I headed up north to Reno this weekend to visit a friend of mine. Jeff is an old boyfriend of mine from high school. We have determined that we have now known each other for 20 years. It sounds so weird to be able to say that. Anyway, the last time I was up in that area was for his wedding about 4 years ago. It was the first time I met his wife, Jan. Needless to say, we didn’t have much of an opportunity to talk back then so this was also my first opportunity to get to know her.
I decided to drive. According to Map Quest, it was going to take about 8 hours. It seemed really strange to have it take so long since it was only about 450 miles. I decided to drive it for a couple of reasons. I wanted to have my car so I could come and go as I pleased and I thought it would be nice to see what was between here and there. Somebody please remind me to fly next time!
There isn’t much of a direct route to get there other than US-95 which becomes a 2 lane road outside of Vegas. Ugh. It really is amazing to me that outside of the city; Nevada becomes a whole lot of nothing. It’s pretty of course, and the drive was a series of mountain ranges and old mining towns that were left to ruin after the mines dried up. Just north of the city I found some of the areas I have only heard about at this point: the road to Mt. Charleston (the highest mountain in Clark County), Pahrump (where most of the famous brothels are located) and I think I saw Yucca Mountain (the site where the government wants to store the country’s nuclear waste which Nevada has vigorously tried to stop for more than 20 years). I looked around for Area 51, but it isn’t like they have signs posted for it.
Other than that, the most amazing thing I saw was the gas prices. Everything was over $4 which makes sense due to the fact that there were little to no other options. So my first stop on the way up was a tiny town called Beatty. This is a logical stop for people looking to load up on supplies before making the trek out to Death Valley. I stopped because they had a huge candy store. So much for sight seeing! The next big stop was a very X-files type of town called Hawthorne. This place creeped me out. There is a huge Army depot located there and the outside of town is covered with these really weird looking bunkers that have been camouflaged to look like small hills. I wondered what it looks like from the air. Anyway, I can’t put my finger on exactly why it creeped me out, but it wasn’t someplace I wanted to ever be stranded, so on I went. Hawthorne is also located next to a huge lake called Walker Lake. I think the military stationed there also use the lake for some sort of under water military training too. Creepy.
The rest of the trip up was relatively uneventful and sure enough it took me roughly 7 hours to get to Jeff’s house. One of the reasons I decided to come up and visit now was that Jeff was in a play. The play was titled “The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer.” It was….complicated. Basically it was the story of Oppenheimer and his work on the Atom bomb. I think it was one of those plays that you need to see more than once to really understand everything. The theater itself was in a high school. It was incredibly hot and the ushers actually passed out seat cushions when they took your tickets since the seats were so uncomfortable. I thought I was going to pass out from heat stroke. It made it that much harder to concentrate on what was happening on stage.
So Friday night I get to the house and Jeff was already at the theater. I decided I was going to go to the Saturday night show which left me time to get acquainted with Jan and the twins. They have twin girls who just turned 4. Cosette and Catherine are super cute and incredibly well spoken for 4 year olds. No baby talk here. They sound like they have had lessons in diction. They also have a fascination with bugs as all children seem to have. In particular, they captured a beetle (which was actually a stink bug) and spent the weekend “playing” with the beetle which included putting it in a car, a boat, on a horse, and just generally grossing me out with letting it crawl all over them (probably desperately looking for an escape). During the course of the weekend I noticed it seemed to be missing a leg. I had to play along and pretend that it didn’t completely freak me out. I mean, who am I to scar them with my own creepy crawly phobia? Jeff and Jan didn’t care, so when in Rome, right?
So in addition to the beetle, they also have 2 dogs and 3 cats. A regular animal house. What was not readily apparent to me when we discussed my visit was the fact that my room was often the resting place of said cats. Ugh. The room next to mine stored their food and litter box, so I wasn’t able to close my door at night to keep them out since it would just have resulted in lots of scratching and meowing at odd hours in the night. Plus, one of the cats apparently lived under the bed which only served to remind me of the “monster under the bed” scenarios from childhood. They had covered the bed with a thick blanket to deal with the inevitable cat hair that manages to cover everything. So the routine quickly became one of scattering the cats off the blanket and then removing the blanket before I could go to sleep. Then I had to remember not to scream in terror if one of them decided to come for a visit during the night. By the second night, I was too exhausted to care.
