4am in Vegas
I don’t recall when I fell asleep, but I do recall when I heard “breaking news!!” being yelled on CNN at 3:30 am. I quickly had to remember that I was now operating on Pacific time and that it was the beginning of a Friday on the east coast and Pennsylvania was starting to report additional votes. Meanwhile, I was in Clark County, Nevada (aka Vegas) just watching the local news share memes about how slow Nevada was during this process and their enjoyment of others mispronouncing “Nevada”.
Naturally, some people thought that I had indeed traveled out here to assist with the counting of the votes when it was the opposite. I came out to Las Vegas on a whim because the weather forecast in Miami was trash and I just wanted to sit by a pool or a beach. The weather forecast projected 88 degrees and so on Sunday, I booked a flight for Wednesday afternoon.
So now, here I am at 4:00 am now officially glued to CNN and the projections. No matter how hard I tried, I simply could not fall back asleep and had a feeling that I was going to need a strong coffee to get me through the day. I had also decided on another whim that I wanted to extend my time in Vegas and forfeit my original plans of being in Los Angeles on Friday so that meant I had to switch hotels. I was exhausted but on adrenaline, because I felt like things were finally starting to happen. I had been surprisingly calm as I fell asleep on Election Day feeling calm and secure that I had done everything I needed to do and could do. It was out of my hands and I needed a vacation before I returned to my day job.
Let’s just say that I was attached to CNN until 8:00 am when I finally decided to gather myself to get a coffee and sneak in some final pool time at my first Vegas hotel. The desert sun certainly was hitting different and I wanted to soak it all in before the forecast did a radical shift the next day. But even as I was at the pool I kept wondering… “is this really about to happen?!” CNN was making it pretty clear that if Joe Biden won Pennsylvania it would be game over for 45. So as much as I hate to admit it, I was definitely checking the CNN website as I was laid out at Mandalay Bay looking at the wave pool.
I couldn’t help but laugh at God’s humor that the place I went to relax was receiving so much of America’s attention. The world wanted to see where those 6 votes would go! It was a Friday and I was secretly praying that an announcement would be made so that I could have an epic memory of being on the Las Vegas Strip when they announced that Biden Harris had secured the seat.
Unfortunately, it did not happen that way and the projection did not take place until Saturday morning, but hey, I was still in Las Vegas! And I may or may not have begun yelling down the hotel hallway for people to wake up because “we” won. As the Black travelers in the hotel were passing one another, you could see each other grinning, doing head nods, and having a certain pep in their step. You certainly couldn’t tell me anything as I proudly sported my “Black mixed with Black” t-shirt for everyone to see, even if I was chilly. I wanted to showcase my pride and excitement about this pivotal moment in time.
Because I had changed my plans at the last minute, my Saturday would be a day of traveling and only traveling. I did not trust myself to venture around Los Angeles after the announcement and I was also fearful of what traffic would look like in the areas I wanted to go. I actually ended up seeing people celebrating in the West Hollywood streets on Twitter and that’s exactly where I was ready to go. I spent my time in the airport on Facetime having multiple conversations about my excitement that this was happening. When it was finally 6:00 pm and time to board my flight, Vice President-elect was just getting ready to make her speech. Thankfully, my line sisters FaceTimed me so that I was able to tune in and I saw a few Black women also glued to their phones as they were boarding.
“You watching girl?” “Sure am!”
It was a beautiful thing to see. I’ve been in awe, shock, and some disbelief that we really pulled this thing off. All of the work did not go in vain. The months and years of getting people ready for this moment. Exhausted wasn’t the word and by the time I got picked up at DFW, I was ready to collapse yet I still had energy from my excitement. The cool thing though is that I can at least say I was on vacation in Las Vegas when they announced our new President and Vice President-elect of the United States of America. What a time to be alive.
