Have Laundry, Will Travel

My mom claims that I am the only person she knows who carts dirty clothes thousands of miles just to wash it for free. I counter that I am probably one of the only 30 yr olds she knows who has been living on my own for 12 years and still doesn't have a washer and dryer. Sometimes my little bro makes fun of me, then I remind him he lives in our mom's basement.

After a three night stay in San Francisco, my mother, brother Matthew, and myself, flew to Las Vegas to meet up with my brother Craig and stay with my aunt Theresa's family. The flight on Virgin America was reminiscent of the Britney Spears Toxic video. The cabin lights were blue and pink (is that code?) and there was a tall, thin, blonde stewardess my brother described as "unbeliveably hot." They, of course, had to flirt and then we got free beers--hurrah. Or maybe we got free beers because the cable wasn't working on our mini TVs and the flirting was just so we wouldn't file a complaint. Hard to tell.

When we exited the plane, a disco ball greeted us and "Remeber, we're all in Cincinatti, right?" was painted on the wall. C-R-A-Z-Y. The whole "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" thing doesn't do a lot for me. Is everyone just agreeing that if you cheat in Vegas it doesn't count cause it's like you got a get out of jail free card when your partner agreed to let you go there? Or if you lose your life savings, its ok, cause hey, its Vegas, baby? While we were waiting for Craig's delayed flight to arrive, Matt had a minor melt down in the airport when the bartender at the only sports bar wouldn't put on the Celtics game. That felt unnecessarily hard. Matthew believed it was some anti-Boston bias at work.

Today was a very gender segregated day. My mom, aunt Theresa, and I went on a hike to Red Rock Canyon while my brothers took my little cousins bowling. Then my uncle Darren took the men to the Bellagio to play poker and the women were left at home to make the children dinner. I'm sure many of you can imagine how I felt about all that. However, my aunt doesn't let shit get her down, so we fed the kids, went to the Bellagio and spied on the men playing poker. I would have played, but I don't like losing money. However, I did lose $25 on the slot machines. It was suprisingly easy in the moment to feed $10 to a machine named "Helen of Troy" as I convinced myself that based on my love of Greek mythology, the gods had steered me there. Yeah, no, that machine ate my money and no magic "free" money came out--boo.

We drank expensive beers and ate expensive food, but one thing about being on vacay with the fam, is that I don't pay for shit. Including laundry. It makes me look forward to potentially moving home to go to school. I am betting if I whine in just the right way, I can get my mom to take me school supply shopping in September. I feel nervous that I am regressing and 30 is slowly becoming the new 20 for me.