So Friday night after the show, Jeff called the house to give me directions to the bar where the cast was meeting. I headed out and met the cast. They seem like a nice group of people. While we were there, we had an earthquake. We would find out later that it was a 4.7. Not bad. The rocking seemed to go on for several minutes. It was one of those moments where all conversation stops and everyone kind of looks at each other to verify that it is in fact happening and not a result of the latest drink that has suddenly caught up with you. Once it was over, all conversation resumed.
On Saturday, I hung out with Jan and the kids while Jeff went in to work for a couple of hours. We went to this fun little building in town that houses a children’s museum. The girls participate in a program called Kindermusik which combines art and music and dancing. Jan and I sat in another room while the girls were in class and we made out the grocery list for the following day since they had decided to host the cast party for Sunday night. Before the end of the class, the parents come back in to participate in the last 15 minutes. I attended as well and we learned about chimes. We listened to a couple of pieces of music and had to identify when we heard the chimes. Then there was a little song and dance which is something they do at the end of every class. It was cute. We then took the girls upstairs to the museum part of the building and hung out for a bit. This is essentially a big room with different interactive exhibits like a doctor’s office, a bank, a grocery store, an arts and crafts table, and so on. In the bank exhibit they have these various stacks of coins and apparently I am $247.50 tall in stacked quarters (5’6”). At one point, they dragged out a giant inflatable dome and then we all crawled in to see the “planetarium” which was a shade with cutouts of the constellations over a bulb. It was fun but a little hard on the knees to be crawling around on that floor. After that, it was home for lunch and then nap time. By then Jeff was home and everyone went down for a nap. I am a huge fan of nap time.
After that, we got ready for the show and I left with Jeff. Jeff apparently was dealing with a touch of food poisoning, so I don’t think Saturday was a good day for him. Needless to say, after the show we headed home again and went to bed. Sunday was grocery day. It was the last day of the show and it was a matinee. Everyone was coming over around 5, so we had a lot to do. It was fun to see the 5 of us split up in the grocery store with carts. We would randomly meet up in an aisle to make sure we had everything. Once we got back, Jan and the girls had lunch and went down for a nap while Jeff headed back to the theater. In the meantime, I was on food duty. I marinated meat for the grill, chopped vegetables, made potato salad and my favorite party food, pigs in a blanket. Everything was ready to go in plenty of time. (Thank you Food Network!)
It was a relatively small group, which was nice. Jeff and Jan have a hot tub, so I knew people would eventually migrate there. I settled in to enjoy the party and somehow managed to drink more than I thought I would. I really didn’t think I was in bad shape. I was drinking water, I had a meal, and I thought it was all under control. Apparently I was wrong. The next morning was when I was to drive home. I thought I was going to die. I was reminded of last weekend with Heidi and felt like perhaps I had jinxed myself when I stated that it had been a long time since I had found myself in that situation. In my mind I saw one of those accident signs posted in some businesses that say how many days they have been accident free. Apparently, it was time for me to erase the count and start over again.
Jan had to go to work, Jeff took the girls to Gymboree, and I was lying around trying to figure out how I was going to make it home. I finally decided to just get out on the road. After an hour, I felt like I was going to fall asleep behind the wheel so I stopped in a little town and found a grocery store parking lot and closed my eyes for about 10 minutes. After that, I made it back to creepy Hawthorne and thought that maybe I could eat food at that point. I stopped at the McDonald’s there and tried to eat something. It was more entertaining to see the people that wandered in while I was there. I finally started to feel better although I was totally exhausted. The rest of the drive home was uneventful. I finally made it home and just moved everything into the laundry room to try and keep the cat hair contamination as contained as possible. I crawled into bed and slipped into oblivion for a good 12 hours. Today is a million times better, but I still feel a bit off.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Long Walks
So this weekend was all about family. One of my nieces turned 21 this past week. Her mom decided to bring her and her sister out for the weekend to celebrate. (If that sentence sounds weird, the girls are my step-nieces.) Anyway, on Friday night I headed down to the Rio to meet them all for dinner. It was really nice to see everyone again. Ashley had just returned from spending a semester in London and had plenty of stories to share. After dinner, Liz (the 21 yr old) and I went over to the Mirage to see the Beatles LOVE show.
