Alright. I leave for Vegas in two weeks. I just got finished with just a whopper of a cold. Since the start of the pandemic, I have been masking everywhere I go. I think I am now a forever masker. I still mask outside if I'm going to be around lots of people, like walking in a large downtown area, I for fucking SURE mask inside. I have only for sure had COVID once, a direct exposure from Derek, who was lax on his mask for one day on post and I had to pay the price for it. I have only been sick once with a cold once in the last five years, from a direct exposure from my oldest because they don't mask despite my insistence. Until two weeks ago. I wanted some WellBefore N95s, Derek got me an off brand, and my first time wearing them, I caught a really fucking nasty cold from my physical therapist. I ordered my WellBefores today. I think I want to head over to Menards and see if they have any 3M Auras to use in the meantime, because my favorite thing about being covid conscious is how I can count on one hand how many times I've been sick since 2020. Before 2020, I had a cold two or three times a year.
I for sure need these masks for Vegas.
I have so many shoots to do. Derek is no longer attending with me, so on the drive out, my girlfriend Bri is coming with me, but she's going to be leaving the morning of the 2nd, so I'll be doing all of my many shoots by myself. And then I'll be hanging out in Santa Fe by myself, but I'll be so busy in Santa Fe that I'm not even pressed. I'll be so busy in Vegas that I won't even really have time to be pressed about being there alone, too.
I'm starting to get everything packed now. I'm going to have to detail the car...or clean it out ENOUGH that I can thoroughly trash it on my way to and from Vegas. I'm gonna be getting myself snacks, I'll be prepping a few days of dinners and breakfasts for myself, Bri and I are going to have Korean BBQ in Vegas (at a place that has an amazing sounding Vegan BBQ menu for me!), and I'll be going to Jinya as expected. I'm going to bring my Soda Sense so I don't have to buy sparkling waters for myself...I just do my best to not have to go out to eat or buy snacks on the road. It's so much less expensive for me to get everything here and just fix my own stuff, and honestly, I learned my lesson when we went to Bryce Canyon and couldn't eat a morsel there. I'm trying to figure out how many days I actually NEED to prep dinners for. I will be gone for ten days, and the day I get back I won't need dinner, I'll be getting home WAY in time for that. So...the night Bri and I leave, the night we arrive in Vegas, the first full day in Vegas Bri and I will be eating at Master Kim's Korean BBQ, The next two nights I will likely eat dinner that I'm bringing for myself, then I'll have Jinya...and I very well may just eat Jinya until I leave for Santa Fe. In Santa Fe, me and Derek's favorite place to eat in Santa Fe is The Pantry. Gotta hit up The Pantry, but I'm unsure what I'll do for a couple of nights for dinner in Santa Fe. I'll figure it the fuck out. I'm going to hit up so many places I'm excited to see, for the first time and again. I'm going to bring noatmeal and almond milk for myself, snackies, breakfast sweet loaves (I'm thinking chocolate zucchini bread and also cranberry orange). Gotta bring myself some sweet treats, because I do have such a sweet tooth (maybe I'll make myself chocolate pretzels again?), and I'm going to need to have plenty of snacks to keep me going, because I'll be go go go go go from the second Bri leaves until the moment I head out to OKC. I won't be doing any model or client shoots while I'm in Santa Fe, but I WILL be bouncing from place to place to take other kinds of photos.
I will be doing my blog as per usual for my trip, the silver lining to missing my best friend and travel companion going with me is that, once Bri leaves, I will have all the down time to update my blog and perhaps I will be able to post every day. We'll see. I have always tried to do a day by day posting when I'm on a trip, and I have never fucking ONCE been able to manage.
I am not at all excited to be in Vegas proper. I was just telling my sibling and their wife that I am so anti everything Vegas stands for. Being in city proper is going to make me miserable, but I am SO excited to be out in the canyons and the mountains. I have always loved hiking in Vegas. I'm nervous about how all of these shoots are going to go. Ugh. This is going to be a wild time. I miss just popping up to Chicago for shoots!
