Miranda's 21stPart 2 - Mory Hearts Vegas

Yeah yeah, I'm behind. Sorry. This one has been sitting around since I made the "Heart" entry, it's just taken a while to finally push it out.

2 years ago Miranda turned 21 and decided that for her birthday, a trip to Vegas was in order. The idea of ten or so of my sister's 20-something year old female friends "drunk and crazy" in Vegas combined with the new "What happens in Vegas..." ads that had been running on TV was enough to convince me that it was an event I should attend. I mean somebody had to be there to be the responsible one and, well, look out for them. Yeah, look out for them.

I elected to drive up separately since I hadn't taken Friday off of work, and as always I like to have an escape plan in the event of unforeseen issues, or an attack from the black ninjas. After the 5 and a half hour trip I arrived at the hotel. My mom, who was easily located at the closest slot machine, informed me everyone else was at New York New York, a mile or so down the strip.

I made my way through the crowds of people, down the strip, and finally arrived at the casino. A few text messages later and I found "the group" in the ESPN zone bar where my sister had picked up a fan in the form of a Marine who was on leave.

"Your sister needs to go back to the hotel, she's hammered", Anna(My brother's girlfriend) informed me.

Who wants to take her? I questioned in my head. Funny, no volunteers?

It took a bit longer to convince her that she needed to go, but eventually she relented.

"I'll go too. I'm out of money" a woman I hadn't realized was "with us" turned and said. She was a bit older... maybe 40's?

"Mom's friend?" I mouthed silently to Anna.
She shook her head. "Miranda's"
Really?

As we were about to leave Anna pulled me aside, "Get Miranda a cab. She'll never make it all the way back. And... watch out for Kathy. That woman is crazy"

Krazy Kathy huh? How bad could it be?

Miranda, all drunk and stuff

By the time we reached the street I was practically carrying Miranda while Krazy Kathy was jabbering non-stop about what else they "needed" to do that night. I soon found a cab and asked the driver how much for a ride back to our hotel.

"No thanks." He said. Apparently the trip was too short for him. "For you... 20 dollars" he reconsidered.

I considered telling him where he could go, but my arm was already getting tired of holding my sister up, and we still had about a mile to go. Apparently I had spent too much time weighing my options because Kathy answered for us with a few words that shouldn't be repeated in a family blog such as this, accompanied by a hand gesture(Hint: Not a wave). The taxi driver responded in kind. I quickly corralled the two and steered them north.

A half mile down the road a tour bus pulled up. The doors opened, and people started dancing. Moments later the doors closed and the bus sped off, but not before Kathy could comment, "Hey... there's a bus full of dancing black people"

Miranda, who was now practically passed out, perked up. "Oh" she said. "Hey, there's another one over there." I assume that somewhere in her alcohol consumed mind she decided that it was a game and by the time she had physically pointed out 2 black people she was somehow winning. I wasn't sure if she was winning or not, but I was quite sure at that point who was losing.

Thank you for this Kathy... Thank you oh so much.

"Look at that one," my sister thought she whispered as we approached the hotel, "She's dressed like a whore"

An hour later, feeling somewhat like Frodo after having dropped the ring off, I had gotten my sister in to bed and found my mom. "You're in a room with your Uncle Tim" she told me.

I love my uncle, and hadn't seen him in a while, so I was happy with the arrangement... at least until I opened the door and was assaulted by his snore. They do light rail construction 20 feet from my window in the mornings right now with a jackhammer, and it's more tolerable than my Uncle's snore.

After little sleep, I finally decided to get out of bed, sure that the second day would be better than the first had been.

Vegas: 2003

I have been asked by many people when I was going to tell the Vegas story. I have, as of yet, put it off since it was such an epic event that I don't feel I could do it justice in the blog. I do, however, feel that it is something I need to do, and as such I feel it necessary to blog about all 3 of my trips to Vegas. Just to break with tradition, I'm going to go ahead and blog them in chronological order. It also makes sense since they, at least in my mind, get progressively more exciting.

In 6 years of dating Stacey, I don't think I ever really figured out how to make her happy. I put forth a minimum effort towards that goal to be sure, but it wasn't something that I ever felt I excelled greatly at. If you asked her, she'd tell you, "You make yourself happy, other people can't do that for you."

With that in mind, the one thing that I knew she liked to do was go on vacations. Throughout her childhood she would go on vacation every summer to places like Costa Rica, Hawaii, etc. My family in contrast normally went to Arkansas once a year to see family. Maybe it was the lack of exciting trips, or the fact that I spent my early childhood in Germany, but spending money to go somewhere else just never seemed that thrilling to me, but I knew it was something she enjoyed.

Since I had never been on a vacation in my adult life, and I had never been on a vacation with my girlfriend of 5 years I decided to surprise her with a trip to Disneyland for Spring Break. We had been living together for about 8 months, and while it was going okay, that combined with a difficult first year of Grad school for her had made for some stressful moments.

I searched online for tickets, hotel accomodations, etc, and just before booking the trip I decided to consult her and make sure the times worked out. She had an uneasy look about her as I told her my plans, which contrasted the big smile I had hoped to see. She delicately explained that she worked with kids all day, and she wasn't sure if going to Disneyland would be much of a vacation. She suggested Vegas, and while "Sin City" doesn't have a lot of appeal for a guy who doesn't drink, smoke, gamble, party, etc... I decided with a little effort I could find something exciting to do. Besides, the whole point was to do something for her.

I went back to the drawing board, and by going during the week I was able to afford a suite in the Luxor overlooking the strip along with tickets to Jubilee! and Blue Man Group the following night. Jubilee! was a classic Vegas type show which Stacey wanted to go see(She was a dancer), and the nerd in me had always wanted to see the Blue Man Group.

The good news is that Stacey was right. Vegas was something I had never experienced, so I was happy to spend my first trip there with her. It also set the stage for progressively more racy trips, so I was glad to have one trip there that was more my style.

The most exciting part was the Blue Man Group show. As we walked out through the halls I looked over to see a Blue Man walking along side of us. He moved ahead, stood at the end of the hall, and started "signing" tickets. The way they signed was by putting blue paint on the item either with their hand or their lips. Stacey wasn't satisfied with a signed ticket, and got her cheek "signed", and then gave the Blue Man a kiss on the cheek.

Not Pictured: Jesse being hauled away by security after knocking a Blue Man out for messing with "his girl". Man I had a short fuse back then. I think it was the long hair.