I saw it the year before with Lori, but I was so ready to see it again. Plus I love the fact that Liz loves Paul McCartney as much as I do. She can be a bit on the quiet side sometimes, but she was pretty chatty the whole time we were waiting for the show to start. Plus, we had to pass the Beatles gift shop on the way to the theater, so we were both pretty excited to go in after the show ended.
Once the show was over and we had loaded up on all our Beatles swag, we headed back to the Rio to pick up Ashley. Ashley (who just turned 19) wanted to walk the Strip and take pictures. When am I finally going to remember to carry flip flops in my car? I should totally stop typing right now and go put a pair in my trunk. Needless to say, my super fun leopard print high heels were less than super fun at that point. We stopped in the gift shop at the Rio to see if I could pick up a cheap pair there. I should have known better. $30 for a pair of plastic flip flops. Are you kidding me? No way.
So it was time once again for the fallback plan. Thank God that the Strip has a 24 hour CVS. We grabbed a cab and headed over to New York New York so Ashley could get some great pictures on the walkway over Las Vegas Blvd. That done, we started heading up the street. We made a quick stop at CVS so I could pick up my third pair of cheap flip flops ($7) and we were on our way. We stopped at the Bellagio to watch the fountains before heading through Caesar’s and then on to the Venetian. Flip flops or not, it felt like we walked about 3 miles. After sitting in the Palazzo and having some tasty gelato, we were ready to call it a night. Although they stayed the weekend that was the only night I had to see them. It was fun to catch up and I hope the rest of their weekend here was fun.
The next night I had another birthday party to attend. Heidi’s sister was having her birthday party. As usual, I was the driver and Heidi and I made our way out to the JW Marriott resort where they had reserved a 2 bedroom suite for the night. This was my first time inside the place and I had no idea how big it was or the fact that there really is a Rampart Casino (like they mention on CSI) inside. On TV, the Rampart seems to be the location for many nefarious crimes, so I was on high alert for any criminal elements hanging around.
We left the car in Valet and headed in to the elevators. We already had drama going on because apparently, the hotel had double booked the suite and tried to get us to move to another room. When we refused, they said that we weren’t allowed to have a party there and that any reports of noise would result in everyone but the registered guests be removed. What this meant was that everyone that was coming to the now non-party birthday party had to sneak in and avoid the front desk. Especially since it was sort of a pot luck affair and we weren’t using the catering services of the hotel. So Heidi and I (and the contraband onion dip) got in to the elevator and headed up only to find that we were in the wrong tower. Apparently there are 2. Guess where the other one was? On the other side of the resort. So once again I found myself on another long walk through long corridors, the casino, the food area, more long corridors and finally to the other lobby and set of elevators. Luckily, I was wearing better shoes this time.
The size of this suite was twice the size of my apartment. The bathrooms alone were bigger than my living room. The usual crowd was there so at least I wasn’t facing a room full of strangers. There was also a huge wrap around balcony which was good for the smokers. One good thing about being with this group is that they all know that I am the sober driver so they don’t try to pressure me with the inevitable shots of patron they all love to do. I made a very weak drink, grabbed a sandwich and headed out to chat with some girls from the spa. Heidi planted herself at the bar and settled in to have a good time. Too bad that good time was going to end sooner than she anticipated.
I don’t know what she had to eat that day, but it wasn’t enough. The next time I saw her, which was probably no more than 30 minutes after we arrived, I could tell she was drunk. Not a good sign. I told her to eat something and to have some water and to pace herself. But, since I am her friend and not her conscience, she did what she wanted which apparently was to do more shots and beer. The next time I saw her she could barely stand. I think we had been there under 2 hours. I have never seen her that wasted before. All signs indicated this was not going to end well.
