And I say that with a strong input of sarcasm. I have had a bit of a rough start to this trip.
It started with getting up at 2:15 this morning in order to drive to Charlotte to catch our flight. The drive was fine and, thankfully, I didn’t have to drive. But once we were all checked in and boarding our flight, the attendant told me my carry-on was too big and I would have to check it, because it was a full flight and there wouldn’t be room. Now I purposely packed everything in my carry-on so I wouldn’t have to worry about the bag not making it. So now, everything I needed for this weekend was going to be taken away. Too top it off, once we were seated on the plane, there were three overhead compartments that were only half full.
Then, I decided to not dwell on it, but to relax and try to sleep. But of corse I ended up sitting in from of a kid who was apparently practicing his Riverdance skills on the back of my chair. Two hours of non-stop kicking. It only stopped then because I moved farther back in the plane. But of course, back there was a person flying with a cat that meowed insistently.
We had a long layover in Salt Lake City, but I had a monstrous headache and felt pretty nauseous, so I wasn’t much good there.
We arrived safely in Las Vegas, and my bag arrived with us! We landed at 2:15 and had to meet with our group for packet pick-up at 4:30. You would like that over two hours to get to the hotel and take a quick shower would be easy, but our shuttle driver was pretty slow and we didn’t pull away from airport until 3:00. And it took us another 45 minutes to get to The Venetian. If you have ever stayed at the hotel, you must know how much of a maze it is. It took me another 20 minutes just to find the room and definitely did not have enough time to clean up. I took a lightening fast shower and went to get our race stuff with my hair wet.
After getting our race stuff, I did get the chance to really get myself ready. So we met with the group for dinner at Postrio Bar & Grill. Great food, even though our server was kind of rude. I think she didn’t like the fact that the group of 9 of us weren’t drinking anything. (But hey! We’ve got a race to run this weekend!) I didn’t want to carry my purse so I put my money in my phone case. I took a $100 bill to break it, but the server gave me back a bunch of $1s and $5s, so it wouldn’t fit in my phone case so I put it in my pocket. Well, by the time I got to the lobby I realized that my money didn’t make it with me. I retraced my steps the best I could, but let’s be honest, I’m in Vegas.
So I’m feeling a little defeated today. But I’m not telling you all of this to complain or make you feel sorry for me. I’m telling you because, for one, it’s just the honest truth. And secondly, because even though things haven’t gone the way I planned, I’m not going to let it hold me back. I’m going to work my hardest this weekend and rise above these challenges. But for now, I’m going to go to sleep and put this long, awful day behind me.