Good last morning Las Vegas!  Today is day 18 and it is also my last day of this trip.   This trip has been so unusual for me.  I wasn’t supposed to be here.  I didn’t LOVE being here.  I hated working from here.  My time not working was sort of a let down, specifically not having a marshmallow bed at Vdara.  I only had a Bellagio fountain view one time.  I am kind of ready to go home for the first time in my life.  The only dread I feel about going home is having to unpack all the stuff in my apartment I packed for the kitchen renovation.

As soon as I wake up, the texts start from JetBlue.  Flight delay. Flight not delayed.  Flight delayed again!  Whoops, no it isn’t.  Yes it is.  This is getting annoying.  When I originally booked my flights, I then was myself and rebooked a million times.  I settled on flying home on January 1 in the afternoon but realized that this was a terrible idea to get home late and start January 2 working in my apartment, with the bulk of the apartment packed in boxes that are filling the apartment.  So I tried to change it back to fly home on the 30th and now prices are skyhigh.  But there is a flight with a layover in Boston – Mint seat for $709.  Yes please.  So now I am on that flight, with the nonstop delay texts.

I tried to change the flight to make it stop but they tried to charge me. So no.

I got dressed and went to the buffet at Cosmopolitan. I am still fucking thirsty from Wynn other other day.

After, I sit down to play Ultimate X.  Is this my last time playing?  It might be?   Some dude was playing the one next to MY machine but he is also playing on my machine.  I didn’t realize this until I came around the corner to ask if he was playing MY machine and saw that not only is he, he just hit a dealt full house on ten play quarters.   He cashes out and lets me have it.  I asked him if he wanted his multipliers and he did not because it is too expensive to play one hand.   He also told me he left multipliers on other games on this machine if I want to find them.  So  now I have no choice but to bet $25 to get his multipliers, which sucks because these machines will only let you play max bet.  You cannot bet just 5 coins a hand to get the multipiers.  Each bet is $25.  And next thing you know, I am playing ten play quarters no no no no NO you cannot even afford this on nickels stop it.

I get a few decent hits.

More importantly, she lets me play FOREVER.

I finally cash out because I am starving.  JetBlue is still texting me nonstop about the flight delay.  I decide that fuck it, let me play one last time and then go to my room and demand they change my flight as I am pretty sure I will eventually miss my fight from Boston to NYC.

Last gamble:
To the room.  I am still starving.  I try to call JetBlue.  This is not working, I cannot get anyone on the phone.   I give up trying to get someone on the phone and accept my fate.  I am on a delayed flight to Boston and have about an hour to make my connection.  FINE.   At least I can eat dinner, which is great because I am STARVING and then I can still do one more last gamble.  And I still have a trenta iced coffee in my room refrigerator. This is going to be a great night.

I go downstairs and order food.  As my server walks away, my flight gets moved to 4:30 AM LOL no. I try the chat feature because now they HAVE to change my flight without charging me since it is five hours delayed.  Chatbot is still trying to send me to Boston on the 4:30 AM flight and then from Boston – NYC at 8:30 PM.  Nope.  I ask him about moving me to a direct flight, assuming I am going to be put on the flight tomorrow at 6:00 AM, which I already know does not have any private Mint seats left.  I am told they can get me on the 10:00 direct flight tonight.  It is 8:15.  I am not fully packed. I say fuck it and take it.

I don’t see my server anywhere so I run to the bar and start yelling about an emergency I need to go and I hand him $40. He is trying to tell me he can cancel my order but I already drank my iced tea and I want to tip my server, just take the $40.  I have more than enough comps to cover my meal but fuck it, it evens out because I won’t have time to gamble at the airport.

I pack in a panic, so thankful to myself that I had already done most of my packing this morning.  I spill my trenta iced coffee all over the kitchen floor.  Fuck me.  I throw a towel on that and run outside where there are zero taxis.  I try Uber. Somehow I luck out and there is actually one that is only one minute away.  Not where Uber tells you it is one minute away and once you order it, you find out Uber lied.  Less than one minute later, I am on my way to the airport.

