A stream of interesting events - Part 1

Thursday

I was taking a tour bus there. They charge you $20 USD to and from Las Vegas, a 4 hour drive. Paid up front, so all I had to remember to do is keep the recipt, and get to the places on time (foreshadowing oooo~). Anyways, the schedule was this:

Departure from San Gabriel: 7:30am

On my way out, I forget one of my favorite DS games. It's only important because with the hours I'll have to spend alone, I'd like something that could keep me entertained for hours on end, potentially (The game in question is Advance Wars DS). Also, prior to this event, I purchased Bomberman DS, which was $15 USD at Best Buy, a bargain for a game I was eventually going to own anyways (waited over half a year to see the price drop from $35 USD). Bomberman is fun multiplayer, the single player, as always, is medeocre (how does one spell this word? 2 points for the first person to tell me). Anyways, we go back and get it, and still manage to arrive on time. Then this discussion was to be had between my mother and myself:

"You have everything?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Chargers?" (Phone, DS, etc)
"Yeah."
"Tooth brush?"
"Yeah, I got that."
"Ok, good. Get out your money."
"Ok sure, I'll just... omg, I left my wallet in my other pants sonovabitch."

Fuck! We race home, and the next stop for the bus is a distance aways. We have 40 min to get home (opposite direction) then back to the new stop. We manage to arrive 4 minutes early or something, as it was about to leave. I get on, and everything is cool. I got my chargers, toothbrush, walet (containing money and plastic money, as well as ID and random things like movie ticket stubs). I purposefully cut out sleep the night before (slept at 3am, got up at 6am) so that I could sleep on the bus. I'm not really one for napping, so this was good. I was tired, and we had one or two more stops on the way there. The bus was pretty full, so I grabbed one of the only seats left that had an empty seat next to it. I had an assigned seat number of 18, but everything was filled up till 26 (my seat) at the earliest. So, I guess they didn't really care about assigned seating. Boy was I wrong. At the next stop, they asked me to move to another seat, because a woman and her child wanted to sit next to each other. So I was moved to... well, next to a less than groomed individual (the inside seat too, so no escape).

His hair was unkept, long beard and mustache, frayed and unbrushed, and he had a distinct habit of cradling a 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola with him, upside down for some reason. This meant two things:

1) His elbow was proped out towards me, violating the line that says where my seat ends and his begins
2) I was greeted with his elbow, one with sores and bumps that... well, I had to set my bag next to him.

This, combined with the fact that during the whole trip, never once did I hear him speak. Never even when spoken to. He was a creepy indiviual. Oh, and he had quite a large and visible ammount of ear wax building up, that I feared would just fall out at anytime and taint me with some sort of creepy old guy powers.

1 hour into the trip. I'm awaken with the bus slowing down. Not knowing what time it was (initially) I assumed it was our pit stop (only stop before Las Vegas). I was mistaken. See, the bus was having problems... and that meant it had to stop... we awaited aid from the travel company which owns and runs this tour bus and it's tour... but sadly, they were leaving us unanswered. For a good hour and a half, we had no real answers, and we (the passengers) didn't even know why we stopped. We were told later, that there was a computer malfunction.

See, this was a newer bus (3rd day out), and it had a computer controlled system... that was broken and wouldn't let the bus out of 1st gear. Oh Joy, 200+ miles in 1st gear, yippie. Ok, so we sit. They can leave the engine (which means AC) on because there's no real engine problem. But we're forced to wait for 3+ hours (meaning when I was suppose to arrive, 2pm, is now pushed back to 5pm at the earliest). I keep my cool, there's nothing I can do about it, I'm not one to get emotionally stressed over things like this.

However, the travel company lied to us. They said they were sending help (this was initially, at the beginning of the 3 hour wait) and when contacted, told others that "the bus has been fixed and is on it's way already). My mom called and asked how things were, I told her, and she was angry. She called the travel company and they said "Yeah, they're already taken care of." She calls me back and asks, and I reply "Nope, still sitting here, nobody is here to help us." So, eventually, one of the couples in the front (older pair) grew angry and fed up. The driver was also angry for being left in the dust, and in the desert with a bus that didn't work properly, and not recieving aid.

The travel company was dodging us, and not claiming responsibility for 3 hours missed. The last 30 minutes of which had no AC because the engine needed to be turned off to be fixed. Not good. And by not good, I meant the guy next to me doesn't look like he's showered in a few decades. We write down our names, seat numbers, and phone numbers for the couple who are calling a lawyer to find some sort of compensation for our delay, which they're trying to shrug off as nothing at all; fuck you company, that's 3 hours I could have seen my girlfreind before she had to get to work >:( Anyways, hopefully we hear from them soon.

We arrive at the pit stop, for food, bathroom, etc. I can't find a short line for anything (food, bathroom, etc) so I eat at the place with the shorest line and get some mildly satisfying food, use the bathroom after everyone was taken care of, and as I go walk around the area (small indoor plaza with foods and shops for bus stops), I see my neighbor the creepy old guy ordering from Panda Express. I wasn't close enough to see if he was talking, or hear for that matter. He had enough hair on his face that he could have hid it anyways.

