What Happens In Vegas …

Backstory

In November 2016, I started working a job that was 100% travel. I jumped at the opportunity of traveling, especially since it meant that I would be advancing my professional skills and experience in IT. As far as getting to my work location, the company would always pay for the travel to and from my home location, which at the time was Montgomery, AL. My first (and only) job destination with this company ended up being Jacksonville, NC at a marine base on the coast of North Carolina. Outside of the base, there was not much to do or see and if it wasn't for the base, it probably really wouldn't have been anything there. Additionally, I did not have a car there because the company only allotted a certain number of rentals among the team, and I wasn't one of the "lucky ones" with a rental in my name. That said, no matter where I wanted to go, I was compelled to either catch a ride with one of my coworkers, or walk if the destination was in a safe, close proximity from the hotel we stayed at. The two airports we flew in and out of were 30 minutes to an hour away as well, Jacksonville and New Bern respectively.

Fast forward

It's Friday, December 30, 2016 and my highly anticipated trip to Vegas was finally here! I intended to work most of the day because my flight was in the afternoon and I had already arranged for my coworker to drop me off at the airport. Because this company would only fly employees from their work location to their home location or vice versa, they were flying me from New Bern (about an hour away from work) to Atlanta to Montgomery. Because the airport in Jacksonville, New Bern, and Montgomery are very small, I always had a connection in either Atlanta or Charlotte. So, essentially, I was going to connect in Atlanta and fly to Montgomery, just to have to drive back to Atlanta the same day to fly to Vegas. This was the most counterproductive and just plain stupid set of plans. So, since I had all of the clothes I needed for Vegas already, I considered that once I made it to Atlanta, I would just skip the flight to Montgomery anyway and wait around for my flight to Vegas. One thing that would have prevented me from doing this though, was that my checked luggage would have continued on to Montgomery. As it turns out, none of this ended up being a possibility anyway. The coworker who was taking me to the airport in New Bern and I, ended up leaving work a few minutes too late. Out of consideration, my coworker sped while I was figuratively on the edge of my passenger seat anxious the whole time on the way. When we arrived at the airport, I rushed inside to checked a bag that was too large to be a carry on item. Because this airport was so small, the person who worked the check-in desk, was also the person who worked at the gate to let passengers onto the plane. By this time, this person was already at the gate and I learned that I had needed to be at the airport at least 30 minutes prior to my flight time in order to check my bag. Essentially, I had made it to the airport in time to go through TSA and even actually make it onto the flight because the airport was so tiny. I was willing to leave my luggage behind if promised that it would be on the next flight, just so I wouldn't miss my flights; but due to security purposes, I couldn't board a flight and leave my luggage behind, which I understood. It was already after 3 and my flight to Vegas from Atlanta would be leaving around 11 that night. I needed to act fast! There were no more flights to Atlanta that day, again tiny airport, so I wasn’t even surprised. On top of that, what I would have had to go through to stay in Jacksonville that night, wasn't worth it especially since I did not have a car of my own and was 45 minutes outside of the civilization in Jacksonville with which I was more familiar. Determined to make it to Atlanta that night though, my only other option was to rent a car and drive the whole way. When I mapped it, I was over 7 hours from Atlanta airport though! I went to the rental counter, and they didn't have a car ... but what they did have was a big, shiny red Ford F-150 truck. I decided to get it, threw my luggage in the back, and was headed south!

By this time, it was 4 o'clock and there was no way I was going to actually catch my flight at 11 o'clock that night from Atlanta. I knew this; so the whole time I'm driving to Atlanta, I'm constantly trying to contact Delta Airlines to see what could be done and without me having to pay an additional $200. This essentially got nowhere because my connection was very poor during the first couple of hours of my drive and when I did speak with representatives, it was always the same solution - pay $200 to change your flight or get to Atlanta and see what can be done. Sure enough, I got to the airport in Atlanta right around 11. I was missing my flight as I spoke with the attendant at the check-in desk. After at first telling me that I was going to have to pay full price for a different flight, the attendant saw the extreme disappointment in my face and took pity on me. I was exhausted mentally and physically from driving, plus I was missing a show in Vegas to see Jeezy, one of my favorite rappers. By this time, I had already been to the bathroom to cry anyway too. After putting in a little effort, the attendant then informed me that there was another flight the next day around 10 pm that wasn’t full, so he would put me on that one. Although I had hoped to leave sooner to get more daylight in Vegas on NYE, I didn’t have any other option so of course I accepted it. However, he also told me that I could arrive at the airport much sooner the next day and if one of the earlier flights to Vegas were not full, I could request a seat on an earlier flight. That’s exactly what I did.

Now it's Saturday, New Years Eve. I had to return the rental vehicle around 3, which would have made me be forced to spend the entire rest of my evening at the airport anyway. I searched for departing flights to Vegas that evening, saw one departing around 7 pm, and made my way to that terminal and gate. The attendant was super nice when I inquired about getting on her flight. She put me on and I was finally off to Vegas, where my friends were already awaiting my arrival.

Finally in Vegas

About 4 hours later, I arrived in Vegas for my first time and it was around 10:30 by the time I made it to the hotel. I was starving so I stopped at a restaurant downstairs before I headed up to my and my friend's (we’ll call her Justice) room. I had to rush to shower and get ready so we could be out and in the streets by the time the clock struck midnight, specifically the strip to see fireworks as the new year rang in. Needless to say, this did not happen. Already, it seemed that my year was off to a bad start because of all I'd already gone through and then the night got even worse. Matter of fact, if I were superstitious, I would say that how my year was starting off, would be indicative of how the rest of my year would proceed. By the way, that was the same year I got pregnant (right after this trip might I add) and later miscarried.

