Reno

So I'm sure you're ALL curious as to how my little vacation to Reno was this past week. And if you're thinking, "You went to Reno???"
AH SUUUUUURRREE DIIIIID!
Well, I got up bright and early on Saturday morning at about 3am and got ready to go. Drove over to the Airport Shuttle Bus at about 4, locked up my car, and was on my way toward MSP. Those shuttle bus's seem to always be pretty packed. Well, after this trip, I've got 4 or 5 trips on the shuttle bus to the airport. The driver said when I get 10, THEN I get a free trip. Better start traveling more.

Anyway, my flight to Chicago took off around 7ish. Weeeee.

I secretly turned on my phone and took a picture of the ground. My very own Google Maps.


And then we flew over Lake Michigan a bit. It was pretty cool. I could even see the bottom in the shallow places.
Then we came towards the shore and you could just barely see Chicago through the haze.



It's kinda neat to see the hundreds of thousands of houses and cars and parks and other buildings from up in the sky. It's interesting to think about the human species through the eyes of an alien or something. To look at them as Homo sapiens.
To observe them. To learn about their traits and tendencies. To see their interactions. Them Homo sapiens are pretty neat.

Okay, I've started rambling.

We landed in Chicago and the pilot decided to drive around the tarmac for about 20 minutes. He even had the hydrolics in the plane wheels to hop around. We were a pimpin' plane.

We finally got to the gate and I got off the giant steel tube and into the terminal where I met Mr. Marshall Tweeeeeeed. -5 e's. He turned out to be a pretty cool guy.
We hung out at the gate for bout 45 minutes before we were able to board the plane to Reno. Once we all got packed into the plane, we got onto the tarmac and got delayed for an hour due to a thunderstorm.
Okay, so thunderstorms are sweet and all, but not when they delay flights. Grr. Had to sit in that uncomfortable seat for an extra hour.

So the plane finally takes off and we're on our way. I tried to get a bit of sleep on the flight there. For those who've ever tried sleeping on a plane, you know how that went. So instead I listened to some tunes. Somewhere Over the Rainbow came on and so I, for some reason, imagined the plane exploding with bits and pieces flying all over the place and crashing and people being sucked into the outside, all with only the sound of that song playing.


Yeah, I've got a sick imagination.

We land in Reno at around noon. We get off the plane and get outside to wait for the the shuttle bus to the hotel.
It comes, we get on. We all go 'Weee' because we're special like that.
The hotel is only about a mile or two away. We get there and check in. I go up to my room and drop my stuff off after being ambushed by mom. Sheesh!
Took a couple pictures of the room while I was in there.




And the view from out the window.



After I dropped my stuff off, I went downstairs to check out the temporary offices. Free food in there. And water. And air. And ground. Yeah.

Then went downstairs and met other people, including my new boss, Michelle. I was sent to work right away, unpacking boxes for the booth I would be working at. Lots of merchandise: Shirts, bags, hats, RedBooks, pens, pins, raffle tickets, and Silent Auction stuff.
By the time everything was set up, it looked like this:


Sweet.
I think on Saturday night we also went to a bar where food and drinks were free. Got to meet a lot of new people. From all over the world. UK, Australia, Middle-East, etc.
Got a little topsy turvey while I was there with all those free drinks and entertained everyone on the shuttle back to the hotel with my impressions.
That was pretty much all the highlights of Saturday.

I woke up bright and early Sunday morning to get ready for a 5k race. I was set to be at the halfway point with water and bananas. Well, I think I gave out a total of six water bottles and two bananas. I had a lot left. Oh well. It was cold out. But I got a good photo of the hotel from where my halfway point was.


And a little to the left.


So that lasted about an hour and a half. Then I went back inside and got my badge so I could get past security without an escort. Those guys were guarding 24/7.
I spent most of the rest of the day at my booth selling stuff. So glad I brought my laptop. It got a little boring there during downtime.
Sunday evening I, along with my boss's and the Kimmel girls, sold raffle tickets to whomever would buy them. It turned into a competition. Naturally they won with their "charm" they had on the fellas. I tried to work the ladies, but didn't get as far.
After selling tickets, I got to go on stage and entertain the crowd a bit while I read off the two winning numbers. Two people won cash prizes. Mmm, fun.