So I stepped it up a bit and tried to get her to sit down. I took her fresh beer away from her, took her phone away from her since it was also covered in beer and she kept dropping it. I walked her back inside and her sister and brother in law took her into their room to put her to bed. If she was going to stay the night, then I was free to leave whenever. I decided to hang for a bit longer just to make sure she was out for the night. The next time I went to check on her I found her in the bathroom. For the next couple of hours, I progressed to the “friend that holds your hair” stage. This was a first for us. When she could speak she kept apologizing and telling me to go back to the party and have a good time. Then she would collapse on the floor on her towel and rest until the next round. I of course stayed right where I was and kept telling myself that the hair I kept pulling back from her face was wet from the water…
Meanwhile….back at the party, more drama was a brewin. Apparently, there were a couple of “guests” that decided to go through people’s purses in the other bedroom and look for pills and cash. They were caught in the act. I heard the arguments going on and went to the other room to retrieve our stuff. Nothing appeared to be missing, so at least we didn’t have to deal with that. I didn’t stay to listen to the fallout of that drama, and went back in to stay with Heidi. In the time it took me to leave the room and come back, several people had decided to camp out in the bathroom with Heidi to do one or more of the following: hold her hair, rub her back, ask her if she wanted water, ask her if she wanted to go lay down, ask her how she was feeling, ask her if she was done, blah, blah, blah. As if she was going to answer. I was mortified on her behalf. I understand they all were concerned and wanted to help, but did she really need an audience? Plus, I just remember what it is like to be that ill and THE LAST thing I would want is anyone near me let alone anyone touching me. So I did what I could to hustle them back out again. It was a waste of time. People would leave only to be replaced by more people with more questions and advice on what she should be doing.
Eventually, she seemed ready to leave her place on the floor and try to go to bed. Again, people materialized out of nowhere to help in this effort. Since she was doing better and since I was about to have a coronary, I thought it was probably best to leave. The last time I saw her that night, she was in bed and surrounded by no less than 4 people and they were trying to wrap her up in the comforter on the bed. She was weakly saying that she didn’t want the covers, but apparently everyone helping her knew best what she needed. Then I heard her call for me. I thought she was going to ask me to get her the Hell out of there which I would have gladly done. Instead, she asked me where her phone was. LOL….
I left shortly after and made the long walk back to the Valet. Sunday morning we met up for breakfast and I filled her in on the fun night she couldn’t recall. She seemed to be fine. I would have been miserable for the next week. Ah, youth.
I saw it the year before with Lori, but I was so ready to see it again. Plus I love the fact that Liz loves Paul McCartney as much as I do. She can be a bit on the quiet side sometimes, but she was pretty chatty the whole time we were waiting for the show to start. Plus, we had to pass the Beatles gift shop on the way to the theater, so we were both pretty excited to go in after the show ended.
Once the show was over and we had loaded up on all our Beatles swag, we headed back to the Rio to pick up Ashley. Ashley (who just turned 19) wanted to walk the Strip and take pictures. When am I finally going to remember to carry flip flops in my car? I should totally stop typing right now and go put a pair in my trunk. Needless to say, my super fun leopard print high heels were less than super fun at that point. We stopped in the gift shop at the Rio to see if I could pick up a cheap pair there. I should have known better. $30 for a pair of plastic flip flops. Are you kidding me? No way.
So it was time once again for the fallback plan. Thank God that the Strip has a 24 hour CVS. We grabbed a cab and headed over to New York New York so Ashley could get some great pictures on the walkway over Las Vegas Blvd. That done, we started heading up the street. We made a quick stop at CVS so I could pick up my third pair of cheap flip flops ($7) and we were on our way. We stopped at the Bellagio to watch the fountains before heading through Caesar’s and then on to the Venetian. Flip flops or not, it felt like we walked about 3 miles. After sitting in the Palazzo and having some tasty gelato, we were ready to call it a night. Although they stayed the weekend that was the only night I had to see them. It was fun to catch up and I hope the rest of their weekend here was fun.
The next night I had another birthday party to attend. Heidi’s sister was having her birthday party. As usual, I was the driver and Heidi and I made our way out to the JW Marriott resort where they had reserved a 2 bedroom suite for the night. This was my first time inside the place and I had no idea how big it was or the fact that there really is a Rampart Casino (like they mention on CSI) inside. On TV, the Rampart seems to be the location for many nefarious crimes, so I was on high alert for any criminal elements hanging around.
