Viva Las Vegas! I am checking in from Sin City today but I can guarantee that I have been staying out of trouble. I am here for an HR conference after all. I flew out yesterday morning. It was so sad leaving my family! As they were dropping me off at the airport, Leah started crying and kept saying “Mommy, mommy, mommy.” It broke my heart to say goodbye. I’ve never been gone this long from my daughter. I didn’t think I would cry, but I was really sad when they drove away. It is going to be so hard when Rob and I both leave her when we go on vacation.
The flight was pretty uneventful. I started reading “Something Borrowed” and it made the time pass fairly quickly. Ashley, my good friend and coworker was also on my flight so our chit-chatting also helped the flight go by fast. After we landed, we headed over to baggage claim to gather our luggage. Ashley’s bag popped out after a few minutes. I continued to wait for mine to appear. It never did. I started to panic and feel a bit angry that my luggage may have gotten lost. I marched over to the American Airlines Baggage Services counter to find out what was going on. The woman behind the counter was definitely not a big help. She was not sympathetic or friendly and I had a very hard time understanding her. I was able to gather that my luggage ended up in Orlando. How the heck did it get there!? They told me that it would be included on the next flight out to Las Vegas. That flight would not arrive until 10:27 pm. Yikes! We arrived in Vegas at 11:30 am! I was going to have to go the whole day with no “stuff. ” They told me that once it arrived it would be delivered to my hotel, but it probably wouldn’t get to me until at least midnight or even later. I threw a little bit of a fit and they gave me an allowance of $100 to spend on necessities to get me by for the day.
We left the airport and headed to our hotel. We were staying at the Wynn. (It is such a nice hotel!!) Check-in wasn’t until 3:00 but we thought maybe we could do an early check-in. No such luck. Apparently, they were over 30 staff short that day and our rooms probably wouldn’t be ready until 5:00 pm. So not only did I not have my luggage but we wouldn’t be able to get into our rooms for 5 hours. It is ridiculously hot here too! It was 105 when we arrived. To pass the time we decided to go check out the pool(s). They were amazing! They had a restaurant located poolside that had umbrellas to block the sun which also had misters pushing out light spurts of water to keep us cool. We had lunch and kicked back a little. After lunch, Ashley and I decided to walk around. There is a mall right across the street from our hotel. I needed to pick up a few toiletries in case my luggage didn’t make it as expected. We finally got a call that our rooms were ready so we checked into the hotel. After relaxing for a bit we met one of our bosses (Mark) out for dinner. (He was also here for the conference). Since I didn’t have any of my stuff, I didn’t get a chance to change or freshen up before we left. I was feeling pretty gross (since it was so hot and we did a lot of walking around).
After dinner we decided to come back to the hotel. It was about 9:30 pm and I decided that I was going to go to the airport to try and get my luggage instead of waiting around for someone to deliver it to me. I didn’t have any pj’s or face wash or contact solution and I really just wanted to have my stuff! By the time I took a cab and got to the airport, I only had to wait about 20 minutes for the Orlando flight to arrive. The baggage started coming out and luckily mine was about the 5th suitcase to be spit out onto the carousel. Yay! I finally got my stuff back. It was such a feeling of relief. I’ve never lost my luggage before and it was such a bad feeling when I didn’t have it. I am just thankful that it showed up that night. I had the first day of the conference the next day and I don’t know what I would have done. I took another cab back to the hotel and arrived around 11:30 pm. My body was definitely not use to the time change. It is 2 hours behind here. So when I arrived at 11:30, it was really 1:30 am Chicago-time. It was time for bed!
Today was the first day of the SHRM (Society for Human Resources Management) Conference over at the Las Vegas Convention Center. It was a long day. They have several guest speakers this year. Arianna Huffington (from the Huffington Post) opened up the sessions today. Michael J. Fox is speaking on Wednesday. They even have Keith Urban performing tomorrow. SHRM sure does know how to get down. J After the conference, I came back to the hotel to discover my amazing husband had sent me roses and chocolate covered strawberries to my hotel room, along with a very sweet card. Today happens to be our 2nd wedding anniversary. I am bummed that I had to be away but we are planning to make up for it and celebrate this coming weekend. I talked to Rob earlier and he said Leah woke up in the middle of the night calling for me. It made me sad. I sure can’t wait to see my baby girl. Rob also mentioned he has a new appreciation for me with how much work it is to take care of our daughter. He’s been doing it and now knows what I go through.
Tonight Ashley, Mark and I went out for a nice dinner at our hotel. After we ate, we gambled a little bit. Rob gave me $40 before I left and told me to put it all on black. I did. I lost. It was over in less than a minute. That is why I hate gambling! We were all pooped and decided to call it a night. We have another long day ahead of us. After the conference tomorrow, we have tickets to go see Mystere (Cirque Du Soleil) at Treasure Island. It should be fun! Another day and a half in Vegas and then I’ll be home. While it was fun to get away, I miss Rob and Leah!
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