vegas, baby!

so i started to write this entry by describing what we did each day, but halfway through the first day, i realized this would end up being one super long blog that would never end since i have a tendency to ramble (as you can see by this run-on sentence). so... i will TRY to be succinct and only write about the highlights of each day. this will still be a long blog though so you have been warned. read only if bored.

tuesday

we left the bay area around 1 am. group consisted of me, deb, david, mike, and tim. didn't get to sleep during the ride down though because it was just so uncomfortable. no sleep = super bitch cherry. not a pretty sight. arrived in vegas around 930. it was so damn hot. i know, i know, it always is, but this was just ridiculous. we made the stupid mistake of walking from excalibur to bellagio - a good 15 minute walk - in 100+ degree weather. brilliant. but deb's aunt so kindly treated us to lunch. afterwards, got into our rooms at the tropicana, met up with everyone else (jacq, bobby, ha, and paggy), and went swimming. wee...fun! made me feel a little better. and that was about it for this day. not much else.

wednesday

went shopping! unfortunately, didn't buy anything. not yet, anyway. ;D we hit the caesar forum shops, bellagio, and aladdin. after caesar forum shops, the shopping group was whittled down to me, deb, and ha - the hardcore shoppers. yeeeessss. later that night, we went to four queens for prime rib dinner. i was a rebel though and ordered baby back ribs. after dinner, we went outside to watch the light show. a bajillion lights on this outdoor ceiling creating an entire animated film thing. very cool. then it was off to treasure island to catch mystere by cirque du soleil. that was my first cirque du soleil show and i enjoyed it very very much. definitely worth the price. and we had awesome seats too. i want to swing around on bungee cords and fly around the stage just like them. i should just give up this stupid grad school thing and become a cirque du soleil performer. yes, i like this idea.

thursday

manicures and pedicures! spontaneously, the girls decided to get manicures and pedicures while the guys went off and gambled. yes i know, so girly, but we don't care. went back to our rooms and started calling different hotels to see how much manis & pedis were. the average cost was over $100 (psh...) so we decided to just pull out the las vegas phone book and find a small cheap place nearby. found one by the tropicana and off we went. we all got very nice pedicures with those cool whirlpool thingies. we also all got french tip manicures. so lovely and girly. we couldn't deny our dorky side though. afterwards, we stood there taking pictures of all our pretty hands and feet. i couldn't stop looking at my hands for the rest of the day. unfortunately, the manicure started to chip the next day. grr. but i sort of fixed it today.

anyway, we met up with the guys afterward and went to mandalay bay for buffet. oh...my...god. soooooo good. i had prime rib and short stack rib (MEAT!) and fried shrimp. that got me full pretty fast but i saved room for dessert. oh man. chocolate cake, cheesecake, oreo cake, and pound cake. cake cake CAKE! i fulfilled my long-standing craving for cake. yum.

after dinner, we went back to the hotel and got ready for clubbing. i wore eyeliner for the first time. ha helped me apply it. she also mixed some vodka and cranberry juice we had bought from albertson's after our manis and pedis. i only had one cup but got quite buzzed from it. sadly, it was from the special jar for the get-drunk-fast drinkers. oh well. i've always known i'm a cheap drunk. nothing new. then it was off to palms to go clubbing at rain! weirdly enough, it was also raining outside. we saw lightning! i was very mesmerized by all this in my buzzed state. so we waited in line for about half an hour to get in. unfortunately, once we got near the front, we realized that deb accidentally forgot her id. people tried to come up with plans to get her in but it was to no avail. :( at least she had david to go back to since he decided not to come due to not feeling well. that was such a bad sentence. oh well. anyway, rain was pretty awesome. in my opinion, it's all it's hyped up to be. only downside was that it was extremely packed and my feet got trampled on several times. but that's to be expected. they played music i actually liked and could dance to. amazing! plus, they had fire coming out of this contraption that was lowered over the dance floor. oooooooh.....aaaaaaaahhhhhh......very cool.

