A couple Wednesday's ago was my Birthday, and what better way to celebrate than with chocolate?! I'm a simple girl that enjoys simple pleasures... and the photo below includes a simple pleasure I always have room for;)

Before & After | Demolished in 2.5 minutes MAX!

The following day was dedicating to laundry, and packing accordingly. I tried to plan out my outfits perfectly since I refuse to check baggage nowadays. [Commercial] air travel used to be a luxury, but now it's a mere inconvenience. Stick to carry-on bags, friends...pack lightly and it'll save you time, money and drama--trust this professional adventurer!

Keepall 55 with Shoulder Strap

Neverfull GM (a.ka. mary poppins bag)

I was abnormally nervous and had some preflight jitters. I was scheduled for the 10:30PM redeye on United, but couldn't get seat assignments when I checked in online--and although I planned on sleeping the duration of the five hour flight to LAX, I loathe being in the back of planes--been there done that, don't want to be back there ever again...ever!

I had dinner with the ohana (family), and Dad took me to the airport around 8PM. It takes about an hour to get to the airport from where I live, and I wanted to square away my seat debacle--otherwise, I'm a "run to your gate" kind of girl...or used to be anyway;)

Dad and I said goodbye at the curb, and I breezed through security.. I was at my gate within 15 minutes and noticed there wasn't a lot of people there. I got a little excited, thinking it wouldn't be a full flight and visited the agent behind the counter. He had that "I hate my job" vibe oozing with hatred and laziness, and routinely gave me a boarding ticket with a seat assignment somewhere in the 20's--not too far back, but not close enough for me, so I held back a cringe as I asked him if bulkhead was available, and when he firmly said "no," I persisted by asking for an exit row--again, his answer was a firm "no." Thanks pal.

I went back to my seat and distracted myself before long noticing it was a little after 10PM and we hadn't boarded yet, in fact, there wasn't even any pre-boarding action going on--wtf? My "friend" said all but a few words on the intercom about "the plane being on-time, and should be here around 10:45PM" ..Say what? ...Pardon? ...According to my ticket, we should be in the air by 10:30PM, what's the deal?

I kept looking at my ticket, intensely inspecting it--like you would those photo "find the difference" games--and remained confused since [duh] it said my departure time was at 10:30PM.

While walking to the bathroom to freshen up, I thought I heard something about one of the aircrafts not being cleared and I could only assume there were two flights going to LAX that night, and seemingly they were then combining them (without letting us know). Thanks United. Appreciate that. Nothing better than waiting, and not knowing why.

Our gate began filling up, no longer a question it would in fact be a full flight--on whatever plane we ended up on! At no point in time, as the seconds kept ticking now after 11PM did anyone from United speak up and clearly state what was going on. From my prospective, it looked as if my flight of passengers (who expected to be in the air at 10:30PM) were restless from being delayed, meanwhile the later flight passengers (11:30PM?) were barely affected, and everything was business as usual.  

Three more agents came to the area and had extra springs in their steps, and it became apparent United overbooked my flight, and decided to possibly wait for a larger plane to accomodate the passengers by delaying them two hours. This wouldn't have been a problem or something I was so irate about, except for the fact that it also became clear I would be missing my morning connection flight from LAX to LAS. Awesome.

This is plane we ended up occupying for about five hours...took off around 12:20AM(??)

A Brick Shit House

You know how I mentioned earlier I prefer to run to my gate? It's because I hate waiting. Particularly at airports. I also don't care to be first on the plane, being the last to board is fine by me. In this case though, I was in seating zone four, so I was last to board anyway. I was beyond irritated passing by all the empty seats--especially those window seats. I tried to remain in my sleepy state though and passed out when I finally made it to my aisle seat. And good thing I only had plans to sleep, because look at these sad TV's... 

What a waste

I woke up as we were landing--just in time for my flight tracker app to notify me of my connection flight taking off two minutes early. REALLY?!

Get me the F OUTTA HERE!!

United Airlines Customer Service was less than sorry I wasn't on my connection flight, even though it was completely their fault and acted as if they were doing me a favor by booking me on the 10:30PM flight from LAX to LAS. Yeah, you read that right: 10:30PM. It was 7:50AM mind you, when discussing this ridiculousness, and the next flight wasn't until 1PM--and the best they could do was suggest I go standby. Gee thanks, I planned on it, genius. OH! And they gave me a $15 voucher. F-you United, and your $15 voucher. That's supposed to last me until 10:30PM? More than 12 hours away? Yeah, F-you!

Grande Non-fat Cappuccino, Oatmeal, Fruit cup, & Banana bread = $15.44

I ended up making friends with a couple guys who were on my OGG to LAX flight--they vacationed to Maui and were headed back home to Utah via Las Vegas and they definitely helped make the time go by quicker since we were in the same predicament. They must have bitched better though, or used their good looks at the United Airlines Customer Service counter, because somehow they ended up getting confirmed on that 1PM flight, while I was still standby. I was number two on the standby list, but that didn't mean shit if the flight was overbooked--which United is FAMOUS for. Assholes.

The next flight (after the 1PM flight) wasn't until 4PM, and at this rate, I would have been better off renting a car at 8AM and trekking the 4 hour drive into the desert. I must have been wearing down though, because as much as I wanted to get on that 1PM flight, I began changing my "balls-to-the-wall" or "90-to-nothin'" mentality, to "what will be will be." And with that, 30 passengers failed to show up for that flight, and I was cleared for take headed to Vegas with my new friends!

Finally Made it to Sin City!

Landing in Vegas I immediately caught a ride to the Strip and checked in to our hotel so I could shower the almost 24 hours of travel nastiness off of me. While changing and touching base with friends, I was torn between taking a much needed nap or hitting the ground running--there's just something about the Vegas vibe that gets us Locals going. It's an infamous joke, Sin City is Hawaii's 9th Island, and it's because we frequent it so often and spend all our money there! Luckily for my health, my friends were still working for a couple more hours, so I could get some shut eye.

Later, I met up with one of my friends and her boyfriend for drinks and we kept our fingers crossed the boyfriend would make his connection flight, which then transitioned to hoping his flight didn't get cancelled. After many rounds of drinks for us, and many hours of being delayed for the bf, he finally made it to Sin City around 11PM.

He didn't make it to the hotel until almost midnight, and we ended up meeting at the room where he quickly changed and we walked around the Strip. Here's an epic photo I strategically took while on our walk...

Brings new meaning to "Babydoll" outfits!

Earlier, when meeting up with my friend and her boyfriend, I saw a lady wearing black lace leggings with a thong. Had she not been over 50 years old, saggy, and wrinkly, perhaps it would have been okay. Not the case. No picture:(

Anyhoo, the bf and I ended up where we met and had some much needed food before heading back to the hotel. So far, that's been our tradition--and I love it:)

Day one: That's a wrap.