At the airport, my luggage tag won’t scan because it’s showing the old flights even though boarding pass shows the new one.  A JetBlue employee tries to help me, he cannot get it to go either.  There is one Mint passenger who is still on the Boston flight that is leaving 8347384 hours late, going nuts, and a group of about five people who I believe were also newly transferred to the 10:00 flight and they are pissed that I get helped first because I am flying Mint.  And my luggage tag won’t scan.   Finally the guy decides fuck it, it will make my destination since the tag does have the correct information even if the system is saying it doesn’t match.  Whatever, fine.  I don’t need my dirty clothes to make it home with me tonight.

This sounds like a good place to add an affiliate link for Apple Air Tags.  I don’t have an iPhone but if you do, you should consider buying those and putting them in your luggage so if your luggage is lost, you can see where it is.  I get commission from anything you purchase through one of my links, at no cost to you.  I really wish I could just say that once but I am required by law to state it on every page with an affiliate link.

I was very surprised to discover I am on a new type of Mint aircraft where all seats are individual “suites.”  They are much smaller than the ones I am used to.  They also have way less storage.  I am not complaining though because I am getting home much earlier than I was supposed to.  Doesn’t that sound weird?  Me, excited about getting home early?

I am still starving.  My Plane Eats meal didn’t make it, which does not surprise me.  I didn’t get a last meal or a last gamble.  But the kind flight attendant gives me a cheesebox for free as she feels bad my Plane Eats meal didn’t make it.  What is a Plane Eats meal?  JetBlue offers this options, likely intended for little kids.  Where the food is plain.  No fancy meals with ingredients I will not eat because I have the pallet of a 6 year old.  Thank you for the cheese box!

I actually passed out on the flight.  I got woken up by the announcement that we are about to land.

I was very surprised when I got home, to get two flight credits to make up for the delay.  One for the LAS-BOS leg and one for the BOS-NYC leg.  I wasn’t expecting anything since I was able to get on a direct flight.  So now I have $300 in fight credit.  And I got home earlier and still had my own suite on Mint.  Winning!

And here is my new kitchen:
As I maybe mentioned 75 times already, I was not supposed to take this trip at all but had to leave my home so the landlord could redo the kitchen.  It was such an unusual trip.  I hit a handpay that had 1 in 1,380,688 odds.  During a bonus, so it was doubled.  I never got the Vegas excitement. I really only went degenerate once.  I didn’t really enjoy many meals because work.  I do have a backpack that is very heavy with all the snacks I collected around town to use up all my resort credit.

Am I going back to Las Vegas in 2025?  Kind of?  I plan to travel at least once a month in 2025. This was also my plan for 2024, but health issues got in the way.  So now with all that behind me, I have to travel every month in 2025.

I was booked before all this happened, to spend President’s Day going to Monument Valley.  I went last year and the weather was awful and everything was covered in fog.  I am dying to go back. Although it is easier to go from Arizona, the tours from Arizona only run on Wednesdays.  This requires me to take time off work.  I don’t want to use vacation if I do not have to.  So I booked going from Vegas.  But I am feeling like that trip is too soon.  So I moved it to May.  I’ll barely be in Vegas.  I arrive very late on Wednesday, work on Thursday.  Then leave at some ungodly hour on Saturday morning.  And come back late Monday and fly home Tuesday after work.  I work until 2:00 Las Vegas time and my flight is at 4:00.  So I really only have Thursday night, when I will be beyond exhausted.  Friday night, which is a wash since I am leaving so early in the morning.  Monday night, when I return to Vegas after my bedtime.  And then Tuesday there is no time.

And since I have my “I will travel once every month in 2025” thing going on, I booked a hotel in Manhattan for a very crazy weekend I have in January, so that I don’t have to keep going back home to Bensonhurst every night.

I have zero other plans for Vegas in 2025, and I have already booked all my PTO for the year for other things.  I admit I am strongly considering using the $300 JetBlue credit to go collect a free cruise on Holland America from MGM in February.  I can literally only stay one night because I need to be back in NYC the next day.  I am still on the fence though because I have six cruises already booked in 2025, and I am not sure I need to go and collect another one?  But my main motivation would be to get a comped cruise on a cruiseline that is not Carnival because I am Carnivaled out.  But I also do have one booked on Princess so maybe I should just stop being a crazy person and let the Holland America cruise go.  I do not plan to take any cruises in 2026.  I plan to instead, go back to seeing the world.

And that’s a wrap!  If you read through all of this, thank you!  If you clicked on any affiliate link, DOUBLE THANK YOU!