We left the car in Valet and headed in to the elevators. We already had drama going on because apparently, the hotel had double booked the suite and tried to get us to move to another room. When we refused, they said that we weren’t allowed to have a party there and that any reports of noise would result in everyone but the registered guests be removed. What this meant was that everyone that was coming to the now non-party birthday party had to sneak in and avoid the front desk. Especially since it was sort of a pot luck affair and we weren’t using the catering services of the hotel. So Heidi and I (and the contraband onion dip) got in to the elevator and headed up only to find that we were in the wrong tower. Apparently there are 2. Guess where the other one was? On the other side of the resort. So once again I found myself on another long walk through long corridors, the casino, the food area, more long corridors and finally to the other lobby and set of elevators. Luckily, I was wearing better shoes this time.
The size of this suite was twice the size of my apartment. The bathrooms alone were bigger than my living room. The usual crowd was there so at least I wasn’t facing a room full of strangers. There was also a huge wrap around balcony which was good for the smokers. One good thing about being with this group is that they all know that I am the sober driver so they don’t try to pressure me with the inevitable shots of patron they all love to do. I made a very weak drink, grabbed a sandwich and headed out to chat with some girls from the spa. Heidi planted herself at the bar and settled in to have a good time. Too bad that good time was going to end sooner than she anticipated.
I don’t know what she had to eat that day, but it wasn’t enough. The next time I saw her, which was probably no more than 30 minutes after we arrived, I could tell she was drunk. Not a good sign. I told her to eat something and to have some water and to pace herself. But, since I am her friend and not her conscience, she did what she wanted which apparently was to do more shots and beer. The next time I saw her she could barely stand. I think we had been there under 2 hours. I have never seen her that wasted before. All signs indicated this was not going to end well.
So I stepped it up a bit and tried to get her to sit down. I took her fresh beer away from her, took her phone away from her since it was also covered in beer and she kept dropping it. I walked her back inside and her sister and brother in law took her into their room to put her to bed. If she was going to stay the night, then I was free to leave whenever. I decided to hang for a bit longer just to make sure she was out for the night. The next time I went to check on her I found her in the bathroom. For the next couple of hours, I progressed to the “friend that holds your hair” stage. This was a first for us. When she could speak she kept apologizing and telling me to go back to the party and have a good time. Then she would collapse on the floor on her towel and rest until the next round. I of course stayed right where I was and kept telling myself that the hair I kept pulling back from her face was wet from the water…
Meanwhile….back at the party, more drama was a brewin. Apparently, there were a couple of “guests” that decided to go through people’s purses in the other bedroom and look for pills and cash. They were caught in the act. I heard the arguments going on and went to the other room to retrieve our stuff. Nothing appeared to be missing, so at least we didn’t have to deal with that. I didn’t stay to listen to the fallout of that drama, and went back in to stay with Heidi. In the time it took me to leave the room and come back, several people had decided to camp out in the bathroom with Heidi to do one or more of the following: hold her hair, rub her back, ask her if she wanted water, ask her if she wanted to go lay down, ask her how she was feeling, ask her if she was done, blah, blah, blah. As if she was going to answer. I was mortified on her behalf. I understand they all were concerned and wanted to help, but did she really need an audience? Plus, I just remember what it is like to be that ill and THE LAST thing I would want is anyone near me let alone anyone touching me. So I did what I could to hustle them back out again. It was a waste of time. People would leave only to be replaced by more people with more questions and advice on what she should be doing.
Eventually, she seemed ready to leave her place on the floor and try to go to bed. Again, people materialized out of nowhere to help in this effort. Since she was doing better and since I was about to have a coronary, I thought it was probably best to leave. The last time I saw her that night, she was in bed and surrounded by no less than 4 people and they were trying to wrap her up in the comforter on the bed. She was weakly saying that she didn’t want the covers, but apparently everyone helping her knew best what she needed. Then I heard her call for me. I thought she was going to ask me to get her the Hell out of there which I would have gladly done. Instead, she asked me where her phone was. LOL….
