers and had to go to the little girls room. It was time to quit anyway and when I came back there was a little ol' lady on it. Feeling a little buzzed and sleepy, again, it was time to go back to the room and watch more Law and Order.

So many things to do

so little time. Whoever said that sure knew what they were talking about! I have a ton of things to do and just "don't wanna". I made out a to do list last night and it's still staring me in the face. I have boxes and mailings that need to get out to the post office and it's still sitting there as if they were waiting to go for a long walk. My bed is unmade, i still have my pajamas (sweats) on and the T.V is rambling on in the other room. What does that tell me?
It's time to go back to bed!

I finally get out bed, get dressed and go about my mailing. Actually I was getting all of my EBay stuff out to the post office to my customers that won my auctions which usually consist of materialistic things found around my house. Things that I haven't used, aren't interested in or have no place for it in my home. You know that saying, "One person's junk is another person's treasure". I don't have a store on EBay, it's just a site where I can throw my "junk" into and hopefully someone else will want it and I get paid for it. My pork chops are completely thawed out and I throw those in the crock pot along with some bacon for flavoring, season it and let that simmer for a few hours. That's for dinner tonight, I love my crock pot!
Getting gas is really ridiculous these days. $3.87 a gallon for unleaded! My truck is hitting $80.00 to fill up now. I don't see an end to this anytime soon especially with Thanksgiving next week. I predict that gas will easily top $4.00 in some areas.
A good friend of mine is in town from Florida, Angie with her g/f Tamara and is visiting family. Angie used to work as a B.A.R.T mechanic in Antioch, she sold her home a few years ago and moved to Fort Lauderdale with her mother. She sold her house just in time at the height of the real estate selling market started to cool. We're trying to find a window of time to get together tomorrow and visit with other g/f's who live beyond the bay bridge. My g/f Lynn is not sure because she will be coming from Palo Alto and then to drive over to Berkeley is quite a jaunt especially with the gas prices at an all time high. We will try to make the time and it will probably be a last minute decision. It's gearing up to be a busy week for me. I have a play to go to on Friday night called "Stardust and empty wagons" which I went to last week. I'm taking my "surrogate" mother Diane to it because she is portrayed as one of the main characters in the show. Saturday is a baby party for a co-worker who got fired last year and I never really heard the real story of what happened to her. Saturday night is another co-workers birthday. Monday morning, if the flights look good, I will be flying to Las Vegas for a little R&R and to pick up a portable DVD player at the Rio All Suites Hotel which has been giving me complimentary nights for the past three years because I play there quite a bit. I've won a few nice jackpots but I'm aiming for the Mega one day. The Rio is a beautiful hotel with a Mardi Gras atmosphere just off the strip which you can easily reach by one of their many complimentary buses to their partner hotels. Just about every amenity you could want and yes, they have a bowling alley!! And it's alot of fun.