Vegas, Baby!
I've been thinking about writing this for too long. I've started putting it down in my physical journal, but it didn't feel right just yet.
I still don't think it feel right. It's too surreal and fresh out of my TV screen,
But it happened.
We had had enough and needed to get away. I flipped through listings for cabins up on the mountain, but decided that the cold really wasn't a good idea for either of us. I texted my mom and jokingly asked if she would pay for us to go to Vegas. No, but she would watch the kids. Was it doable? Could we really make it to Vegas? I remembered years back I had booked a hotel in Vegas for my parents as a birthday gift to my mom. It was very reasonable.
I did it. I found a hotel suite with a hot tub in it for a reasonable price. I picked dates during Spring Break since the kids would be out of school and mom wouldn't have to shuffle them there and back for the three days we'd be gone.
Six am on St Patricks Day came pretty fast, despite me counting down for the last week. It had been about 7 years since we had a weekend getaway with no kids or no responsibilities. See, we were truly over due.
The drive there wasn't that bad, even though everyone told us it would be boring.
Out first stop was in Boulder City to visit Tom Devlin's Monster Museum. It was a little piece of heaven for horror lovers like us. When we were done, we ate Panda Express in the back of our car since restaurants were take out only. COVID had hit harder in Nevada than it had in Arizona. That didn't stop us from taking this much needed trip.
Fast forward to St Patricks evening. I had visions of drunken fun being able to even walk down a half empty strip just to see what there was to see. Instead, we were in a British pub, in dead silence for a second before all the TVs turned to the same station and the governor's words rang out. Everything non essential would be closed as of noon the next day. People were to stay at home.
Well, shit.
Driving back to the hotel (because fuck going anywhere else at this point) was a string of quick stops with zero traffic. First stop was Target since mom was texting me to find toilet paper. Yeah, Arizona was leading the toilet paper shortage of 2020. I guess everyone was expecting COVID to cause severe diarrhea or something along those lines. We struck out on paper products of any type and were awestruck at the empty shelves all around the store. We settled on dog food and cat food since those were dwindling almost as fast as shit tickets.
Leaving Target, I think the fear started setting in a little bit. We were living in a movie. What happens in movies like this? People go fucking crazy. No, really, FUCKING CRAZY. You know, what I'm talking about, right? Because if not, we have some movies to watch together.
Anyway.... back to the fear. It wasn't fear like, fuck, we're stuck here and gonna die. It was just the state of the world at that moment. Away to a sporting goods store we drove.
I picked out a kids Louisville maple slugger. It was small and light and felt like I could take out a few zombies or some shit with it. That wasn't enough for me. I've carried a pocked knife for as long as I can remember. It was time for an upgrade. I got a nicely balanced Smith & Wesson that fit perfectly in the inner pocket of my favorite denim jacket. We were apparently the only people buying "normal" things at the sporting goods store. It was an odd comment from the employee there, but then we heard the cashier answering the phone and repeatedly telling callers that they were out of ammo.
Oh shit.
I guess in hindsight it wasn't that bad. I don't think we overreacted. I think the state of this mess is just a huge shit storm. At this point it doesn't matter where COVID came from or my conspiracy theories about just which country engineered this shit. It matters how we get to the other side of the shit pond we're standing in front of.
Well... maybe that doesn't matter too much yet. It seems to be more important right now how we treat each other and that we all do our part to follow the "stay the fuck at home" guidelines. I don't know what's to come and we're all in that same boat. Good thing I can swim.
I still don't think it feel right. It's too surreal and fresh out of my TV screen,
But it happened.
We had had enough and needed to get away. I flipped through listings for cabins up on the mountain, but decided that the cold really wasn't a good idea for either of us. I texted my mom and jokingly asked if she would pay for us to go to Vegas. No, but she would watch the kids. Was it doable? Could we really make it to Vegas? I remembered years back I had booked a hotel in Vegas for my parents as a birthday gift to my mom. It was very reasonable.
I did it. I found a hotel suite with a hot tub in it for a reasonable price. I picked dates during Spring Break since the kids would be out of school and mom wouldn't have to shuffle them there and back for the three days we'd be gone.
Six am on St Patricks Day came pretty fast, despite me counting down for the last week. It had been about 7 years since we had a weekend getaway with no kids or no responsibilities. See, we were truly over due.
The drive there wasn't that bad, even though everyone told us it would be boring.
Out first stop was in Boulder City to visit Tom Devlin's Monster Museum. It was a little piece of heaven for horror lovers like us. When we were done, we ate Panda Express in the back of our car since restaurants were take out only. COVID had hit harder in Nevada than it had in Arizona. That didn't stop us from taking this much needed trip.
Fast forward to St Patricks evening. I had visions of drunken fun being able to even walk down a half empty strip just to see what there was to see. Instead, we were in a British pub, in dead silence for a second before all the TVs turned to the same station and the governor's words rang out. Everything non essential would be closed as of noon the next day. People were to stay at home.
Well, shit.
Driving back to the hotel (because fuck going anywhere else at this point) was a string of quick stops with zero traffic. First stop was Target since mom was texting me to find toilet paper. Yeah, Arizona was leading the toilet paper shortage of 2020. I guess everyone was expecting COVID to cause severe diarrhea or something along those lines. We struck out on paper products of any type and were awestruck at the empty shelves all around the store. We settled on dog food and cat food since those were dwindling almost as fast as shit tickets.
Leaving Target, I think the fear started setting in a little bit. We were living in a movie. What happens in movies like this? People go fucking crazy. No, really, FUCKING CRAZY. You know, what I'm talking about, right? Because if not, we have some movies to watch together.
Anyway.... back to the fear. It wasn't fear like, fuck, we're stuck here and gonna die. It was just the state of the world at that moment. Away to a sporting goods store we drove.
I picked out a kids Louisville maple slugger. It was small and light and felt like I could take out a few zombies or some shit with it. That wasn't enough for me. I've carried a pocked knife for as long as I can remember. It was time for an upgrade. I got a nicely balanced Smith & Wesson that fit perfectly in the inner pocket of my favorite denim jacket. We were apparently the only people buying "normal" things at the sporting goods store. It was an odd comment from the employee there, but then we heard the cashier answering the phone and repeatedly telling callers that they were out of ammo.
Oh shit.
I guess in hindsight it wasn't that bad. I don't think we overreacted. I think the state of this mess is just a huge shit storm. At this point it doesn't matter where COVID came from or my conspiracy theories about just which country engineered this shit. It matters how we get to the other side of the shit pond we're standing in front of.
Well... maybe that doesn't matter too much yet. It seems to be more important right now how we treat each other and that we all do our part to follow the "stay the fuck at home" guidelines. I don't know what's to come and we're all in that same boat. Good thing I can swim.
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