We get back on the bus, and he... well, to say he eats like a slob is putting down slobs. He had food in his mustache, and he ate with his elbow (right elbow) pointed out (which was at me, on his right side, *gags*). He ate noisily, and wasn't quite the cleanest of eaters. I lost my apetite sitting next to him. I tried getting some sleep. Eventually, I was able to get to Las Vegas (finally), and get to see Tasha. We met in China Town (3rd and final stop on the Bus Tour, the first two were Tropicana and Harrahs. For those of you who don't know, those two are big hotels and casinos on the strip, while China Town is west of the strip by a good distance and not part of the fancy light show that is "Las Vegas". In fact, Las Vegas is a huge city, and the strip is only one part of it. Over the course of the last year or two, I've come to discover other parts of Las Vegas, and can find myself around town pretty good... as long as I don't have to memorize names. Streets are plentiful, and names are ... well, they're not my strong point. But anyways:

She had work at 6:45pm, and rather than stay at my hotel (scheduled 2 nights there, and 1 night at her place with her parents), they invited me to stay the first night there as well. I agree, of course, anything to spend more time with her. However, she had work till 11. That meant I was unable to do anything with her for a long time.

I went to a local Gamestop (note, since I took a bus, I had no ride. Vegas is huge, so I stuck to the block that was next to her work, Vons supermarket), and perused the goods, and picked up Metroid Zero Mission, only $9.99 USD used now. $10.81, that's what I was waiting. Then 10.79 came up, and my mind was blown. Tax was different between California and Nevada, and while I knew this, it threw off my math, and that's bad for me. I use to work at a Gamestop, you see, and I knew prices left and right. I knew what to expect, and how much everything costs. Then Vegas happened. I felt scared a little, I was always the one calculating tax for myself and freinds around me, to help get rid of change and estimate what we could afford on a budget. Yeah yeah, small thing, but it really struck a cord with me. Probably because I'm Chinese. =P

I went to the Borders near by and read up on a few books, but was bored after a few hours and my back started to hurt. I decided to revisit Tasha at work, and (to my surprise and joy) buisness was slow. This meant that she could lazy around work a bit (yes, I know lazy doesn't work in that situation, bear with me. RAAAWR yes bear), and while she still had to work, I could talk with her and we could interact (nothing dirty in this situation, I promise), as long as nobody was in line.

Between 6:45 and 11:00, she had a break at 9pm for 10 minutes, and we were together briefly before she had to go back to work. I wandered a bit and found some food (the only place open at9:00 in the plaza apprently) and then discovered the Mexican food from this 24 hour small resturaunt wasn't to great. Filling, but not zesty. Zesty... I need to start using that word again. Anyways, I'm off topic again.

Afterwards, we went back to her hours and I took her dad's room (..yeah, her mom and dad sleep in seperate bedrooms, each one on the other side of the house. Don't ask), but I was told I could sleep on the couch, and she could sleep on the other couch, and he could keep his room. Sadly, to my dismay, he went to sleep with his wife (oh tragedy) while I was put into his room (funny, they offered to let me and her sleep on the couches in the living room so we could be together a bit, because they wouldn't let me sleep in her room, even on the floor with her door open, [her room is right next to the living room by the way so they can see everything]).

Friday

Ok, so I slept in her dad's room, again (long story). I need to check into the hotel now. See, her parents (mom) is paranoid about us sleeping in the same room together (rawr!) and so the need for a hotel. It's not that expensive, but far from cheap. $100 a night for the hotel closest to her house that I can stay in (most are hotels/casinos that require you to be 21 to check in), but these are nice ones. They have a microwave, refridgerator, large bed, nice AC units, TV with Cable, Ironing Board, and other things I didn't use. Nice large King sized bed though, I have to admit, it was very comfortable. Felt very odd to sleep in it alone though. Usually I sleep to one side or another, but the distance doesn't make much of a difference. In the King size, however, if I slept on the wrong side, I couldn't reach my phone, it was like 30 feet away (distance exaderated to add more zest to the story). I requested a room higher up away from pesky guests, and it was on the 3rd (top) floor, and on one corner of the hotel, so it was pretty secluded. The hallway to the room felt eerie, like (as me and Tasha both said at the same time), it looked like something out of The Shining.

We kinda just slept in all day, because neither of us had a good night's sleep. She had work at 6:45 or so but... we slept at like 1pm, fur like 4 hours... so she called in sick, we slept more. We each got 2 or 3 hours of sleep the previous night. We then went to grab some dinner (something convenient and close; ie: Fast Food) and grabbed some Ben and Jerry's from the nearby supermarket (across the street). We watched some Food TV (Because I am a Food TV whore) and then she had to go. She wore the red dress I got her, it was beautiful, and fit her perfectly. (Note, she had matching red Panties. That's all I'm going to say on that subject).

This concludes part 1 of the post, it's too much for me to post in one sitting. In fact, I typed half of this last night and finished it in the morning. More to come because I know you're all just so interested. =P

And a random picture just for kicks: