Checking In

Sorry, folks, I've been off-line for a few months, so this hasn't been updated in a long time. Hopefully, my computer issues are over, and I'll be able to get back to it. Once it's done, I'll ask the lovely Fashion Tragedy girls, and the wonderful HillMama to put a note on their pages, since that's where most of you are coming from.

Caio!

Vegas: Act Six

First, I've got to thank my good friend HillMama for linking me in her blog. If you haven't read her stuff before, you should check it out. The only bad thing about Hilly linking me is that people actually read her blog. So now I need to finish mine. *rolleyes* It is pretty damned cool, though, that I've had people from Bermuda, Hawaii, and Kuwait of all places reading my stories. I love this awesome small world that we live in.

So, where was I?

Oh, yeah, the Asian cover band. I won't subject you to any further description of that, since frankly, you'll never understand their true awesomeness without seeing them in person.

danny, Mr. danny, and I were supposed to hook up with HillMama and HillFriend at the MBay front desk, so with great sadness, we left the Asian cover band, and headed in that direction. Of course, we completely lost our sense of direction once we were in the casino, but by chance, we walked right up to Hilly and HillFriend. WOOT!!!!!

Please indulge me for a minute, while I squee a little about my friend Hilly. Even though I hadn't seen her since the Metro, and that was the only time that we had "met", she's just so warm and friendly that I felt like I was being greeted by a long-lost friend. Wub! That's been the best thing about this whole experience: the friends I've made. It's been so much fun getting to know so many people from so many walks of life. It has really proven to me that people are more alike than different. Like Hilly and me. If we met in RL, we probably wouldn't think we had much in common. After all, she's a Mama from the hills, and I'm not-a-mama from the Prairie State! But even though we "met" online, we've become "RL" friends.

*sniffles*

So then, danny, Mr. danny, Hilly, HillFriend, and I all headed back to the Asian cover band's lounge, and snarked on them some more. Hee! HillFriend was really sweet, too, albeit I think a little bemused/appalled by the whole thing. We hung out for a while, then danny and Mr. danny headed back to their hotel, and I went with Hilly and HillFriend back to their room to help Hilly pick out something boobtastic for the Viper show. Fun times! I eventually headed back to my room way too late for my own good, but it was worth it.


I'll try to post more tomorrow. I must get this done before the Memphis trip.

Vegas: Act Five

As danny reminded me in her comment, one of the funniest things about supper was the dancing dude across the hall. He was working in an upscale men's clothing store, and periodically he would bust out his awkward white-guy moves. Hee! He seemed especially animated the few times this woman in these horrifying white pants stopped to talk to him.

(Time for another side note, folks. If you're over a size 2, you should nevah, evah, wear white pants! It's just wrong. Please know that's not a put-down; those of you who've met me know that I'm significantly over a size 2, but that's why you'll never see me in white pants! And no matter what size/color your clothing, it should fit. White Pants Chick wouldn't have looked nearly so bad, even in white pants, if they'd had more room in them, and if they had draped down over a nice boot. But that would be way to classy for White Pants Chick, who's clothes were so tight that we could tell with ease what kind of undergarments she was wearing, and who's pant legs ended right at her ankle, the better to show off her extremely high-heeled strappy sandals. She was tacky, y'all.)

Ahem. On with the story.

We decided to roam for a bit, so we wandered through the casino, where we quickly lost all track of where we were and where we were going. We saw tons more JINXS posters, which led to more fangirl giggling. I wanted to get one to take home, but I never did. Poo! We finally found the signs pointing to the Luxor (it's all connected), and despite a really close call with literally being roped into some sort of teenaged goth gathering, we made it through. The Luxor was much the same as the Mandalay, except their posters were for Carrot Top. No thanks!

The Luxor was the site of the single most awesomely snarkworthy thing I saw in Vegas (and that's saying a lot!) They had an all-Asian cover band. For reals, y'all. They introduced themselves, and they were from all over Asia. But that's not what was funny, obviously. It was what and how they were performing. They did "The Electric Slide". They did Usher. They did Beyonce, complete with booty-shake. The lead singer was a girl, and the rest were guys. So when they would do a guy song, she would switch over and play the secondary drum set, or the keyboards, so that guy could sing. At one point, one dude was playing a guitar and a valve trombone at the same time. Impressive!

But the best part? They had dancers. A slightly older than middle age couple, in fantasic physical shape. He was wearing black pants and a skin-tight red T-shirt, while she had on a very short black skirt, and a skimpy red top. They had the physiques to carry it off, but...they just shouldn't try. They were just a leetle beyond the age of wearing that sort of thing. You know the type. But they could dance! Wow! They tirelessly trod back and forth in front of the stage. The style was vaguely "Dirty Dancing"-esque. Like, they were dancing together as a couple, but it was definitely not ballroom.

That's it for right now! Ciao!

Vegas: Act Four

Okay, so I lied. I suck.

So, I finally got to Vegas! Squee! Mr. danny, danny, and I went through arrivals, and then we split up, becuase we were staying in two different parts of town. I took the shuttle to the Mandalay Bay, and got a beautiful tour down the Strip at night.

(Side note: I hate the concept of tipping. Not that I'm cheap, but I never know when or how much is appropriate. Wait staff, bartenders, cabbies, stylists - sure. But when I'm travelling, I often don't carry small bills, and there's no worse feeling than "I probably should've tipped that guy." I wish hospitality establishments would just pay their employees a decent wage and raise their rates already.)

Anywho, I got to the Mandalay Bay, which was beautiful, and checked in with ease. I so enjoy hotel staff who really know what they're doing. Got to my room - gorgeous. My room looked out over the Strip, and the MBay marquee, which was (Squee!) rotating a giant INXS concert sign. I'm not sure why they were advertising so much, since it had long-since sold out, but it was awesome to see, nonetheless.

danny and Mr. danny came by and picked me up for supper, and we headed out to find the Burger Bar. We got to the lobby on the Casino level, and there were INXS posters! Squee! There was no one around, so we stopped to take each other's pictures in front of the posters. Of course, that apparently sent up some sort of signal, and people started coming out of nowhere. Oh, well, we'll never see them again! After a great deal of confusion, and after passing many more INXS posters, we finally found the restaurant.

(Okay, another side note: tourist cities - signage is your friend! This is a town where almost no one is a local. Over and over again, I encountered a lack of signage, confusing signage. C'mon, people!)

We had fun at the Burger Bar, making fun of our waiter, sitting in the "smoking section", which apparently consisted of our waiter bringing over an ash tray to our table and declaring it so. The burgers were good, we got to know each other better, we squeed for Jason. Good times.

Vegas: Act Three

Maybe I'll actually get to Vegas in this post. Geez, I'm mouthy!

So, I chase after this poor woman through the airport. Luckily, we didn't have to go very far. I got the absolute last seat on the plane, right between two large men. Just great. I'm no skinny girl, that's for sure, so they probably weren't too excited to see me, either. There was no time, so I shoved my stuff in the overhead bin, and wedged down in between them, not even taking time to take of my coat, because the plane was already taxiing. But I made it! Whew!

I knew that danny and Mr. danny were somewhere on the plane, and I saw these two girls who fit their descriptions. Could that be them? At one point, the girl I thought was danny went past me, but I didn't want to look like a total TARD if it wasn't her, and I didn't want to freak out the people around me, so I said nothing. I tried to sleep, but it was virtually impossible, as uncomfortable as I was. Oh, well!

We landed in Phoenix (beautiful city, BTW) and deplaned. I found the girl I thought was danny and sure enough, I was right! Hugs! She took off to smoke, and I finally took the time to zip my boots (I was in too big a hurry after the security check at STL). I settled in to read about my beloved Bode, although there was this crazy, fun, LOUD Indian family next to me that made it a little hard. Soon, danny and Mr. danny came back, and we settled in to do some serious squeeing! I was relieved to find that previous reports of them being "blind, talentless bitches" and "just girls" were inaccurate (they're not blind!), and they said they were relieved that I'm not psycho. Hee! Seriously, though, I was just glad they didn't take one look at me, and say "that's what you're wearing?" I had so much fun hanging out with them! It was nice to be able to engage in unadulterated Jason squeeage, with people who wouldn't think I was insane for going all the way to Vegas to see him.

So we got on our flight to Vegas, which was luckily a quick hop. I read a not-so-fascinating article about micro-wineries in Seattle. (C'mon, in-flight mags! Just because I'm trapped on a plane, do you have to make your content as boring as possible?) We soon landed in Vegas, with no further incident.

Squee! I got to Vegas, and it only took three posts! I'll post more tomorrow, I swear!

