1st Solo Trip to Vegas – picture heavy.

The first thing I did was unpack and get out of my sweaty clothes.  Vegas is HOT AF in June.  I had a couple of drinks in the room and then got redressed and ventured downstairs in search of dinner.  I already knew what I wanted and where I wanted it.
I got to Hash House A Go Go and ordered a BBBLT and sweet potato fries to go.

The BBBLT is basically a BLT, with a crap-ton of bacon on it.  It was gooooood!
I tried to play some gamble, but I was just too tired.

I headed up to my room and watched some crappy TV until I fell alseep.
My grocery delivery from Von’s was set for the hour block between 11:00 AM and Noon.  I set my alarm for 10:30 and snoozed it a few times.  It was not enough sleep.  I managed to peel myself out of bed five before eleven, brush my teeth and hair and throw on last nights clothes in preparation for my impending delivery.
Around 11:45 I’m beginning to get a little worried.  By 12:30 I am on the phone with the help line from the Von’s delivery website.  After about ten minutes on hold I get a nice customer service woman that informs me that they had IT issues early in the day and the delivery guy will be leaving the store in about fifteen minutes.  I am fifth in line for delivery.  I asked for an ETA and she said at least two hours.
Okay fine.  I’m not happy about it and I wish they would have called the customers to let them know there was a delay, but there isn’t much I can do at that point and now I know I can at least shower.
Which I do, and then I headed downstairs to the gift store to get some crackers and a ginger ale.  I didn’t want to buy too much because I have a lot of snacks and soda and water coming from the delivery, but I needed something because I had drunk all the water in the room and needed to take my meds.
Back up in the room, I had what was leftover of my sandwich from the night before and some crackers.  I updated my social media and had some drinks.  I was really entertained by my pool view in the room.

I wasn’t that upset at the wait at that point, because part of this trip was to have some downtime…I just didn’t like the fact that I wasn’t in control of when that time would be.
Around three in the afternoon, I get a call from the delivery driver that he was about ten minutes out.
About 25 minutes later I get a call from the bell desk saying that my items had been delivered and would I like them to bring them up?  Relieved that I might be able to salvage part of the day, I say yes.
The bell desk brings up a bunch of stuff in bags as well as my 12 pack of soda and 2 six packs of water.  I chat with the gentleman as he unloads about how this is a great service and he is surprised more ppl don’t take advantage of it.  I tip him and he leaves.
I go straight to the water and soda and put some of them into the mini fridge.  I approach the rest of the bags and right away I know something is wrong.  I had ordered one large bottle of cheap vodka, a box of pop tarts, a bag of doritos, cheetos and a box of mini chocolate chip cookies in addition to the soda and water and these bags were decidedly smaller bottle shaped.
I opened everything to discover 8 bottles of champagne, 1 large bottle of merlot, a bunch of bananas, 2 limes and a half dozen roma tomatoes.
I almost cried.
I had two options.  I could pretend that nothing happened, go downstairs and get my snacks and booze and get on with my day, or I could call and report it.  What would you do?
Knowing what I know now, I would have ignored it.  However, the nature of the goods told me it was someone having a small party.  And what if it was a wedding party?  Their day has been ruined when they get my order of cheap booze and junk food!  I couldn’t stand the thought of it, so I hopped on the phone to customer service assuming that they would come right back and pick up the wrong items so they could get them to the appropriate party.
After another fifteen minutes on hold I finally got another lovely woman on the line that was very sympathetic and I went through the whole story.  We went over what I was supposed to get and what I got instead and a half an hour later she said she would have someone come pick up the wrong items but she couldn’t get a delivery out to me with my correct items until the next day between 11 AM and 1 PM.
At this point I should have said forget it, but there was nothing urgent in my order.  I had some booze with me that I had brought in my suitcase and there were plenty of food options around.  I said that was fine.  I asked if I could just leave the wrong items with the bell desk and have the driver pick them up.  She said she didn’t see why not and she would put a note in the account.
Fine.
I hang up and text my husband all that is going on and then call down to the bell desk.  I explain the situation and they inform me that they cannot just keep the items there.  They are not allowed to have food or beverage sitting around there.  They said once I hear from the driver, I am allowed to bring them down and they will deliver them to the driver.
Now I am crying.  Did I mention I was PMSing?  Yeah.  I hang up.  I am defeated.  I want to say fuck the whole thing, but now I am in it because they know I have these wrong items that are WAY more expensive than what I purchased and they have my credit card on file.
I call back the customer service line and see if I can get an ETA on the driver.  After a half an hour on hold I get a nice gentleman that tells me there is nothing on my account about someone picking them up.  We go round and round and finally he tells me that they will just pick up the items when they drop off my correct items.  I tell him to note the account and take his name and hang up.  Exhausted.
At this point it’s well into the evening and the thought of trying to “catch up” on the things I wanted to do that day was just too much for my over tired brain.  So I headed down to the casino to play some slots.
The Karma Gods were good to me that night.  The machines were keeping me above water and the cocktail service was fast.  Before I knew it it was eleven o clock, I was starving and could barely keep my eyes open.
I headed to Guy Fieri’s Kitchen and Bar and ordered the Mac N Cheese burger to go.  A cutie pie of a bartender took my order and flirted with me, ensuring a big tip.  I got my burger and headed up to my room.

Yes, that is delicious mac and cheese oozing out the top of that burger.  It was as disgustingly good as it looks.

