lonely and dreaming of the west coast

Okay, so I'm not actually lonely; I'm alone for the first time in weeks, which in many ways is a balm to my increasingly hermity soul. But I am ready to go home, if only so that I can sink into hermitville and knock out a rough draft of my next romance novel before I leave for New York in a few weeks. Luckily, tonight is the last night of my trip -- I shall leave Vegas as soon as I can wake up and get out the door tomorrow morning, and I should be in Palo Alto by nightfall (or at least before midnight).

Today felt like the actual end of the trip, though; I dropped my brother off at the airport for his flight back to Oklahoma, thus concluding our tour of the desert southwest. We saw a bit more of Vegas today before he had to go. I let him sleep in (which allowed me to use my laptop, thus killing two birds with one stone), and then we took a taxi to the Wynn so that we could see some other hotels on the strip. We were going to eat there, but the line for the buffet was way too long and we couldn't find anything else that appealed to us. So, we walked down the strip and ended up at the Venetian, where we ate at a Wolfgang Puck establishment in the Venetian's version of the real Venice's St. Mark's Square. The Venetian version has several Italian-type restaurants scattered in a very large square with 'outdoor seating' -- but it's actually all inside, and the 'sky' is a domed ceiling painted to look like a lovely sky with wisps of clouds floating across it. So, that was kind of entertaining, and we got there just in time to watch some sort of Carnevale-themed show happening in the middle of the square while we waited for our food. I had some gnocchi with a bolognese sauce that I thought was sensational, and a diet coke to repair the ravages of last night's mojito consumption, and all was right with the world.

After eating, we wandered back toward our hotel, stopping in at Treasure Island and the Mirage on the way. When we got here, I took a nap while my brother finished packing, and then I dropped him off at the airport so that he could make it through security and still have time to grab snacks and things before his flight. Then, I came back to the hotel, changed, wandered over to Aria, played some slots, ate some dinner (a BLT -- Alyssa awaits on Tuesday, but bacon ruled today), had a couple of mojitos, and then came back to my room and alternated between playing on the internet and writing in my journal. And now, I should really sleep. Tomorrow's drive is only 500-some miles, which is practically an easy day, but I don't want to risk falling asleep on the vast wastes of I-5. Goodnight!