Overdue post

This is the condition that met us on our way to Vegas during the New Year weekend.

Since it was a long a weekend and my uncle whose house where we usually celebrate New Year's eve at was vacationing in the Philippines, some of my family decided to drive out to Vegas. It seems if one lives in California, Vegas is the place to be to meet the new year which translates to traffic jams and difficulty getting hotel accommodations. Good for us, we decided to leave on Saturday after lunch when almost everyone left on Friday. I could have gone with some of my relatives when they went on Friday but I waited for my cousin and his family, my aunt and my sister since they still had work. They needed my "navigation skills" since among all of us, I have been to Vegas the most times. It was actually better because I didn't ride with my cousins. Don't get me wrong, I like my cousins but they are not particularly the kind of people I would want to go on a road trip with. For one thing, they get bored easily and when they do, they tend to bother me. Long drives are my opportunity to zone out, "mag muni-muni" and I cannot do that when they constantly ask me irrelevant questions just so they will be amused. Plus, all 7 of us fit perfectly and comfortably in the van. As for the hotel accommodations, my uncle has a house so that covered it.

We knew beforehand that the forecast was going to be rain for that weekend but we didn't think it would be this much which made the roads hard to trek. My cousin, who was driving already made the decision that if the conditions worsened and it would be traffic, we would forego our plans. Fine by me since I already knew that we would not be able to make it on time to be able to get into the strip (street where almost all the hotels are at). For security reasons, they close off the strip at 6PM until 4 AM. If we want to go, we would have to park far and walk towards the strip.

So what did I do in Vegas? Nothing! Nada! Zilch! Unless you consider sleeping and eating. Unlike the new years past, this was rather low key and quiet. It was okay at least I had family around. My uncle's house was pretty big enough to accommodate all 30 of us who decided to go with a lot of room to spare. They just moved in so it was pretty much empty save for the dining table. We get to pick where we can lay out our sleeping bags to sleep. We waited until midnight for the countdown, ate then too tired from the drive, I slept.

If sleeping arrangements wasn't a problem, the bathroom was another thing. There were 30 of us, 3 bathrooms and one of them didn't have hot water. Yikes! The easy solution would be some of us waking up early and using the 2 functional bathrooms. That was done but it still wont be enough in order for all of us to be ready by noon to go to church and lunch with another uncle's house. I decided to make use of my "training" coming from a province battered often by typhoons and lack of water. The last bathroom had hot water from the sink but not in the shower. So what did I do? Thank goodness for being Filipinos so no bathroom is without a pail and a "tabo", I made use of that. I got hot water from the sink, save in it a pail and took a shower. The others realizing how much time its going to take before they can have their turn in the other bathrooms, followed what I did. Now we were all ready in time with some to spare.

I felt silly though. Here I am, in what should be a technologically advanced country and I am using survival skills of a developing country. But I guess I should be thankful that I learned those skills because I was able to tap into them when I needed to. When the situation called for some improvisation, I was able to think of something. Imagine if my cousins were faced with that situation, I wonder what they would have done. I think they will be lost. Much like when there was a blackout one time and my cousin just had to rouse me from my sleep to tell me that there was no power and asked what we usually do back in the Philippines. I told her "we sleep" and that I did, letting her decide what she wants to do. What else can you do but deal with it and live around it. That's what I did at that particular time and what a relief and time-save it was.

After dinner at yet another uncle's house, the 7 of us drove back to California since they had work on the 2nd. Looking back, we actually just went to Vegas to sleep and eat.