Saturday morning I woke up at 11:00 and showered.  I packed up all the wrong items Von’s had shipped to me in my suitcase and waited for the call.  Finally at around 12:30 I get a call that the guy is ten minutes away.  He had no idea he was supposed to be picking up anything, but quickly agreed to it no problem.  I told him I would meet him down at the Valet and headed down to the entrance of the casino where the uber driver had dropped me at when I first arrived Friday morning.
Fifteen minutes later I get a call from the driver asking which valet I was at.  I told him the front entrance.  He said he was at the back valet by the High Roller.  He said to give him ten minutes and he’d come around front.
Twelve minutes later I get a call saying they won’t let him into the front valet because his truck is too big.  I told him I would come to him and call him when I get to the back valet.
Only, I couldn’t find the back valet.  I managed to find the uber pick up at the bus lobby somewhere around the side of the casino and called the guy back.  He said that he couldn’t park there either, but for me to hold tight, he was grabbing a hand truck and coming to me.  And he did.
Five minutes later a very apologetic man greeted me and we exchanged our goods.
By 1:30 I was finally done with the Von’s fiasco and delivered the correct crap up to my room.

I had a few drinks in the room and watched in amusement as there was a twerking competition at the pool from my view.

I had originally planned on seeing Menopause the Musical that day but since I had already seen it and the tickets were free, I opted out in favor of doing the Cosmo and Bellagio that I was supposed to do the day before.
I grabbed a Lyft over to The Cosmopolitan and headed up to the second floor of the Chandelier Bar.

This bar is just stunning.  It was also a very relaxing environment.  If the drinks weren’t fifteen bucks a pop I could have stayed here most of the afternoon and just chilled.  However, I was on a mission.  I bellied up to the bar and ordered my Verbena.
I had never had one before but had heard all about them.  It is their signature drink, but it is not on the menu.  It is basically a margarita.  It’s tequila, lemongrass syrup and lemon juice mostly, but the key ingredient is the Szechuan Button.

The button is actually a flower.  It’s purpose is to activate your salivary glands to make you a super taster.  Thus changing the taste of the drink with each sip.
As the bartender brought over my drink he asked if I had ever had one before.  I shook my head so he explained that I should take a sip of the drink first to get the original tasted, then I was to chew the “button” and get it all around in my mouth and tongue before swallowing the flower.  Then as it made my mouth go off like a sparkler, I should drink more of the drink and get all the different tastes.
I did as he said, tho I did not swallow the flower.  For some reason in my head I was scared of what it might do to my stomach if it was going to do funny things to my mouth.  At any rate, as I spit the flower into my napkin discreetly, I began to feel the buzz in my mouth.  Just little tingles at first that became a pins and needles sensation.  You know how it feels when you foot goes to sleep and the feeling starts to come back.  That buzzy, prickly feeling?  Yeah, that was happening to my entire mouth.

 My face after chewing the “button”

So it did alter the taste of the drink quite a bit and it was a really good experience that I am glad I tried…but I really can’t stand the taste of tequila, so I wouldn’t get it again.  I wonder if you can request the flower with other drinks…hmmm.
Once I had finished the drink and my mouth returned to normal, I paid my bill and set off for EggSlut.  I wasn’t that hungry so I got the bacon egg and cheese sandwich to go and headed over to the Bellagio.
There was a fountain show going on just as I approached.

Inside I visited the Conservatory which was done up in an Asian theme.

After that I was going to Uber back over to the Linq, but I realized I would be able to catch the hot food being served at the Diamond Lounge at Harrah’s so I had the driver take me there instead.
There was a small line, but for free food and drinks, I was willing to wait five minutes.

After I ate, I headed to the high limit slots.  Rob had wanted me to run a hundred thru a machine on so many pulls to see what I would get.  I managed to screw it up and lost the hundred pretty quickly.

I walked back to the Linq and rested in the room for a bit, before heading down to the Flamingo and gambling some more.  I gambled at the Linq and Flamingo, but the machines had dried up on me.  Knowing I had to get up in the morning for my flight and that I would be depressed if I lost anymore money, I hit up Haught Doggery for some mini corn dogs and headed back up to my room.

I packed up most of my stuff, ate and went to bed.

Sunday morning I woke up, showered and packed the rest of my crap up.
I ubered to the airport (first uber driver called me twice, couldn’t find my location AT THE UBER PICK UP and canceled the transaction) and waited around for my flight.
There was a slight delay, but once they fixed whatever the problem was, they herded us like a bunch of cattle onto the plane.  “All zones boarding!  Doors will close in five minutes!!”  Like it was our fault that the delay happened.
Once we took off I experienced some of the worst turbulence I have ever had in my life.  I know it’s bumpy going in and out of Vegas due to the extreme heat, but this was bad.  At one point I could feel the plane drop a few hundred feet all at once.  It was seriously freaking me out since I hate flying in the first place.
Finally after about fifteen minutes of being tossed around it settled into a nice smooth flight.

So that was my first solo trip to Vegas.  A very large comedy of errors.
Knowing what I know now, I would have just let the whole Von’s thing slide and gone to the CVS down the street, leaving the champagne to the hotel maid as a tip.  It would have been money lost, but in the long run my time would have been better spent on such a short trip.
But hindsight is 20/20 and at the time I thought I was doing the right thing.
I still had fun, it just wasn’t the fantastic weekend I had planned for myself.
Either way, Vegas is out of my system for now and I will do whatever I didn’t do this trip when we go for a week in November.