Back home after a weekend in Vegas and I am grateful for many of the small creature comforts that I tend to take for granted. Silly things like having continual and constant access to water, safe food, my own bed, pillows, and extra clothes if I want/need them. Things like the absence of snoring or rowdy passengers on my flights there and back, my credit card was charged $187.10 at a restaurant I ate at, a friend of mine is getting a free meal out of it, but that doesn't really help me. The money is going back on my card, but it's frustrating and upsetting even though I realize that everyone makes mistakes. The Midwest is much friendlier than Vegas, there were several people who took advantage of me and tried pushing me around including the cab driver who was very unpleasant when he felt I wasn't tipping him enough.
I'm reaching a tipping point at work and this may have been the last straw. I'm going to speak to my manager about this, I was given a $200 credit card to cover my expenses, that didn't even cover my flight there not to mention cab fare, parking back home, meals, or things like the aforementioned water. The hotel wasn't in Vegas proper, it was out in Summerlin. I guess people got wise to hosting conferences on the strip and realized that a lot of people would just bag the seminar and go golfing or goof around in other ways. I learned a lot, and the culture was interesting, but I could have just as easily done webinars or reading on my own. I know how to sell more of these products and will probably buy some of them myself. I got a sample of lip balm which was a welcome sight in my goodie bag.
I left the bag and a lot of the rest of it in the trash before I left. I have a very small overnight bag and the stuff I already had took up most of the room in there. One thing I'm happy about is how I handled food before I left. I have these interlocking stacking containers that I used for snacks. That ended up being a great move and I'm glad I had three of them. I could have done a better job of planning, but I saved some money and avoided potential illness/frustration by having what I did along. Another smart thing I did was realize that regardless of the temperature outside, the conference room was going to be frigid. At break I went upstairs and got my sweatshirt. I don't make enough to sit and shiver for eight hours a day.
Something I would do differently is eat when I'm hungry instead of when meals are served. I ate a breakfast I didn't want thinking I should, ate lunch, and missed part of the conference because my stomach let me know that it was supper time back home. I found a cafe that sold me eggs as a side with a fruit plate. That saved me some money and I was very thankful that my server pointed out that combination as I wouldn't have seen it on the menu. I tried to stay off of my phone, but I didn't have a lot to do other than read/relax at the hotel so I probably went online more than I think that I did. My wake/sleep schedule is a total mess, if I ever get sent on a trip like this again I'm going to tell them I need an extra day to recharge and actually do some sightseeing.
There's more that I want to write, but I'm extremely tired since I couldn't sleep on the flight home. I detest flying. I'm always uncomfortable and can't sleep no matter how hard I try. Frontier was the airline with the best prices so I chose that one, they've cut every corner they could and then some. I didn't think the flight attendants were particularly friendly, and the tray tables are a complete joke. Friends of mine who fly frequently complain about the lack of room in the seats, I'm only five feet tall, I can't imagine what larger people go through on some of these flights. The Frontier app worked on my way out, but didn't on the way back which was annoying. I deleted it off my phone and hopefully won't ever have reason to install it again.
I met up with a friend who treated me to lunch, that was unexpected and appreciated. He took me downtown and showed me around there. I saw the container park and the Zappos building. It still astounds me that people order shoes online to the extent that they do. Sometimes I wonder if eventually all regular shoe stores will become a thing of the past. Speaking of shoe stores I stopped in one while I was there. I used to work for that company, they've cut out most of the brands they used to carry in favor of a proprietary which is a cheaper copy of what better brands are selling. Stuff like that ticks me off since I feel like it's cheating to tweak a design that someone else originated, but they never were sterling models of integrity. Overall I'm giving this trip a B-, could have been better, could have been much, much worse.
Praying this finds you well,
J