I left shortly after and made the long walk back to the Valet. Sunday morning we met up for breakfast and I filled her in on the fun night she couldn’t recall. She seemed to be fine. I would have been miserable for the next week. Ah, youth.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Quick Trip
This past week I headed back to Cincinnati for a quick business trip. It was kind of an under the radar sort of trip. Since I knew I wasn’t going to have time to see people, I didn’t bother telling anyone other than family that I was coming back. In order to make sure I had a car while in town, I flew in to Louisville and drove up to Cinci. I was so excited to travel again.
Then again, the trip has its normal share of mishaps that are so common with travel. I had no idea that my flight wasn’t direct. It didn’t say anything on my itinerary, so I was a bit dismayed to find that I had to go to Chicago. We flew into Midway rather than O’Hare, which was nice. However, once we got there we ended up having to switch planes. Not sure why, but whatever. So then next flight was a bit delayed, of course. Once we finally landed in KY, I was already an hour behind schedule. I still needed to drive another hour and a half to get to the hotel.
I had a small bit of drama with the rental car too. Louisville is a relatively small airport, so no need for a shuttle to the rental cars. Instead, I picked up the keys and schlepped out to the parking lot. I got in the car and couldn’t get the keys in the ignition. So there I am trying to jam the key in, looking for some sort of button or some indication of something I may need to do in order to get the stupid key in. As I sat there ready to blow my top, I am thinking that I am going to have to get my bags back out of the car and head back to the stupid counter.
As luck would have it, 2 guys were getting in to a car next to mine and I decided to ask for help. I didn’t like it, but I had to be the damsel in distress and hope they could figure it out. The guys were super nice and after trying to put the key in the ignition and having the same problem I did, one of them looked closer at the keys and determined that I was trying to start my Hyundai with keys to a Chevy. Turns out the Chevy was parked right next to me. So now what? My contract said I had the right car, but I had the wrong keys. I debated for a couple of seconds before deciding to go ahead and go back and get the right keys rather than just take the other car. Plus, the Chevy was some huge SUV that I didn’t want anyway. So back I went.
I finally got on the road and got to the hotel at midnight. I think I was supposed to be there at 10. Anyway, these are the little things that can really put a person off traveling. Luckily, the control freak in me recognizes that when it comes to business travel, “surrender and release” is the only way to get through it. There was nothing I could do about any of it other than to accept and move on, so that’s what I did. Otherwise, the trip was fine.
I was able to meet my Dad for dinner one night, but basically that was it. I was back out again on Friday to come home. I suppose I could have stayed the weekend, but for whatever reason, it didn’t even occur to me to stay when I was making the travel plans. This coming weekend my nieces will be in town. Stay tuned….
Then again, the trip has its normal share of mishaps that are so common with travel. I had no idea that my flight wasn’t direct. It didn’t say anything on my itinerary, so I was a bit dismayed to find that I had to go to Chicago. We flew into Midway rather than O’Hare, which was nice. However, once we got there we ended up having to switch planes. Not sure why, but whatever. So then next flight was a bit delayed, of course. Once we finally landed in KY, I was already an hour behind schedule. I still needed to drive another hour and a half to get to the hotel.
I had a small bit of drama with the rental car too. Louisville is a relatively small airport, so no need for a shuttle to the rental cars. Instead, I picked up the keys and schlepped out to the parking lot. I got in the car and couldn’t get the keys in the ignition. So there I am trying to jam the key in, looking for some sort of button or some indication of something I may need to do in order to get the stupid key in. As I sat there ready to blow my top, I am thinking that I am going to have to get my bags back out of the car and head back to the stupid counter.
As luck would have it, 2 guys were getting in to a car next to mine and I decided to ask for help. I didn’t like it, but I had to be the damsel in distress and hope they could figure it out. The guys were super nice and after trying to put the key in the ignition and having the same problem I did, one of them looked closer at the keys and determined that I was trying to start my Hyundai with keys to a Chevy. Turns out the Chevy was parked right next to me. So now what? My contract said I had the right car, but I had the wrong keys. I debated for a couple of seconds before deciding to go ahead and go back and get the right keys rather than just take the other car. Plus, the Chevy was some huge SUV that I didn’t want anyway. So back I went.
