Written October 16th, 2025

Experienced September 19th, 2025

As we stepped out into Vegas, the air was oppressive. This city always feels so feverish, overheated. And it’s not just the weather (which was, of course, scorching), it’s some kind of temporal dysregulation. The city’s metabolism defies the surrounding desert. It sits in the middle of a great bowl of mountains. The city ends dramatically, suddenly dropping into raw desert. We arrived early in the morning, and I walked along the city edge while Vera (wisely) stayed back to sip coffee. In Vegas, the days are off-hours, another testament to the city’s diseased metabolism. The air was sticky, it clung to me. Everything moved in a stumble, falling over and miraculously recovering with each step.