{NOTE: this was written at 3:30am Sunday morning. I wrote this when Jonathan & I returned to our hotel room, after having the final moments with my beloved new blogger friends. I was tired, emotional, & very, very delirious. Matter of fact, I am still all of those things. & unfortunately, there will be no pictures in this post.}
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Before I begin to relive the precious moments of my Las Vegas Blogger Meetup, let me start by asking a random question:
Suppose your husband (or significant other) absentmindedly left his (or her) backpack in a cab, in the middle of one of the busiest times in a city; how upset would you be? & what if this backpack held your very expensive, super professional Nikon D60 camera — among a few other things — inside of it? Would you flip your lid? & what if — having all of those events occurred — you didn’t notice the bag/camera missing until right AFTER the cab had taken off into this said busy city? Oh, & to top it all off, no one even noticed the bloody cab number, or the name of the cab company.
Answer me this: What would you do?
I’ll tell you what I did: I laughed nonchalantly, exclaiming, “Oh, this would only happen to Jonathan! He does stuff like this all the time!”, shrugging it off, not realizing what was truly happening. From there, I went from jovial & excited (we were just about the down some amazing Venetian Pizza), to shocked & in disbelief, to raging mad. Fuming. Hysterical. Completely upset, having an ugly meltdown in the middle of Las Vegas.
True story.
In the moment that I was able to comprehend that, OH MY GOD this is really happening right now (!!!), I wanted to punch my husband in the face, find a gun, shoot him with it, & continue punching him in his face. But, realizing that that would be quite gruesome — not to mention completely inhumane — I thought of a better option: divorce.
In all seriousness, what does one do when one leaves a backpack full of precious items — with ALL of their beautiful pictures of Vegas & its fabulous bloggers — in one cab out of thousands & thousands in the city? Cry, of course. Bawl their pitiful little heads off.
Jonathan & I were both sobbing like idiots. I’m not ashamed to admit that. Quite frankly, I feel like it was the only natural thing to do. We ended up leaving our amazing potential lunch at the Venetian to go pout, wallow, fret, & panic in our hotel room. & since the walk back to our hotel was a few miles, by the time we reach our room, we were emotionally & physically exhausted. (Walking while crying & stressing is not at all easy, mind you.)
After we both finished having a nervous breakdown — I seriously looked like a train wreck after my crying session — we dragged ourselves out of our hotel room, & braved the busy streets yet again to meet up with everyone. We wanted to make the most of our poopy situation, & I’m so glad we did, because by letting the circumstances just BE, we were able to really get to know & fall in love with some amazing people. Putting it out of our minds with the rambunctious, sincere, & kind people we were surrounded with at the time was the best solution. I don’t at all regret that.
Obviously, though, there won’t be any blogger or Vegas photographs to document & illustrate our delightfully epic trip. Not now, at least. We’ll be calling lost & found of the cab company tomorrow to see if perhaps, on HUGE, gigantic, astronomical chance, someone may have turned it in. Keeping in mind that this is Vegas, the city of sin; a modern day Sodom & Gomorrah. But… who knows? Perhaps there are some honest people left in the world. Stranger things have happened.
& if our beloved camera IS long gone — no doubt in the hands of some half wasted, douche bag party-bro who yelled out, “Dude, there’s a bag back here! Oh shit… FREE CAMERA!” — we’re buying a new one as soon as possible. I don’t care what our bank statement says, we’re buying it. Thankfully, in lieu of trying to make the most of the situation, we bought a silly disposable camera. Aside from its low-tech appeal, it did what it was supposed to do, & at least we have something to remember the trip by.
I’m sure you must be wondering what happened to Jonathan in all of this. If he is, say, swimming with the fishes, or in some sort of torture contraption I constructed out of sewing needles, sharp spoons, & scalding hot water. Rest assured, he is sleeping soundly right next to me. I could have killed him — I should have killed him, & I almost did — but there is nothing sadder than seeing a man cry. & truthfully? It was an accident. I could have easily done it, being that I was so extremely excited to be in Vegas with amazing people with amazing vibes. I could have left the backpack myself! Why should I smite him for such a simple (but costly) mistake?
& honestly… it all boils down to this: If you put it in a different perspective, which would you rather lose — your life or a $700 camera? If you think like me, there is obviously one thing more important than the other. A camera is an inanimate object… My life is priceless. & in case you’re wondering: Yes, that little philosophical way of thinking is the only thing keeping me from bawling all over again, because, dear Lord… our pictures! Our beautiful, wonderful pictures! MY CAMERA!!! But again… my life or my camera?
My life, FTW.***