I finally got on the road and got to the hotel at midnight. I think I was supposed to be there at 10. Anyway, these are the little things that can really put a person off traveling. Luckily, the control freak in me recognizes that when it comes to business travel, “surrender and release” is the only way to get through it. There was nothing I could do about any of it other than to accept and move on, so that’s what I did. Otherwise, the trip was fine.
I was able to meet my Dad for dinner one night, but basically that was it. I was back out again on Friday to come home. I suppose I could have stayed the weekend, but for whatever reason, it didn’t even occur to me to stay when I was making the travel plans. This coming weekend my nieces will be in town. Stay tuned….
Tourist Weekend
So last weekend I was called upon once again to hang out on the Strip with friends that came to town. As usual, I had a blast although my feet always suffer the consequences. Still, it never seems to stop me from wearing fun (and completely torturous) shoes.I was able to get in a couple of new experiences, which is always a good thing. The first night the group was in town, we went to Firefly and luckily, everyone enjoyed it as much as I do. After that, we hit the Strip to check out the fountains at the Bellagio and to grab a drink at the Mermaid bar at Caesar’s. The next night we headed to dinner at one of the Wolfgang Puck restaurants. It was excellent of course, but very pricey as far as I was concerned. Still, it was something I wouldn’t have done otherwise, so it’s one more restaurant to cross off the list. After dinner, we headed over the The Comedy Stop at the Tropicana to catch a show. It was hilarious. I had never been before, so I didn’t know what to expect. I should have known better than to question the quality of any show on the Strip, even one as cheap as this one. There were 3 comedians and all of them were very funny.
After 2 days on the Strip in stupid shoes, I found I could barely walk. It felt as though someone had taken a baseball bat to the bottom of my feet. So….Saturday morning was all about the sensible walking shoes. We started off at the Peppermill for breakfast and then on to the souvenir place on Sahara. Once all the shopping was done the group decided to split up. Lori and I decided to grab a drink. Sure, it was only noon, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. While the other girls headed to get some pool time, Lori and I headed to Rumjungle. This place is a restaurant/ nightclub. They can be a bit picky about whom they let in once it turns into a nightclub, but at noon on a Saturday the doors were wide open to one and all and the place was basically deserted. It was a perfect place to sit and have a drink and get caught up.
Turns out we spent the better part of the day there. We were the only ones at the bar when we got there, but as the afternoon progressed, people started to filter in and join us. It was kind of cool really. We all started talking to each other and the bartender kept coming around from time to time with free shots. Sitting next to me was a guy from the O.C. who is actually in the LA production of Wicked. He plays the Tin Man. How cool was that? I keep meaning to send him an email, but haven’t done it yet. Here's a picture of the cutie patootie.
Anyway, the bar bill came and turns out the bartender only charged us for our first round of drinks. Awesome. What a great day. I was no where near ready to drive home, so we decided to take a walk. We headed through some of the shopping area at Mandalay Bay and decided to do a bit of drunk dialing. We called the “other half” of our normal traveling companions. Baby wasn’t there, but Mimi was and we had a nice little chat while trolling through Urban Outfitters. After that, we headed to Burger Bar. We just sat at the bar and ordered an appetizer. I had always wanted to go there but never really had an opportunity. It’s a fancy gourmet burger joint and it was SO GOOD!!!! I will have to go back again someday.
Once I was well enough to drive, I headed out. The girls were going to see “O” at the Bellagio and I wasn’t. Instead I gave Heidi a call and we hung out for a bit. I was ready to crash by about 8:30. Some Hell raiser I am, right? No matter. It was a fun weekend. Sunday I spent half the day in bed just trying to stay off my feet.
Next up, a quick to trip to Cincinnati for work.
Once I was well enough to drive, I headed out. The girls were going to see “O” at the Bellagio and I wasn’t. Instead I gave Heidi a call and we hung out for a bit. I was ready to crash by about 8:30. Some Hell raiser I am, right? No matter. It was a fun weekend. Sunday I spent half the day in bed just trying to stay off my feet.
Next up, a quick to trip to Cincinnati for work.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
