feels good to be back in Berkeley :) a little regretfully, circumstances were such that i didn't manage to do the two things i most looked forward to the on this trip... too many things but too tired to pen down thoughts on trip tonight, so will just write about the (un?)eventful today... i somehow managed to misplace my driver's licence on the very day i needed it to board plane to Grand Canyon and so i had to accept consequences of own actions and stay back in LV... (a part of me wants to blame it on the front desk staff, but have to admit that lesson learnt is that you always have to take responsibility for your own things. this lesson a careless me actually somehow manages to unlearn time and again) sometimes you really wonder if things happen for a reason? but roaming streets, shopping, reading at Starbucks and having a little peace and quiet to myself wasn't that bad either :) and unexpectedly, family returned with nothing good to say about the outing.... er so... i guess though i felt sorry it didn't turn out well, i guess it was a small consolation too? :P

so the last hour or so was spent sitting at one of the Jackpot machine seats at the hotel casino and i think it's only when you really sit and really look at what's going on around you do you see beyond the bustle and incessant human traffic.... first, i was somewhat looking over a shoulder of a casino patron playing those $1 per play jackpots... i was somehow horrified how she just threw away more than $100 or so in 15 min or so.... of course this is nothing compared to those rich gamblers at the $1000 per play tables... but still! and all this money goes into the pockets of those casino magnates when it could be put to much better/meaningful use... (but of course, who am i to criticize what they want to do with their money...) i also encountered two working class individuals- bus driver who ferried me back to hotel from airport, who lamented that she has to work 6 days a week and is too busy to go on one of those GC flights herself, and a friendly (er.. maybe lonely?) Jamaican cleaner named Riggly, who was going around collecting empty beer bottles, sweeping and polishing the metal surfaces of jackpot machines... who instead of shooing me away started talking to me and saying how he gets to meet all kinds of ppl there (which i totally agree... you see ALL kinds of ppl) the staff at Rio is really pretty international (the staff wear name tags with their place of origin under their names) and so you get to see where they come from... the front desk staff are mostly American (expectedly), but the more menial jobs appear to be taken up by non-Americans... eg. cashier lady at convenience store was from Sri Lanka... i dunno. it just really reminded me of all the "invisible" immigrant labor taking up blue collar jobs in the US... haha just random musings. going to conk out now.