Robby and Jacob: Vegas

I had an unexpected trip to Vegas on August 20th. I was called for an interview at the new casino opening in November for the 22nd. Luckily, my parents had a free ticket, which I "bought" from them so I didn't have to pay the outrageous price for last minute flights.

My day of departure was very hectic. I wasn't packed (which is not normal for me), the boys had follow up appointments for their ear surgeries. Everything looks great and Jacob had another hearing test and passed with flying colors! I knew he was just tired the day he flunked it at the UW.

Traffic was horrible going to the airport and I almost missed my flight, which was the last one out. I was asking people for cuts in line, which I've never done before. It took me over 2 hours to get there and I took the wrong exit (actually two wrong ones) to go to the place where I was going to park the car. It was raining so hard, I couldn't see the signs through the windshield.

So, after racing through the airport, like OJ Simpson in the Hertz commercial, I made it fine because the plane hadn't even landed yet!

Filbea picked me up in Vegas and we just went to her place and talked for a while and then I crashed.

The next day I went and got a rental car and drove out to the casino, by my old house (hoping it was for sale) and just checking out new areas. Had a nice Chinese lunch w/ Filbea and saw Elizabeth and her two kids Jacqueline (almost 2 years) and Landon (3 months) for the first time. Cathy was with Elizabeth at the pool with her 3 year old- Callie....Who I didn't even know existed! That was a fun surprise. I just had a quick visit with them because Fibea's boyfriend, Jeff, was taking us out for a nice steak dinner. We had a great dinner and it was nice to meet Jeff for the first time. They went to listen to music after dinner and I played my $20 in the video poker machine for about 20-30 minutes. I was so tired and just wanted to sleep.

The interview went all...the best I could tell. It lasted 2 hours and I was told to take a drug test afterwards. Almost all of the casinos drug test employees before hiring them....that was a good sign they did that, because others that went through the 2 hour process with me didn't get asked to take a test, so they aren't testing those they aren't interested in.

After running some errands, I went to the pool with Eliz, Cathy & kids and had a great time catching up with them. The only bad thing was I packed so quickly, my bathing suit didn't make it into the suitcase (although it was the first thing I got out of my drawers, but it stayed on top of my dresser w/ the shorts I pulled out). So, I had one pair of shorts w/ me and my cell phone was in my pocket as I went into the pool! After less than 24 hours it was working again. Below are pictures from our day at the pool. I should have taken more, but I got video too.

That night (Friday) I went to a new place w/ Eliz, Cathy and kids (and Cathy's husband) where they had a great play area for the kids and then a one man band in the park area, where we sat and ate pretzels. It was very relaxing, but I really wanted Robby and Jacob to be with me. I was missing them terribly the entire time I was gone, but especially that night. Went back to Filbea's and talked until about 1am and then crashed.

I stopped by to see her boyfriend working before I headed to the car rental return spot, but it took me much longer than expected. I was very late for my flight (Again!) and I walked on the plane w/ the pilot as they were closing the door. My suitcase didn't luck out and didn't arrive in Seattle until 10:30 that night, so I had to pick it up on Sunday. I'm always early, so to be late twice is very unusual.

I went to my Mom & Dad's to pick up the boys and it was so great to see them again. Robby came crawling up to me, but Jacob did his little scream and then wouldn't come to me for quite a while. More on this night in the next blog.