Labor Day Weekend

First, I look forward to seeing temperatures drop very soon. I’m not sure how the early settlers in the Las Vegas Valley survived its heat because I have almost died 2 or 3 times just walking out to my car to get a sandwich at Subway.

I decided to enroll into a class at UNLV this semester, a graduate course in public administration, which, up to this point, has been very good. But my textbooks were not cheap. The 2 (paperback) textbooks I purchased charged my bank account the same amount Little Caesars would charge me had I ordered 42 pizzas. Not hard to figure out the better deal.

The return of football is finally here. I love football season, especially college football. It’s always fun to watch games with family or friends on Saturdays. Last Saturday was especially good because the Rebels won their home opener at Sam Boyd Stadium…kind of rare. And even though the victory was over Utah St. University, who was recently tabbed “The worst football program in the country” by one publication, a win is still a win…and if you are a UNLV fan, any win is memorable.

For the Labor Day holiday my roommate Dave and I took a short road trip to Mesquite, NV to escape the city and do a whole lot of relaxing. We checked into the hotel Sunday evening with plans to spend all of the next day lounging at the pool and drinking piñata coladas. Sunday night I was very tired and just wanted to sleep. The hotel beds were a little stiff but I did fall asleep, and all of that night I dreamed about the pool, doing back flips and dives and splashing around. The best way I can describe my dream was that I was a lot faster and better swimmer than Michael Phelps…and I was a lot tougher looking too…with more gold medals.

When we woke up the next morning the room cleaning lady was knocking outside our door. We were glad because we would probably need some extra towels. But after a few moments of confusion we realized she wasn’t bringing us towels, she just wanted us to leave and was kicking us out of the room. We called the front desk and were informed our 2-day complimentary pass expired at the end of August, and since Labor Day morning was September 1st the 2-day pass was now a 1-day pass…something that would have been helpful to know (the day before).

Our free hotel stay was over just like that…So we checked out of the room, loaded our stuff back into the car, and went to the Paradise Buffet to console ourselves. Now, I am a fan of almost any buffet, but I’m not real sure the title of “Paradise” Buffet is a fair representation in this case…More accurately it could have been called the “Poor Man’s” Buffet or even “It’s Decent” Buffet…maybe “Eat at Your Own Risk” Buffet. Actually, it wasn’t that bad…but just not that good either.

After the buffet we had to figure out a plan B, so we drove over to the movie theater to watch Iron Man, but the theater was closed until 4pm. We didn’t know where to go after that so we drove back to Vegas.

It was a good Labor Day trip, and I really do love this time of year.