Work in Progress

It was later than usual when we departed on our next adventure. It had been two weeks since our Las Vegas blackout. I was in a turmoil fighting down panic attacks leading up to the day. The benefit of this trip was that we were in the company of a group of friends and family. Therefore any time alone seemed like it would be out of the question. I was traveling with my cousin this time and due to the fact that she was a teacher preparing for her upcoming year, we could not leave till the late evening hours. I had spent much of the morning locating floating devices for four of us due to the fact that the rental I was supposed to have been in was extracted once the owner realized he's lost interest and would not be attending the Regatta with us. I was not made aware of this till midnight the night before when I was at his house looking at his pathetic puppy dog face deciding to now charge me $200.00 for deposit and rental for what originally was going to be free. I and suddenly very irritated by the change in events is told him to go fuck himself and took my tired ass home and straight to bed. The next morning I took myself to two different Big 5s and paid $45.00 each for two rafts that were not only two seaters but they each had an inflatable cooler in between I was relieved that something had actual been found at the last minute.

The rest of the day revolved around putting the finishing touches on my cousin’s classroom, then running to her place to quickly shower and get ready to be finally on our way. We ubered to the house we would be leaving from and after waiting for two princesses to finally join us outside, and the arrangement of bags fit into place and away we went. Despite the late our departures I can’t really say there was much traffic to speak of. It was fairly steady and the variety of music was eclectic enough as the conversation flowed and all remained in a pumped and upbeat mood. We made our first stop for gas, snacks and bathroom breaks. Once everything was taken care of we were off and running again. Driving this time till reaching our destination, my cousin and I remarked how similar the driving experience was through the desert as it had been on our most recent trip to Joshua Tree. The pitch blackness of night, coupled with the bumpy road brought back a flood of hilarious memories. As luck would have it, we had a free of charge guide pointing out landmarks and locations along the way. Joaquin had efficiently taken it upon himself to book us a room a day earlier so that we would be prepared for the early morning self-imposed wake up call to head out to the regatta. A married couple, friends of Joaquin had arrived even earlier and Airbnb's it at the Tropicana, which is where the rest of our stay was to take place. While Joaquin was handling the check in at the Colorado Belle three of us waited in the cusp of the lobby, casually pulling out beers from the “Grab Bag'' cooler we took down from the car and played a game of sorts where one reaches into the bag without looking at the contents inside and has to drink the alcoholic beverage they pull out. No sooner had I done that than a security guard came to inform me that it was not policy to extract alcohol from a cooler and I would need to dispose of it. Not being one to EVER waste the gold that is alcohol I chugged it and threw it away as had been requested of me. Coming back to the area where my group was I was surprised to be walking into a full on relationship confessional. The other man in our group was going into a detailed account of a recently terminated relationship, his feelings on it and informing us that his ex was there in Laughlin as well. My cousin asked if this was going to be a problem for him. He responded that the problem wouldn't really be his but rather ours as she tended to be the jealous type (and me without my trusty bat) . I jokingly told him there was never a place for jealousy when a woman possessed vanity, meaning if she valued her nose she would very wisely tread lightly. It was intelligently left at that and the topic was never brought up again. My cousin is not the violent type, not the fighting type, and I was going to do everything in my power to make sure it stayed that way

When Joaquin came back, we headed up to the room to leave our things, only then did we decide to split up and go grab up the wristbands his married couple so awesomely procured for all of us. Once we were all together we roamed the sleepy town of Laughlin. I could see why it attracted the retired veteran Hells Angel and his old lady, or with a whiff of the lure of an aging 50 year old grasping at a Vegas themed weekend on a Laughlin budget. We were for the River Regatta, an event put on pause for a few years due to the junk and trash left in wake of its closing ceremonies. Once I learned of it, I knew I had to put it on my bucket list and with it Laughlin as well. In the midst of our wanderings thru a variety of casinos i escaped briefly to use the bathroom and once in there I received a text and all it read was “You are MY writer and if you decide to work elsewhere then you are obviously giving me your money to hold till you’re ready to come and get it love. I'll be anxiously waiting. B” That message alone from a pest that refused to go away killed my buzz and my mood. I was distracted for the rest of the night and barely remember many details except when we set our alarms for 5am at roughly 3am and went to bed.

Who keeps causing drama? More to come.