Got a surprise today.

After a long day of working at home and already an hour this morning, I arrived at my local hangout and setup like I normally do.

The boba girl was busy doing her work and I sat and did what I needed to do until she was ready. She usually calls me when she’s ready, but today she brought me my tea.

I went up to pay and she said to not worry about it. It’s her last day opening here, so she won’t see me anymore.

“It’s on me,” she said.

So sweet. So unexpected.

Score.

Free tea.

Throughout the years I’ve worked here, I’ve met and gone through so many boba girls/guys that open. I sit at my table with my laptop typing away as I wait for them to officially open, order my tea and sit back down.

I keep to myself, for the most part. Well, besides Cat, I usually keep to myself.

I’m friendly to them and I hope that I wasn’t much of an inconvenience to them.

They’re my fixer.

It’s a nice relationship.

I do wonder what they all think of me. All these random people that I’ve met. I wonder if they let me do it because Rei told me that I’m okay or if they are just chill with me sitting in here before it opens.

I wonder.

Whatever they think of me, I’m glad that they allow me to do it.

I’m happy that they let me do it.

Stress.

It comes and goes.

Different projects.

Different phases.

I’m at a good spot right now. Not too stressed. Not too relaxed either.

It’s waiting. Waiting and anticipating what’s coming next.

One project should be winding down soon as another just took off.

The problem with the database project, I don’t know what is to come of it.

I think I have everything, but I don’t know.

I don’t know.

I know it is something that’s been necessary for work for such a long time and if it functions how I think it is going to function, it’ll help with work and efficiencies.

It’ll make many people’s jobs easier.

The downside, it’ll also make people obsolete.

Automation.

Good and bad.

There’s always a catch.

Once the database is set and functioning the way it is supposed to, the next step or phase of the project is setting up the reports.

Automation.

Reports.

There will be many many workshop sessions with the different team to get an understanding of how their reporting works.

Fun times.

I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be different work for once.

But holy fuck me man, that’s a lot of responsibility and there’s so much shit coming down the pipeline and I’m sure there are others that I’m not anticipating.

I can only do so much.

I should take more breaks.

Fuck it.

I need it.

Work life balance.

I need a peace of mind.

I deserve it.

I fucking deserve it.

Treat yo’ self.

I’m craving tacos.

I can’t stop thinking about tacos.

Mexican food.

Been working a lot of overtime over the weekend, why the fucking hell not.

Need to feed my cravings.

TACOS!

Break.

Breaks.

Things I want to do or plan.

I know I want a trip after finishing up the database.

Would it be too close to the Spain trip?

I don’t know.

I still need to book tickets for the attractions. The least I can do while my bro is planning everything. I’m not worried about the money, he’s good a paying me back.

Trips.

I also want to go to Dialogue again. A treat to myself for finishing phase one of the database project.

That project has been a fucking year and a half of my life.

I can’t believe that it’s finally over and there’ll be something substantial to show for it.

I can’t wait for it to be over.

It’ll be done and done.

Decisions.

Work.

I make a lot of business decisions at work. I make many that affect the agency and different departments.

I make them.

I consult with Benjo and others, but I’m the one that makes them.

That’s a lot of responsibility.

I don’t know when this all happened, but here I am.

I never figured to be such an integral part of the agency.

I never figured to be so involved in the agency.

Times were simpler back in the day when all that mattered and all that I should be focus on was helping end users with their issues.

Times were so much simpler back then.;

I didn’t need to make big decisions.

I wasn’t involved in big projects.

I just show up, answer tickets and calls and people’s request to fix things.

Simple.

Now, I do all of that on top of everything else I do.

These past few years, I’ve never been in so many meetings. I never learned so much about advertising. Media.

I learned a lot.

So much.

So fucking much.

I need a break.

I need another one.

I know that I got back from one less than a month ago, but it’s time.

I need another hiking one. I need to do more hiking.

I need more nature in my life.

I need to figure out where to go.

Where haven’t I gone?

Should I go back to someplace I’ve been before or someplace new?

Decisions.

Decisions.

In the meantime, I need to keep my sanity just a little longer.

Just a smidge.

There’s light.

I see the light.

I found it funny that Cyndi saw the light at the end of this project too.

Almost done.

Almost.

Can’t wait.

I will be fine.

I know I will.

I have faith.

I’m good.

I’m.

Good.

Break.

A mental break.

It happened.

I planned and I went and overall, it was a good little getaway.

I didn’t get as much nature as I want, but I got a little something and, in the end, that’s all that mattered.

