Jet Setter: Take that George Clooney!

I went to Vegas for 16 hours over the weekend.  There were two purposes for the trip.  One was to go see some friends who were there for the weekend for the first weekend of March madness, the second reason was to make sure I would be on a plane at least once for 12 consecutive months.  Well, I was going to fly to Vegas regardless.  I'm at a point in my life where driving to Vegas really isn't going to work for me anymore.  The 4.5 hours drive back to LA while hungover is just not worth it.  I don't recover as quickly. 

Let's discuss my crazy attempt at a 16 hour trip to Vegas.  Prior to heading to Vegas on Saturday, I worked 8 straight 13 hour days.  This consisted of being at work at 7am and not finishing up until 8 or 9 depending on how things went.  On top of slaving away, I really only slept probably a couple hours per night since I was in a hotel and not my own bed.  I should have just rested on Friday night after hell week was over to prepare myself for Vegas, but a friend was moving out of the area and wanted to celebrate.  It would have been rude of me not to go.  So like a reasonable adult, I only have like four drinks (double jacks on the rocks).  I know, I've been really hard core with my drinking lately, but I think this is due to more financial and practical reasons that my taste of pure liquor.  I was doing some maths (thank you Willow Smith for coining that term) and I realized that a jack and coke would be like $8 and so would straight up jack on the rocks.  I thought this was more cost effective as there is most alcohol and even less calories.  Just sayin...so for all you calorie counters, just drink your liquor straight up and then throw it up afterwards, you know you want to.  I left the club around 2am and when all was said and done, it was probably 3am when I went to bed.  I was up four hours later (probably still drunk) and getting ready to head to the airport.

I arrived at the airport with not a single piece of luggage, I figured since I was only going to be in Vegas for 16 hours, I would just roll in with a jacket, jeans, and some Toms.  I didn't even bother to wear socks.  When I landed, I proceeded to the Wicked Spoon where I met my group and closed down brunch.  I know, I seem to have that ability everywhere I go.  The food was amazing as far as buffets are concerned, but the best part was that bottomless mimosas for only $9 more to your tab.  Between the seven of us, we had over 50 glasses of mimosas in what was only maybe a 2.5 hour span of time.  I wanted to die at that point already. 

Count those glasses. I dare you!

 After brunch, the rest of them wanted to gamble and I had no desire to do so.  It's not that I'm not a gambling man, but I figured that since I was only around for 16 hours, I would be able to do things that didn't require gambling.  Like I said, I had a long week, so I went for some R&R at the Canyon Ranch Spa at the Venetian.  I basically took a nap and detoxed for two hours.

I like how when people have gone to college, they never actually leave college.  I met up with the group at their suites at the Vdara.  It was off the strip and had no casino, but it felt awesome to go into a hotel that didn't welcome you with cigarette smoke.  It smelled clean and fresh.  I was sitting on the sofa watching Gonzaga get upset and all of a sudden someone decided they wanted to play Rage Cage.  You don't know what that is?  Well, here are the rules and here's a video.  After playing two rounds of this, it was probably second point of the night where I wanted to die.

Dinner reservations were at 9:30pm at Hofbrauhaus.  It's like German or something.  I should have known it was going to be quite the shit show when I was able to hear from the outside the MC saying "that's 21 nipples in a row!"  Funny, and here I thought nipples came in pairs.  The only thing you need to know is that one liter is equal to three beers in case you ever want to get the liter.  They also had the boot which I thought was just unnecessary.  I hate Vegas.

1 Liter = 3 beers

 For those of you who made fun of me for just walking on the plane and being a potential terrorist, doing saved me.  Sure, I might be on some TSA watch list because I just rolled up at the airport with no luggage and I ethnic, but at least I bought a round trip ticket.  I didn't have shoes that would get me into the club that night.  XS was the location and I forgot how in like fancy straight clubs, you actually need to like wear shoes and look dressy.  I'm just so used to wear v-necks and skinny jeans and cute sneakers.  Let's not even go there with the admissions into the club which is dependent on the guy/girl ratio.  Who wants to deal with that?  Who wants to even get dressed up so some bouncer (who is usually fat and ugly) can treat you like shit at the door?  I really don't have that kind of patience.  I barely have enough patience to wait on a line that's probably only five minutes long much less to say an hour with the potential of not even getting in.

My old age got to me and I went back to the room to catch a 2 hour nap before I head back to the airport.  Two hours later, it was the third time I felt like I wanted to die.  I boarded the plane and shut my phone off and put on my seat belt.  I woke up to us landing at LAX an hour later.  It's an awful feeling waking up to a plane landing, you're not quite sure what's happening.  Oh, my day was not over at 7AM that morning.  I had to kill a little over three hours since a good friend from college was flying in from North Dakota and had a layover at LAX before heading to Korea.  Let's just say, I slept at the airport for three hours and then woke up to other guys sleeping next to me.  At least I got this picture!

So let's recap the year starting with me on a plane starting with April 2012:

April 2012: RT Los Angeles to Austin, TX (work trip)
May 2012: RT Los Angeles to San Francisco (family trip)
June 2012: RT Los Angeles to NYC (work trip)
July 2012 (1): Los Angeles to Maui, Maui to Honolulu, Honolulu to Los Angeles (vacation)
July 2012 (2): RT Los Angeles to Las Vegas (weekend getaway with the boys)
August 2012: Los Angeles to NYC (saying good-bye to the Jew before she moves to Israel)
September 2012 (1): NYC to Los Angeles (what's carried over from saying good-bye to the Jew)
September 2012 (2): LA to Atlanta, Fayetteville, NC, Newark, NJ, and NYC (work and personal trip)
October 2012: RT Los Angeles to Sacramento (work trip, obviously!)
November 2012: Europe! (Rome, Brussels, London) That's how I roll when I turn 30.
December 2012: RT Los Angeles to NYC (home for the holidays)
January 2013: RT Los Angeles to Orlando (again, obviously work related)
February 2013: RT Los Angeles to NYC (Chinese New Year)
March 2013: RT Los Angeles to Las Vegas (16 hour rage fest)

Oh, why don't I just show off and mention that I'll be on a plane again in April for a work trip to Orlando and NYC.