Vegas: Act Two

Stupid RL! Sorry this has taken so long. I'll try to keep them coming a little faster.

So where was I? Oh, yeah, speeding down the highway, hoping my rearview mirror wouldn't come off, because I didn't have time to stop. I finally got to the long-term parking. I had intended to grab everything out of my car and throw it into the trunk once I got there, but I had absolutely no time. I scanned the car, and the only things of any value that were visible were a few CDs, so I shoved them into a clean McDonald's bag that I had gotten on the trip down. I read somewhere once that was a good way to camoflauge valuables, because what thief is going to break in for trash? Of course, by now the thieves have probably heard this, too. Oh, well. I'm going to assume that they'll bypass my crappy car anyway. But I digress.

I hopped onto the airport shuttle, and the driver proceded to take an eternity to write down on a ticket for me the row I was parked in. Dude, the lot's not that big: let's GO! Unfortunately, he seemed to think that every seat needed to be filled, so we putzed around the lot for 10 more minutes. Argh! Once we finally started moving, the trip to the airport was short and uneventful, except for listening to the pilots and flight attendants talking about all the places they travel for free. Maybe I should look into switching careers. "Free" and "travel" are my two favorite words, especially in a sentence with each other. (Oops. Pulled off track again, sorry. Do you see now why it's so hard for me to get this done?)

I got to the airport, and I have to stop here and say I LOVE the St. Louis airport. I know I've been begging y'all to come to the show, but I'm being completely serious. I've never had a bad experience there. My flight was supposed to be at 1:12. I hit the doors at 1:10 and still made my flight. Seriously (dancing chipmunky), boarding pass, security check, metal detectors, and to the gate in under ten minutes. As I approached the gate check-in desk, the attendent looked up with an "oh, shit" look on her face, got on the phone, and got them to hold the plane, which had already boarded. Luckily, I had packed really light, so I only had carry-ons. As I ran after her toward the gate, I felt like Phil was waiting for me in Pheonix.

Vegas: Act One

A couple of things you should know about me...I love JINXS and the LH, and I love to travel. So given the chance to travel to see JINXS/LH, and meet up with some great on-line friends, my response is "where are we going?" And one other thing? I'm one of those people that things just seem to happen to. Sometimes it's my fault, and sometimes it's not, but travelling for me is always...eventful. Remind me to blog my trip to the Grand Canyon sometime.

In this case, the trip was to "Pretty Vegas"! The morning tickets went on sale, even though at that time I had no intention of going to LV, I got caught up in ticket-buying craziness and bought one anyway. I spent the next few months vacillating between "of course I'm going" to "no way in hell am I going". I finally decided on the former, thanks to HillMama. I would have never gone to the LH Metro show if she hadn't been going (not one lonely Batshit girl among all the Wives!), and once I went there and had so much fun, I knew I had to do it again, soon.

On to Vegas...

Confession time. The night before I left, when I should have been packing, I was up watching the SWITCH dualdisc instead. I know, I know! But Jason and Andrew are just so adorable! I couldn't help myself. (Oh, yeah, I love Snuggles, too.) So I ended up getting to bed at about 7:00, and I needed to be up by 9:00. Uh oh! Since I was going to drop by my parents' before I left anyway, I decided to go there and pass out on the couch for a couple of hours, because I knew my mom would wake me up. Sure, I'm a grown woman who should be able to get her own ass out of bed, but I'm a grown woman who knows her own weaknesses, and waking up to an alarm is one of them (hence why I work nights). So I woke up, and I was feeling sick as a dog, from nerves, lack of sleep, too much caffeine, whatever. Goody.

I finally made it out the door, after deflecting a few more of my parents' questions. (They don't really need to know that I met y'all on-line, do they? Didn't think so.) --- Note to everyone - always, ALWAYS, be careful of meeting anyone from the internet! Meet in groups, in public! --- Anywho, I made it out of the house, got gas, double-checked that my rearview mirror would, in fact, stay on (damned deer!) and took off down the highway.

I'm not sure at exactly what point I realized that there was a very good possibility that I would miss my plane. Honestly, I don't know what happened. I drive to St. Louis all the time, but I guess I just underestimated the time it would take. I'm always speeding, so I couldn't really even speed up much more. I wasn't too worried about missing the flight, except that I was supposed to meet dannyweapons and Mr. danny at the airport, and I'd never met them before. A nice impression, I was making.