I honestly didn’t know what I was expecting on the trip, but it was serviceable.

Serviceable indeed.

It was a little good mixture of gluttony and city dwelling along with the nature that I needed.

The drive out to Vegas was whatever and I went straight to the Red Rock National Conservation Area.

I didn’t really know what I was expecting besides the little 13-mile one-way drive.

There were many places to hike and things that I’m sure I would have been interested in doing if it wasn’t for the fucking heat. I wasn’t prepared for the fucking heat.

It was ridiculous.

Fucking ridiculous.

High 90s.

Fuck that.

I only did a few miles that day. Small. Short.

Short short.

A mile or two here.

Another mile or two.

There was no way to possibly do my usual 10+ miles. No way at all.

I gave up that idea after the first short hike. Too hot and I got a wicked headache.

Did I get dehydrated so fast?

I probably did.

Sucker.

Definitely, a place to go back to during colder times.

Winter?

Fall?

Possibly.

Who knows?

After the trip, I went straight back to the hotel.

Headache.

It pounded.

I showered and took a quick nap as I settled into the luxury Howard Johnson near the strip.

I didn’t give a fuck. I didn’t need the luxury of staying at a casino resort. I wasn’t going to pay no resort fee either.;

I just needed a bed to sleep in since I wasn’t anticipating being in the hotel that long anyway.

I’m out early in the morning and come back after three. No need to get the luxury room.

I live simply.

I live frugally.

I’m cheap.

Unlike most trips, I made plans for that night.

I got a ticket to the Seinfeld show.

I love stand up, why the hell not. It’s fucking Seinfeld.

I had dinner at Momofuku in The Cosmopolitan first.

My first time at any David Chang joint.

It was good. So fucking good.

I had the pork chop and I rarely order pork chops. Usually bad, but this was fucking amazing.

So juicy.

So much flavor.

The pork belly bao was good. What I expected it to be. I wished it was a little more braised pork belly like khao nguoc, but no one does that. People like the grilled/roasted taste and it’s easier to make than the braised pork belly.

The ginger scallion noodles were pretty fucking good too.

Overall, good meal.

Would do again.

The show.

Amazing.

I love stand up comedy.

I don’t make it out to any shows here, but when I’m out and traveling and it’s an option, I’d do it.

Seinfeld.

A master at his craft.

He was great.

Funny.

I was laughing the whole time.

That’s all that one can ask for at a show. To have good laughs.

Genius.

Loved it.

Genius.

Bright and early.

I left for Grand Canyon West the next morning.

Like my first day, I didn’t know what to expect.

I didn’t buy tickets in advanced because I didn’t know what I was doing.

I did what I planned in my head.

I explored what this little area had to offer and I had a good day.

Most everything there was a cash trap. You have to spend money to do the most interesting things and I don’t blame them.

The Native Americans that run the lands got fucked over, and I get it.

I paid my money to do what I wanted and didn’t think too much about it.

The only real thing that I was disappointed about was that I can’t take photographs on the Skywalk.

I understand their stance, but I think it’s a bullshit stance. They just wanted people to pay for their own pictures.

The Skywalk was all right. You are out over the canyon. It was high, but not the highest place to the bottom of the canyon.

It’s funny to see so many people scared of standing on the glass, so high up.

I had no problems.

Faith.

I had faith in the glass.

It’ll hold. I didn’t have any problems with that. I don’t have problems with heights.

The second stop of the area was the most beautiful area. This was the area that seems to have any “hiking” or exploring also.

I spent the most time here, chilling. I enjoyed the views.

I climbed over the ridge.

I peered down the canyon and I enjoyed the scenery.

I watched as helicopter after helicopter fly over or descend into the canyon.

So small.

Pea sized.

I’ve been to the Grand Canyon three times prior. Still my brain can’t fathom the sheer size of the canyon.

It’s massive.

We are small.

We are insignificant.

The earth is such a wondrous place.

The third and last stop was the ranch.

I didn’t know what to expect. I really didn’t.

It was setup as an old cowboy era small town. Facades made up store fronts.

There really wasn’t much of anything “ranch like”.

No cows.

No farms.

There were your mechanical bull rides and little pony and horse rides and quick games, and an arcade carnival shoot out thing.

Small.

Quaint.

This is where the zip lining was.

I did it.

My first time.

Overall impressions. Fun.

Not scary at all.

I guess after skydiving, not much is scary, right?

Next up?

Bungee jumping.

Again, I didn’t know what to expect from anything on this trip.

Very minimal research went into everything.

