what happens in vegas

a few months ago, my friend becky won a romantic weekend for two in the exciting sin city of las vegas on the radio. we were originally gonna go back in november, but had to reschedule a couple of times and finally got it set up for january 4-7.

so after taking my cpa test on friday, i came home, did laundry, and packed to be out of the house by 5 so i could pick up becky from the airport at 6 (she was flying in from her Christmas vacation with family back in virginia). well, because of traffic, i didn't get to the airport until about 645 ... argh ... but then we were on our way up to vegas!

the drive was long because of the insane rain storm but it wasn't too bad since we both had vacation stories and other stories to catch up on ... and we finally got to the stratosphere around 2am, checked in, and went to sleep.

the only catch to this romantic weekend for two in the exciting sin city of las vegas was that we had to sit through a "no-pressure" time-share presentation given by the company that sponsored the weekend. which was torturous. seriously. first of all, we thought that the meeting was at 10 on saturday morning. but when we checked into the hotel , they told us that we had to check in with the time-share company in the morning -- they open at 6. so ... at 730 the next morning, i finally wrestled myself out of bed, brushed my hair and groggily made my way to the check-in desk. where i found out that our meeting was at 8 -- not 10 -- at 8. !! so ... i called becky to wake her up and then i ran up to the room to change clothes and run back down to get to the meeting. :S

and despite their reassurances that this meeting was "no-pressure" ... it was seriously the worst saturday morning i have ever spent. ever. even worse than the saturday morning i spent ... hmm ... i was just trying to think of a really bad saturday morning experience that i had one time and i can't think of anything ... so either i've never had a bad saturday morning or i have blocked all of them from my memory ... interesting. but what i can say is that *this* saturday morning was awful. when becky and i told them "no", we don't want to buy into their time-share ... wow ... i don't think i've ever been through a worse breakup. i've seriously never seen a grown man pout so much.

when they finally let us go and took us back to our hotel, becky and i crashed back into our beds for some much-needed napping. the only problem was that i was tormented the whole time by "no-pressure" sales dreams and didn't get much rest at all. :P ugh. seriously.

the rest of saturday was pretty fun. we finally woke up and got ready to be out of the hotel room by 230 and went over to the hilton to meet up with becky's dad at the star trek experience for lunch and some rides. so much fun!! and i met a borg drone named 3 of 6. he seemed a bit taken with me ... though he adamantly refused to help me be assimilated to the collective -- evidently he is now part of a de-assimilation initiative and was posted on the station in order to observe human behavior in an attempt to regain his humanity. (oh! also, the actress that played alexander's mom was there, too. she wouldn't let me take her picture, though, unless i bought something. oh, well.)

and *that*, my friends, is my star trek geekiness. i think that's all i'll subject you to. for now.

after yummy dinner and some star trek adventures with becky's dad, we three went to see menopause the musical. it was an interesting show. funny. but i won't go see it again. and i probably won't recommend it to anyone either. dunno. just not my kind of humor.

after that show, becky and i hightailed it over to the mgm grand to see ká, a fabulous cirque du soleil show about a village named ká and the plight of the young prince and princess who seek to return home after being separated and "must embark on a perilous journey". i *loved* it! really. it was seriously amazing. i'd go see it again any time, anywhere. you wanna go with me?

sunday morning, becky and i went to the gilcrease bird preserve in the neighborhood where becky grew up. we had a great time seeing the birds and visiting the petting zoo, too. this one bird was hilarious: i have never seen a bird enjoy being petted so much in my whole life. can you see the sheer bliss on his face?! i swear he would have crawled right into my lap and died of ecstasy right then had that pesky cage not been in the way. (oh, i don't think we were supposed to pet the birds, though -- so, if anyone asks, you didn't see this picture.)

we then went to visit becky's grandma and had lunch with her. she was very sweet and made yummy homemade chili for us. mmm.

after a couple hours at grandma's, we left to meet up with becky's dad. first we went to the mandalay bay shark reef. i *looved* that. i can't even express how much i love looking at sharks. i don't know why. don't ask. (we tried to take a cool picture, but it didn't quite turn out.)

then we went to the forum shops in caesar's palace. that is an amazing place. it's hard to believe that all that is indoors and that you aren't really walking the streets of ancient rome. i wished that i had brought my toga.

becky's dad treated us to dinner at the palm restaurant. oh, it was fabulous. i ate a 12 oz. new york steak *and* flirted with a very cute waiter. ha. he wasn't even "our waiter" -- but he kept coming out to the patio area to check on us. maybe he was "my waiter". :P yeah, whenever i caught him looking our direction, he gave me a wink or stuck his tongue out or blew me a kiss or even mouthed an "i love you" ... heh. i'd go back there again, too, any time. you wanna go with me there??

that evening we returned to the stratosphere to watch the american superstars impersonators show, which was entertaining. then we went up to the top of the stratosphere to look at all of las vegas from high above it. if it hadn't been so durned cold i would have loved to ride the roller coasters up at the top of that thing.

after we descended back to street level, we met up with becky's dad again to go to fremont street in downtown las vegas. we hung out there for a while, saw some sights, watched some guys make art with spray paint, and enjoyed the light show. it was fun. and freezing. vegas in winter is cold. just for the record.

monday we slept in until we really couldn't sleep in any longer. because we had to check out of the hotel by 11. (i've never stayed at a hotel where check-out is at 11. it's supposed to be at 12. what's up with the 11? must be a typo. must be.) anyway. and then we went over to the venetian grand canal shoppes and wandered around for a while. again, that's an amazing place. and it's hard to believe that you are indoors the whole time. we also went back over to the forum shops to see some more of what was there. as we passed the palm on our way out i spotted my waiter ... he was still very cute.

umm, monday evening we saw stomp out loud at planet hollywood, which was thoroughly entertaining. really. i was interested in seeing it mostly because i am a science nerd to some degree (ha ha -- okay, stop laughing) and i thought it would be cool to see what they could do ... but i was completely taken aback with all the humor in the show. i had no idea i would laugh so much! and that i would be taken aback! really. i love being taken aback! and laughing!

after the show, becky and i went to see the fountains at the bellagio -- beautiful. it was so much fun to stand there on the strip and listen to music, dance, and watch the fountains. i loved it.

we watched the fountains until about 10:15, and then becky and i got on the road to head back to l.a.

shortly after we left las vegas, becky fell asleep. and i called cute guy. he was such a sport and talked to me for the *whole* drive back to l.a. ... which, thankfully, kept me awake ... so we could arrive safely home ... at 3 in the morning.