First, of all, my computer received a bad virus while connected to the Planet Hollywood wireless network, so if I can actually type this before my computer restarts, consider it very lucky. Hopefully my computer will be able to hold up the rest of the trip so I can continue the updates.

The first two days of this trip were awesome. Then came Sunday, the day of saying goodbye to Las Vegas and attempting to get to San Francisco. I have officially flown on Southwest Airlines for the first and last time.
The day started off well enough. Lauren and I ordered in some room service breakfast and ate while watching the first NFL playoff game of the day, which started at 10am Pacific Time. We packed our things and sent our luggage to the bellhop service since we had a few hours to kill between hotel checkout and flight time. We wandered down to the Venetian to collect Lauren’s winnings from betting on the Chargers, then killed some time in the casino where I won another $50 or so. I figure I came out on top $100 altogether gambling! We stationed ourselves at a sports bar and watched the Vikings game for a while, then it was time to head to the airport.

Like I said earlier, I have never been apart from Lauren for more than two nighst since we first met, so I was sure it would be a sad goodbye at the airport when we had to go our separate ways. Sure enough, it was an emotional goodbye as Lauren headed for Gate C to board her plane back home, while I headed to Gate D to head on to San Francisco. It was about the same feeling I had when I had to go DJ a wedding in a cave the day after our engagement! I had a long time to wait for my 7:00 flight, so I read over half of Moneyball. Just when it looked like it was time to board, the flight was delayed an hour.

Once I finally boarded the plane and we had left the ground, the plane started shaking pretty bad. People were told to sit in their seats, fasten their seat belts, and everyone was given the rundown once again on flotation devices and oxygen masks. The bumpiness was really bad. The stewardesses couldn’t even stand up in the aisles. There were some panicky people on the plane. I tried to remain calm and kept on reading my book. The entire flight was like that until we finally started descension into SFO.

We had finally landed around 10pm, and I was anxiously waiting to grab my suitcase and head for the hotel. Of course, it couldn’t be that simple. I, and everyone else who checked our luggage curbside, discovered our luggage never arrived. All told it was about 25 to 30 people angrily standing in line at the luggage counter.

After two long hours, the luggage came in on the next flight from Vegas and I was rewarded a $75 Southwest travel voucher, as if I’ll even use it. Too tired to wait in line for the hotel shuttle, I just flagged down a cab. A man in a towncar pulled up and asked if I needed a cab, so I hopped in. The grand total on my five-minute ride to the Best Western was $45! I couldn’t believe it. But I was too tired to argue and just forked it over and checked in. It’s now 12:11am here and I’m about to go to sleep.

So, overall… It really was a miserable day once I got to the airport. I really had my suspicions that today would be like this. I had even considered mailing my luggage I’d need for the trade show to myself before I left home just to ensure this wouldn’t happen, but I backed out at the last minute and just checked it like everyone else. I’ll certainly miss Lauren over the next week, but I guess some people have it much worse off, being shipped off to Iraq or jail or something. I’m just at a conference for Macintosh, and in a fun city. So, hopefully things will improve as the week goes on.