I know there was zip lining and so I did it.

I got to do it twice! I thought it’ll just be one zip line, but there were two.

The second line was the best. It was the longest and the fastest.

It was money, but hey, when on vacation, spend without care.

Spend away.

It was a good experience and overall, the little trip to see a new side of the Canyon was worth the short drive and the tourist feed.

Will I do it again, probably not.

But that’s the thing about exploring and doing. You must see it first before you make any other judgments about it.

Now I know.

There wasn’t much to do after that. It was still early in the day, just after noon, but I decided to drive back.

It’ll take a few hours and I planned on stopping at the Hoover Dam on the way back.

The Hoover Dam is huge. I didn’t venture much there.

I wanted to check out the Visitor Center, but it cost money just to go in. There was a tour that I could have taken, but I was like, nah. The idea that I had to pay money to go into the visitor center kind of turned me off.

I walked to the other side and then walked back. That’s all I did.

Then I walked the memorial bridge overlooking the dam.

That was my day.

Back to the hotel.

Shower. Nap.

Dinner.

Before the trip I did some research on some of the best restaurants and I settled on Partage, a French restaurant in the middle of a stirp mall in Chinatown.

Overall, I was impressed. I thought the food was really good.

I did the 9-course tasting menu without the wine paring. That was another 90 bucks, I think. Too much. I only had 2 glasses of wine and it was about a quarter of that.

There were some great dishes, like the first cold dish, a cantaloupe soup. That was interesting.

I never had something like that.

After dinner, I thought about walking back to the hotel, but was like fuck it. 3.1 miles. Fuck it.

Lyft it is.

Sunday.

My last full day.

Valley of Fire.

I didn’t know what I was going to expect when I decided to go. I did some research and saw this State Park and Vallone recommended it to me and it definitely surprised me.

It was a pretty cool place. There seemed to be a lot of hiking there.

If only it wasn’t so fucking hot.

The views were gorgeous.

Fiery Red.

It was color upon color in the desert.

Valley of Fire was another one of those parks where you have to drive to different locations to see the sights and to access trails. It’s not the type where you can just park and get everywhere through the trails.

I guess in the heat, that’s a good thing.

It was hot. Thankfully there was a breeze, but hot hot heat indeed.

I got to the park close to 8:30 and I left around 12:30 and got a few hikes in.

They weren’t long, but at least it was something. That’s all that mattered. I got some hiking in.

I enjoyed the area.

I enjoyed the hikes.

I enjoyed what the park had to offer.

I would love to go back during the winter or when it’s cooler so I can explore it more.

The best hike I did that day was the Fire Walk. It was an easy flat hike out to the wave.

Need to go back.

Definitely.

The painted walls hike was pretty good too. There were so many petroglyphs on these rocks.

So so many.

To be in another time.

What was life like back then?

Different times.

Different times.

I left a little past 12:30 or maybe 1:30.

It got too hot to hike. It got too hot to be outside, in the sun.

I left.

I thought about exploring Lake Mead and find some hikes, but I didn’t take any of the turns that lead into Lake Mead.

I drove the perimeter, the long way back to my hotel.

It was an interesting drive with great views.

Those are the best type of drives. I didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t expecting much, but it kept me entertained.

Lake Mead was dry. The level was low.

I got back to the hotel, showered, and nap, like usual.

Dinner.

Bacchanal.

I couldn’t decide if I was going to do Wicked Spoon or Bacchanal. I decided on Bacchanal because I never had dinner there, only brunch.

Dinner.

Bacchanal.

It was gluttonous and it was fucking great.

No wonder it’s the best buffet in Vegas.

Too much food. So many options.

I did not eat my money’s worth. It’s expensive. $77 or something.

I over did it.

Fucking dying.

I walked back to the hotel and man; I was just dying.

Ate too much. I always have that problem.

Was it worth it? Possibly, but man, did I feel like shit after wards.

I still had hope of getting brunch at Wicked Spoon before I leave Vegas, but was like, yeah, no. I can’t.

I can’t.

I thought about going to Hooters Casino next door to grab a nightcap, but was like, nope. I can’t.

I can’t.

That’s it.

That’s the trip.

I drove home early the next morning.

Besides some traffic, it was uneventful.

A short break.

A long weekend.

A getaway to clear my mind and soothe my soul.

I reprieve from the stress of work.

I needed it.

I’ll need another one soon.

I can feel it.

Here’s to more.

Here’s to me.

Here’s to my health.

Here’s to my sanity.

Mental Health Breaks.

Do it.