I went around and explored the hotel a bit. They had several shops and restauraunts in it. Even a jewelry shop.
I even found a bowling ally with 50 LANES! I don't think I've ever seen an ally with that many. It was pretty sweet.


On Monday I worked my booth most of the day. At night, we all went out to a bar and drank and danced and stuffs. That was pretty fun.


That's Elizabeth Kimmel and Michelle.

There was a really funny guy dancing on the floor. And a dirty 40 year old woman. She was grinding up on all us guys and...just...ew. Thank you Marshall for leading me away.
Here's a video of her dancing with the silly white guy:

Yeah, it's a bit dark. Sorry.


Later on we all had some Tequila shots. Mmm.



We kept trying to get the band to Rick Roll the audience, but they didn't know it. Darn.

That was pretty much everything that went down on Monday.

Tuesday, again, worked at the booth. There was a guy walking around looking at stuff who had the coolest shoes. They were like those Toe-socks, but shoes instead. While wearing them, it felt as if you were barefoot. You could run on gravel or rocks and not feel anything. I want them so bad!

Each day we were getting a free lunch. They were very very good lunches with excellent deserts, but the highlight of my lunches is the Chicken IceCream cone.
It really wasn't that bad all.


After working the booth we went down and sold more raffle tickets. And I got to read the winning numbers again. Afterwords there was Wii bowling and Guitar Hero going on. That was pretty fun.
Then we hung out in the hotel bar/casino. One of the young kids won like $400 off one hand in Three Card Poker. Pretty lucky. I won $50 at the penny slots.
I had my first Jager bomb. It wasn't terrible. Pretty fun. Actually, I think that may have been Sunday night.

Wednesday was my last day there. Poo. Worked the booth, did the raffle tickets. One guy won both of the drawings. Out of hundreds of tickets. Fricken crazy!
After the drawing, some of the older IBM people challenged us young kids to a few games of Dominos. They won the first few, but we eventually dominated! Woo!


After playing Dominos for about an hour or so, we went down to the bar and danced and drank. There was a really silly bald guy dancing to Freebird. Apparently it was his ex-wife's favorite song or something and didn't want it to play. So we kept yelling to play it. Then he started dancing:



So after he crashed somewhere, we got the gang up to do some dancing and rocking out. I now have bruises on my hip bones from doing The Worm. It was fun, though. I got cheered.

(Marshall and Linda groovin to the music. Sorry Marshall, had to post it.)

After dancing, I went to sit at the Roulette table with Ralph, one of the young guys. I pretty much broke even. At one point, it spun a Green 00 twice in a row. It was crazy.

I stayed up doing that until about 4. After that I went up to my room to pack and then came down and got on my shuttle bus back to the airport (Yes, I pulled an all nighter).
I wish I was there Thursday night to sell raffle tickets. It was dress like a cowboy day, and the Kimmel girls did an excellent job with that:

My god I wish I was there to see that. :P
Thank you, Marshall, for the delightful picture.

Couldn't sleep much on the plane ride. Again, what do you expect. Landed in MSP around 1ish and took the shuttle bus back to Eau Claire where I got in my car and drove home. Then stayed up till about 6ish and fell asleep.
Then woke up bright and early at 6 on Friday.
While at work, the boss said that the person who works the 11-7 shift at the owners White Bear Lake location got arrested and put into Detox, so she got fired. And the managers from all the owner's locations were going to a conference in Missouri, so there was nobody to cover the shift. But I offered to.
So I got off work at about 4 and left for work at about 9ish.
I drove to White Bear Lake and worked the night shift there.
While I was setting up breakfast, I spilled cereal allllll over the floor. I swore. And swepped it up. That sucked.

At 7, I was able to sleep in one of the rooms for free. Score.
Then I got up at about 12:45, got ready, and headed out.

I did make a detour, though. Since I was in White Bear Lake, I decided to drive by my old Day Care. It's been about 10 years since I've been there. As I was driving, everything came rushing back and I remembered how to get there. It was cool.




So, I got the pictures and started to head home where I worked from 3-11.

And now I'm home. Finally.

Think it's time for a small nap before I work again.