Anyway though, by midnight we were finally in a cab and headed to the club. We met up with another one of my friends (let’s call her Miya) at The Cromwell where we intended to party at Drai's After Hours nightclub for the night. I paid our driver in cash (now this is important for later on in the story) and we hopped out. My experience at this club was absolutely horrible. They get 0 stars from me and are not recommended. First, my 2 friends and I stood in line for what felt like an hour and there was barely a line, so we couldn't understand what the hold up was and why we were waiting so long. It may have been 15 people total ahead of us. Security was shuffling back and forth from the front to the back of the line as if they were lost (and not in the sauce) the entire time, but eventually we finally made it to the front of the line and were next to go inside. We got searched and then we were informed that it was a $50 cover. We were actually okay with this - it’s Vegas + NYE - you can’t expect a $10 cover. We were directed down some stairs to pay before going into the club, which was like going down into a secret dungeon. When we got to the counter, one of my friends who was in the Air Force at the time, flashed her military ID confidently and the lady gave her 50% off her cover so she paid $25 to get in. Being a military member also, I followed suit and also paid a $25 cover (in cash). My other friend Justice, not in the military, had to pay $50. We get inside and it's not even packed at this time so I'm further confused as to why we had to wait so long in line; but whatever, I was just happy I could finally sit down perhaps and use the restroom. Justice, who just paid $50 was like, first things first, “I need a drink,” so she went to the bar for a drink and then found a seat for us, while my friend Miya and I go to the restroom in the meantime. Upon walking in, I noticed there was a bathroom attendant; a short, Hispanic lady with dark hair. I’ve seen these people in restrooms all over and still think their job is pointless; but whatever, make that money honey, don’t let it make you. So I used the restroom, got myself together and walked out of the stall, where Miya was standing near the door waiting on me. Naturally I went to the counter to wash my hands and then I opened my wallet/clutch to look for a bobby pin to pin my hair back, I was tired of it falling in my face and I didn’t have time to be dealing with that all night while I would be trying to get my twerk on, ok!

It was a lot of hair sis…

I always keep bobby pins in my purse and/or wallet by the way, never know when you might need one. While at the counter, I also noticed a tip jar and mentally made a note that I would put something in it before I left. With my wallet open at the counter, the attendant saw that I had cash in my wallet and immediately started yelling at me, accusing me of stealing money from her tip jar! “You stole my money, give it back!” I was shocked and confused! She couldn’t have been talking to me, I thought at first and then realized I was the only person standing there at the time. This lady was crazy! Mind you, when I approached the counter, I noticed that she only had $1 … one dollar … ONE SINGLE FREAKIN DOLLARRRRR!!! in her jar, which is exactly why I had considered giving her another dollar or two prior to these accusations, although she had done absolutely NOTHING for me. When I think about it though, maybe that’s why her jar was empty (of all but $1) in the first place. Usually these lil attendants give you a paper towel to dry your hands or something, but her sorry self had not even done that, yet I had considered giving her a tip out of the kindness of my heart. However, she called security and a huge security guard by the name of Brian arrived on the scene. Brian, super nasty and rude, came in the restroom and instead of actually trying to investigate or hear my side, he immediately attempted to intimidate me by saying "she can press charges, you better give her money back." Things escalated quickly and he further accused me of “stealing from an employee,” as if he had been there and watched me do it with his own eyes. He threatened multiple times to arrest me or call the cops. This was bizarre! I was furious and extremely insulted. I was baffled. I was confusion! Big Bad Brian even pulled out his handcuffs and then asked the attendant "how much did she steal?" I’m looking like, '“wait what?” The attendant stuttered and then made up a random number ($9), while we (my friend Miya and I) argued back and forth explaining that the $9 was my money from the start. What’s crazy is, I usually never even have cash on me and the only reason I had that change was because I had just paid our cab driver. I never took anything from her tip jar and never would. Miya also tried to reason that we are in the military and how could you treat service members like this, etc. This was irrelevant, to them at least. Brian followed that with a sarcastic remark saying, "have fun explaining this to your commander" and then he escorted me and my friend Miya out of the restroom to the back where they got our information from our IDs, then told us we were banned from that entire property (casino and club). Next we were escorted out of the building via some side door. Mind you, Justice was still in the club waiting on us and completely oblivious to all of this happening while it was happening. Security would not even allow us to go get Justice, nor were they willing to track her down on our behalf, and the worst part about that was that her phone was not having good reception in the club! By the time Justice was able to receive my texts, we had been sitting outside of the building for at least 30 minutes. A club none of us really got a chance to experience.

In the end, I felt like this was a scheme to make money off of people, get us in, make false accusations against us, and put us out because at some point they might reach capacity that night. I even wondered how often that had happened to people. I came all the way from Alabama, I was making pretty good money at the time, I am not a thief and had no reason to travel all the way to Vegas to steal "$9.” That’s not even logical. Nevertheless, these people humiliated me and had no proof of anything. I was actually more upset about being accused of something I did not do than I was about wasting my money to get in the club and not even experience the club. I embody integrity. This was my first time in Vegas and first night, and going to Drai's was the worst club experience of my life. Even if they had not “banned” me from the premises, I wouldn’t pay to go back to Drai’s.