Traffic Nightmares

Since today was the first day of school for many kids in the Las Vegas area, I was expecting worse traffic than usual today, on my way to work. I do have a temp job right now, which I will get into a little bit later. Its clear on the other side of town from where I live, meaning I have a half hour commute on a good day.. although with traffic, it usually ends up being closer to 45 minutes. I’ve been terribly spoiled before, since my last job was literally 2 blocks from my house. Still, I’m grateful to have any sort of employment these days, so I brave the crazy rush hour traffic every morning and evening. Now that I have my camera, I keep it on the passenger seat next to me as I drive to work.. just in case I happen to see something of interest. Like THIS mess, on the way to work this morning..

Stuck!

No, not my windshield.. but holy crap, do I need to get that washed! If you squint hard enough, through the hazy streaks on the glass, you can see a huge semi truck that was briefly stuck in traffic.. sideways. I felt so sorry for the driver! I was having a heart attack, just watching him try to get himself unstuck. I think what had happened was he was trying to turn into a driveway of a store or strip mall, but overshot his mark. Then in trying to back up, he kept making it worse and worse. Traffic was stopped in both directions as he inched forward and backwards for awhile, until he was finally able to back his way into a parking lot across the street. I am very thankful I wasn’t one of the cars directly in front of him. It was nerve-wracking enough to watch from several car lenghts back.

During this delay, I was listening to my favorite radio morning show- Mark and Mercedes In The Morning. As I mentioned before- today was the first day of school for many children.. including Mercedes little girl, who was starting her first day of kindergarten! Mercedes called into the show on her cellphone while she was dropping off her daughter and saying her tearful goodbye, and telling her how proud she was of her. She was crying the whole time, and it was really touching! I don’t have kids, and even I felt a little misty eyed, listening to it. My morning ritual each day involves stopping at 7-11 right before I go to work to get a cup of coffee. The employees and I all recognize each other by now since I’m in there every day, and I was telling one of the ladies at the counter about what I had heard on the radio. SHE got choked up as well, saying she remembered those days. When I left, she was still staring off into space, and blinking rapidly.

On the blogroll section of this page, you may have noticed several blogs and podcasts that  I have linked- all of them Vegas related. Many of them I have been familiar with for a couple of years- particularly the podcasts like The Strip, Living In Las Vegas and Grits to Glitz, which I highly recommend. I used to listen to The Strip on a regular basis, but stopped for awhile as I sometimes do. (I listen to more podcasts than there are hours in a day, so I leave and come back to them from time to time.) I realized how out of touch I had become with what is happening in Vegas, once I stopped listening to The Strip. They do celebrity interviews which are very interesting- Steve Friess is a journalist that I admire above any other. But my favorite part of their podcast is the up to date news on everything happening in our city, more so than any other source I have ever come across.

Another great one that I started listening to today is Five Hundy By Midnight. I had heard of this one a long time ago and listened to one episode. That particular episode had a heavy emphasis on gambling and I believe a poker tournament, which I wasn’t as into. I came back to it today though, and really enjoyed it! Better yet, I learned a LOT about what is happening in Vegas lately, and what is on the horizon. Like I said, I have been SO out of touch.

A couple interesting tidbits that I learned..

According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, the rock group KISS is entertaining the idea of opening a Cirque du Soleil style production show, and calling it Kiss: Carnival Of Souls. They don’t have a venue in mind, and this isn’t going to happen for at least a couple of years.. IF it happens at all. (God help us, if it does. I like Kiss, but I can see that being a huge failure.)

MGM Grand apparently has VIP package/incentive program to entice guests to spend more money. The Prima package costs a mere $500 extra that is added to your hotel stay.. but it works like an expense account with many perks that are deducted from the cost. Including such things as VIP check-in, a room upgrade, free passes to the spa, a one time round trip limo service to any other MGM property on the strip, a ticket upgrade to the show Ka, 15% off at the retail outlets, discounts at the MGM restaurants, and a whole list of other benefits you can see by looking at the website.

The Las Vegas Podcastapalooza is coming up October 17th at the Palms. If I remember correctly, this was originally organized by The Strip podcast, and I think this may be the 3rd year they are doing it.

I suppose thats all for tonight. Now that I’m catching up on all the Vegas happenings and current events, I should have lots of Vegas news and interesting tidbits of information to go along with my personal blog posts. Thank you to everyone thats been reading!

~ by Nika Dreamscape on August 25, 2009.