Good morning Las Vegas! I woke up at California, moving to Cosmopolitan today. I showered and got dressed. When leaving the room, I noticed my do not disturb sign was somehow missing so I made my own and went about my day.
I stopped at MY Buffalo at Binions to use my free play. The card reader is working today and holy shit, I got a handpay? Holy shit.
Good morning Las Vegas!
Maintenance knocks on my door. The sink next door is clogged. Hate people randomly coming into my room when I am not prepared. What if I washed my underwear? Maintenance dude knocked over my toothbrush haaaaaaaaate.
I am staying at California on a video poker tournament. I did terrible. I kept fucking up and missing holds.
I grabbed lunch and had time to shower before my next meeting. This was a rare treat of ending the day not starving and already showered.
I went to Dunkin Donuts and somehow got a really bad coffee. This has never happened before in my life. Why.
Played at Fremont, all the machines here hate me. I had the thought that I have had many times, which is – how do I keep getting comped here when the machines hate me so much that I can’t play anything because I have no money?!
Forced myself to go to Walgreens for Benadryll since I have been ignoring the fact that I am very sick. This will probably not cure me but will give me an amazing sleep tonight.
I stopped to play Buffalo at Binions on my way back to my room. The card reader isn’t working so I guess we are broken up?
Burger to go, room and Benadryll and zzzzzzzzzz.
I do want to say that I am posting this 6 months after I wrote it up. Since then, I took a three week NON WORKING trip to Las Vegas and it really just makes these working trip days seem so short, stressed and boring. I am sorry I am boring.
Las Vegas trip report day 8. Good morning Las Vegas!
I wanted to get Dunkin Donuts before work but woke up way too late. I have not had any one day since I got here where I had normal sleep. Fortunately, Laperts is open and they have coffee.
Back to my room to work!
Housekeeping came. I was hoping they would not. I do not have a do not disturb sign but kind of hoped they simply don’t have housekeeping at all in these (still) Covid times. She told me I was supposed to check out today. Nope, Monday. She asked if she could call the front desk from my room to verify. Yes. No one is answering. “Are you checking out tomorrow?” No, Monday. “So tomorrow?” No, today is Thursday, I am checking out on Monday. “Do you need towels?” No thank you. “So you check out tomorrow?” I am sorry, there actually is a camera on since I am in a work meeting but I didn’t realize it was feeding to Candid Camera?
Good morning Las Vegas.
And fuck the MLife mobile app for doing maintenance when I needed to get into my room after smoking / before work. I had to go to the front desk and get a key.
Played Buffalo – I love early morning wins.
Las Vegas trip report day 6.
I slept HORRIBLY last night and could not get out of bed this morning. I missed my opportunity to walk all the way to Starbucks before work and ended up at The Roasted Bean, which I never knew existed.
Me: 2 large iced coffees please!
Her: We don’t have iced coffee
Me: What the fuck?!
Other Her: We have cold brew
Me: 2 large cold brews please!
I was having such a nicotine fit because I didn’t smoke before coffee. Had I not been saved by the cold brew, who knows what would have happened to me.
Lost $100 in Dancing Drums. I really need to stop playing this here.
Las Vegas trip report day 5.
I woke up at 5:30 at Treasure Island. I thought there was a huge bug in my room but it turns out it was just the top of this lamp. Holy morning heart attack.
I went to get Starbucks before work. Having a Starbucks inside the actual hotel was a huge selling point for me. Well the line – nope. Starbucks opens at 6:00, which is when I have to be “at” work. I would have still been on the line when my first meeting started so CVS bottled coffee it is. HUGE disappointment. I do not have a lot of work meetings tomorrow or Wednesday so I am moving to Mirage after work today. It sucks that I am paying for my third night at Treasure Island and won’t be staying. Yes I could cancel it. No I won’t because I feel I should pay for my terrible opinion of thinking this hotel would be the most perfect hotel for working.
Also mobile hotspot also sucks in this room.
Las Vegas trip report day 4!
I woke up just before 8:00 and showered and finished packing. My plans this morning are:
Play $100 at Four Queens
Collect my free play from the June promotion and my cash back
Go to The D and play $100 on Dancing Drums
How did it go?
