Viva Las Vegas

Lord have mercy, y'all! Vegas was such a whirlwind of a trip.  First of all, as an anxious flier, I had a nightmare of an experience with American Airlines this trip.  Let's start out with the flight from Memphis to Dallas- excellent flight, except for the plane was literally from 1974.  The seats were so janky and the magazine holders were falling off the back of the chairs.  I had an empty seat next to me, so it was great to be able to just spread out.  Once we got to Dallas our flight to Vegas was already delayed, so we chilled in the Dallas airport for a bit.  Finally we are ready to board our flight to Vegas and surprise, it's another plane from the Ronald Reagan era.  The air was going on and off while we were boarding and the plane was SO hot.  I was sitting next to a woman who was saying she had high blood pressure and felt like she was about to pass out.  We sat on the plane for what seemed like an hour while the air went on and off as well as the lights on the inside of the plane.  The pilot announced that the APU wasn't working and that we'd have to get off the plane for the maintenance people to fix it.  Then seriously the plane would not start 3 or 4 times when the pilot tried to boot it back up.  We de-boarded and sat in the airport again for what seemed like an hour.  People were flipping out saying they weren't getting back on that janky plane and actually a lot of people opted for a different flight the next day.  Since I HAD to be in Vegas the next day for work, I had no other choice but to get back on the plane that wasn't working correctly.  We all got back on and I immediately ordered some wine and just said to myself, "eff it, this has to happen".  Luckily, we eventually made it to Vegas at midnight, which wasn't late by Vegas standards.  I was AMAZED at the amount of babies and old people out that late in Vegas.  I have never in my life seen so many crazy people out that late.  I felt like such a loser because all I wanted to do was go to my hotel room and order room service.  

So let's get to the next day, the beginning of Cosmoprof, the Cosmetic Professionals Conference and Trade Show that we were there for- it was so awesome and was so fun to attend as a beauty lover and a professional in the cosmetics world now.  

Here are some outfits that I wore during the trip: 

I rented this dress from Rent the Runway and was so pleased with it: 

Vegas was actually really cool and I wish I would have had more time there to sightsee and shop.  

So let's get to the trip back ... we were supposed to go through Chicago this time to get home to Memphis.  I randomly checked my phone around 12 pm (3 hours before our flight) and our flight to Chicago had been canceled for no reason.  We called the AA number and they were able to get us to go through Dallas instead (like our trip out there).  We raced to the airport and made our first flight to Dallas and SURPRISE, it was the same damn plane we came there on.  We had a great first hour of the flight and the second hour the pilot came on and said there were storms in Dallas and that we'd probably have to be in a holding pattern.  We circled around the Dallas airport for about 30 minutes and then he came on and said we'd have to DIVERT to San Antonio because we were OUT OF FUEL!!!! I really had to try hard to prevent a panic attack, but amazingly enough I was totally calm.  We luckily landed fine in San Antonio, but had to sit on a holding pad (not connected to the gate) for about an hour while the plane re-fueled and the pilots checked it out so we could return to Dallas.  We finally get back up in the air to return to Dallas (where it's still storming) and landed in a storm.  We then sat on the plane another hour because there wasn't an available gate.  Keep in mind our plane to Memphis was supposed to leave any minute.  We finally got off the plane to find out we had missed our connection to Memphis.  I had to stay at the lovely Best Western by the Dallas airport, I called it my staycation in Dallas.  

Finally the next morning I was able to make it home to Memphis.  Overall I am glad that AA was so concerned with safety to fix all of the issues and to divert and everything, but OMG it was all such a nightmare.  Do you all have any crazy stories like this?  As someone who always flies Delta, I was just completely shocked at how much of a sh**show AA was.  

Anywho, here are my momentos from Dallas and Vegas (I collect these):