It’s finished. At 9PM last night, our empty crates were dropped off at our booth by highly professional union fork lift drivers, and we began the laborious process of packing. It’s a bit like trying to stuff a mushroom cloud back into a nice, shiny plutonium sphere. It always seems we go back with a little more than we brought.

By midnight, everything was boxed, packed, strapped, shrink-wrapped, and labeled. The boss then suggested we all go for a quick dinner. We walked around the Venetian hotel looking for an open restaurant for about an hour, finally found one, and had an unremarkable but protracted meal. I was caught sleeping soundly at the restaurant table, more than once. I finally got to bed at around 3:30 AM.

Our hotel had a ridiculously early check-out time of 10AM. I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed at 9, got packed, and checked out, leaving my bags with the bellman whilst I wandered off in search of something resembling breakfast, lunch, or brunch. I found a breakfast buffet at the Flamingo hotel nearby and had some nice fruit and pastry. Excess is the watchword here in Las Vegas, with restaurant buffets that stretch into infinity, offering every conceivable variety of food, all in quantities to feed an army … or a casino full of hungry gamblers.

Leaving the buffet, I heard a familiar sound. There, just outside the door, in a cage about 10 feet tall, was a beautiful greenwing macaw. He was introduced to me as “Captain”, the Flamingo’s mascot. He said hello to me as I walked up, dispelling my worries that a bird in such a public, noisy area would not be terribly happy. He seems to soak up the attention from passersby, and is very talkative. His trainer and caretaker came by to check on him, and told me he’s only out for a few hours at a time; I was lucky to catch him on a weekday morning. What a beautiful bird. I can’t wait to get home and give Sammy a cuddle and a treat.

Now I’m back in the lobby of the Not-Summer Not-Bay Not-Resort, having collected my bags and scheduled myself on a shuttle. Bored, I wandered into the souvenir shop and discovered a land mine. I spend so much time convincing myself that I’m over the loss of my marriage, but every now and then something happens that reminds me I’m kidding myself.

My wife used to collect keychains, the souvenir kind. It’s an odd habit but I warmed to it, and for the last 10 years I’ve brought her back a keychain from anyplace I went without her. I never really thought of it as important, but rather as one of those little things I did, just to give her a smile. Why, then, did I just find myself standing in front of a rack of gaudy “Las Vegas” keychains, turning my head and trying not to let the lady down the aisle see me wipe away a tear? Why did I have the strongest compulsion to buy one of those keychains, even though I no longer have anyone to give it to?

Someday.

Time to pack up the laptop and go find a plane headed east. Tony’s doing all right by all accounts, and I wish I could pick him up today, but tomorrow morning will have to do. I hope he’ll be as happy to be home as I will be. This trip has been really traumatic, and I think I won’t be doing any more traveling for a while.

I am trying very hard to think of something I can do to thank my friends Nicholas and Seong for taking such good care of the birds, BB, and my apartment while I was gone. If anybody has any ideas, I’d love to hear them. I don’t want to just pay them because that might be insulting, but I want this to be something nice, something commensurate with the amount of effort they’ve put forth, visiting every other day to change litter boxes, feed and water birds and cats, and just generally keep things in order. They’ve really saved my sanity and I owe them.

Until tomorrow!