Well I lost $100 in the Four Queens. Collected my $31 cash back and $120 free play. Lost the $120 on dollar video poker. Had to try one last time.
Cashed out my freeplay and found a penny on heads. Into the bra you go.
Over to The D where I was on my third hundred dollar bill when thanksfully, this saved me.
I cashed out and got another penny to put in my bra. Grabbed a McMuffin from McDonalds and went back to the room.
I am checking into to Treasure Island today for 3 nights. I had to pay $60 for the third night, which is fine by me. Makes it easier with working. Also note, I am double booked for three nights at Mirage as well. That comes with $60 free play and $100 resort credit, which will cover my meals. I would have booked just Mirage, but when working from Vegas, I really like having a smoking room so I am not vanishing during work to head down to the casino to smoke while working. I feel like that is crossing an extremely degenerate line.
Good morning Las Vegas! I don’t know what time I woke up since apparently I haven’t been notating times of day on this trip. I also haven’t been checking my horoscope. I am however, still addicted to Dunkin Donuts and off to get iced coffee I go. The Dunkin Donuts at Fremont has mobile ordering (shhh, don’t tell anyone!) but they will make your coffee, clearly see someone standing under the sign “pick up mobile orders here” and never check to see if maybe this coffee is yours. I always have to ask someone to hand it to me.
I went to The D to finish up the Las Vegas Advisor coupon. My first $20 got me a win, the rest, not so much.
I played Cleopatra Keno, some more video poker, including single line quarter Ultimate X video poker. I lost my lighter, which pissed me off since it was from Turkey. I played Buffalo and a whole lot of nothing. Time to give up.
The Las Vegas Advisor coupon got me $50 and I lost that in Buffalo. This is where I should have left and instead, played Dancing Drums. This is why we have bad habits. We get rewarded.
Yes, another old Las Vegas trip report. Imagine my surprise when looking in my drafts and seeing this one mostly set up and just never posted. I am kind of hoping it is all typed out so I don’t have to go foraging for my notes to complete it. This trip took place in June of 2022.
I booked this trip before leaving for my 10 week Europe trip. I flew to Vegas just 10 days after arriving home. Some people thought this was too much but I personally thought ten days home was too much so…
I flew first class on Delta because I am now fancy like that. I went through security a bit earlier (for me) than normal because it took me awhile to realize that first class tickets come with first class lounge access and I could stock up on a million tiny bottles of water so that I didn’t have to go outside in the desert to find water when I arrived. Las Vegas is really no longer a 24 hour town and of course you can find a Walgreens or CVS nearby. But who wants to walk to anything “nearby” in 110 degree heat when you have to be “at” work in a couple of hours?
Well that did backfire because the line to get into the lounge was incredibly long. But it also worked to my benefit because I actually got to get Dunkin Donuts at the airport. It is normally closed. This time, they closed the “door” (actually a metal fence) behind me as I left. Score!
Somehow I have never posted about my journey through Tibet to see Mount Everest. I did post about my 24 hour train ride to Lhasa, which you can find HERE. But never anything else about my trip, not even about seeing Mount Everest with my own eyes.
I always think this has something to do with me deleting everything I typed up in Lhasa, once I got down to sea level. The altitude in Lhasa is 11,995 feet. When I read what I had written, it seemed to day dreamy and I felt embarrassed so I deleted all of it. I wish I had not done that.
I also have no idea where to start. This was the most epic trip I have ever taken. How do you condense that into a blog post?
If you are familiar with my blog, I tend to write more diary style than travel blogger style. I don’t include history of the places I have visited. Honestly, I learn about most of the history by reading other travel blogs. It feels like cheating to just regurgitate everything on my own blog.
But I would be remiss to not encourage you to read out more about Tibet being oppresed by China.
Here is a thing about the Tibetan Autonomous Region. It is a weird place. You cannot go alone if you are a foreigner. You cannot put “Tibet” as a place you are traveling to when applying for a China visa or else it will be automatically denied.
You absolutely must not have any photos of the Dalai Lama on you. You should walk around sacred places in a clockwise fashion. You will be asked by your guide to please don’t take off and go out on your own, or vanish on your last day, assuming you can stay and get around by yourself. Your guide is responsible for you. If you do anything wrong, they get fined.