friday

had to wake up early to check out by 11. after a quick bite to eat, the group split up. deb, ha, jacq, paggy, and bobby went off to the m&m factory and the coke store while i joined the trekkies (tim, david, and mike) and we went off to the hilton for the star trek experience. yes, i will admit it on my blog - i am a trekkie. there. i said it. anyway, i really liked it. i will refrain from gushing though as to not make myself sound any geekier than i already am. took quite a lot of pictures though. there was a guy walking around dressed as a borg that scared the crap out of me. i know it's stupid, but he was scary looking! and there was this one part though where they put a group of us in this small room. to simulate being transported, they turned off all the lights suddenly and a huuuge gust of wind came up from beneath us. unfortunately, i was wearing a mini-skirt and it completely flew up. good thing it was dark. otherwise, a roomful of trekkies would've gotten an eyeful.

anyway, we met up with the rest of the group at circus circus. played some games. i kept losing and felt like a loser because all around me were little kids winning huge stuffed animals. so mike won me a knockoff nemo stuffed animal and two small monkeys that i could carry around and feel like less of a loser. aww.

then the group split up once again. the others went gambling while the hardcore shoppers - me, deb, and ha - went back to bellagio so that deb could buy the christian dior purse she was eyeing earlier. while she was buying the purse, i couldn't help but stare at one of the other purses. i don't know why i didn't notice it earlier but all of a sudden, it was speaking to me. it was hypnotizing me with its cuteness and telling me to buy it. "buy me, buy me, buy me," it kept saying. thing is, deb and i agreed before the trip that we would allow ourselves to buy one REALLY expensive thing that we would normally never ever buy. and since the shopping trip on wednesday had turned out to be a bust, i had a lot of pent up shopping tension in me that just had to be released. plus, this purse was just so preeeeetty. so deb and ha agreed to walk down the rest of the shops to allow me time to think about it. unfortunately, that walk was maybe five minutes long. but i came to my decision: buy it. i succumbed. so now you may be wondering how much it was. well, that's between me and...everyone else apparently. let's just say it took up a significant chunk of my paycheck from teaching. but it was such a good feeling to walk out of the christian dior boutique clutching the very nice bag and thinking to myself, "i own a christian dior purse." sigh. it verged on orgasmic, i tell you.

it's so nice though, i don't even want to use it. it's still in its original wrapping. i keep taking it out to admire it, but carefully wrap it up in the cover bag and place it carefully back in the carrying bag. i've told myself that it will only come out on special occasions. but then i realized that i never go to special occasions. so... maybe once every few months, my christian dior purse will come out of seclusion and make an appearance. but it'll be a long while before it even comes out the first time because it's just so darn nice, i can't bring myself to use it.

anyway, enough about my christian dior purse. ;D after shopping, we met up with the rest of the group at the mirage to eat dinner. after dinner, we were off to watch wayne brady! the show was him basically doing a bunch of improv. a lot of the same games as the comedy club and whose line is it anyway. but it was absolutely hilarious. my stomach hurt from laughing so much. muchachangas!! and he was right there! in the flesh! wayne brady! i just wanted to reach out and hug him.

and that brings us to the end of our vegas trip. got home on saturday after spending the night at paggy's place in la. all in all, i had a pretty fun time. i have a christian dior purse. i can't stop saying it. or looking at it. sorry. i'm still on the christian dior high. and my fingernails are oh so pretty.

thank you tim and ha for driving. but yes, we will never ever drive to vegas again. thank you deb for planning and buying tickets to rain. you are awesome. you are also the devil for bringing me into that christian dior boutique and making me give into temptation. but, you know, the good kind of devil. thank you mike for putting up with me and calming the bitch within me (many times, may i add). it's not an easy thing to do. and thank you to everyone for the good time in vegas.

next trip - cruise! europe! the moon!