Tuesday, October 27, 2009

What I am doing when I should be sleeping and things in between


It's been a long couple of weeks. I think my life's theme revolves around the quote "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.." I think I started to read that book once upon a time, but I never finished it. IT's on my "to do" list which has grown rather astronomical lately. Things have been like that a lot lately for me.

On October 7, I was called back to work. Rumor has it that they want us all gone before Veteran's day on the 11th, so they called more people back this week. Hurry up and so all the work so we can send you back home again. ;) Actually I didn't expect to be called back to work until at least the 14th, so I was a bit surprised. Of course, I had plans for the 13th-19th and the 21st, but I didn't have any problems getting the time off since I had things that were prepaid, and I had sufficient leave. I did offer to work 4 hours day shift on the 19th before I took off for the evening. Then I questioned my sanity.

On the 13th, Ed and I left bright and early for Las Vegas, although not nearly as early as I had hoped. My alarm didn't sound and I woke up about 3 hours later than I had intended. Ed decided I must have changed my mind about when I wanted to leave. Sigh... but it all worked out. It's my pattern - I panic, things inevitably work out, I wonder why I panicked. LOL I had reservations at the Mandalay Bay hotel, and tickets to see Mute Math at House of Blues that night. I was pretty excited having the VIP package (which I erroneously thought included a meet and greet, not just early entry - must have been wishful thinking on my part) and
I had promises of a photo pass which I was pretty jazzed about. Ed wasn't excited about having to rush down, but I told him we could take our time on the way back. When we arrived at Mandalay Bay, we passed by the buses and it looked like they were just starting to load in. We found a place to park, and headed for the hotel. It's been a few days, so the order is a bit fuzzy, but we eventually checked into our room and then checked the line at HOB. I picked up my will call ticket, and Ed and I had lunch at the HOB restaurant. The food wasn't super cheap, but not too bad considering the location, although it was tough to find anything even remotely low fat. LOL The service wasn't quite as good as the last time I ate there which was some time ago. The food was decent, though. At any rate, I checked back at the HOB a few times and was even able to get my photo pass early. The MM team does a wonderful job of putting things together. At some point Ed and I went out and walked around and I found the buses. I gave the security guy at the bus some throat coat tea for Paul, and some hershey's kisses for Darren (long story). Anyway, to keep this at a reasonable length, I went back to HOB and was first in line. The second person was another guy with a photo pass that drove down after seeing MM in Phoenix the night before. We chatted, some more VIP folks arrived and we met Levi who was awesome. He managed to get all of the MM VIP ticket holders permission to shoot photos for the whole show. I was able to even be behind the barricade for MM's entire set!!!


After the show, I hung around hoping to see the guys, but I only talked to Paul's wife and Levi. I'm sure they thought I was a pest. I did go next door to Starbucks. I found out that Starbucks has a drink I can have, but I'd already purchased water and a fruit cup. I wanted to wait a bit before going back to the hotel so my husband could sleep before I woke him up, so I killed some time there. LOL I actually came back around to HOB a few times, and said good-bye a second time and I was pretty silly being very over-tired. I'm sure they thought I was being kinda stalkerish, but the last time I just got lost trying to find the elevator and was going in circles. I kept ending up back at the HOB. By the time I got back I was ready to just sleep on the floor in the casino. Wouldn't that have been a sight!
I finally did find the elevators. I made it back to my room, and got ready for some much needed sleep. I slept in as long as my body let me the next morning and showered. I kind of wanted to take a bath, though, since there was a tv in the bathroom, and I thought it would be funny to bathe and watch tv. LOL Ed and I loved the room, except for the lack of a coffee pot. He went downstairs to find coffee while I got dressed. I took some pics from the hotel window before we left.


After checkout, I had a Vanilla Rooibos Latte from Starbucks (with soy instead of dairy) which was delicious.

We took our time getting back home, which was kind of nice. We stopped and took photos by the river.



At one point we stopped at a gas station with a huge rocking chair, so Ed took my pic in it, and I reciprocated. After all, turn about is fair play. :)


It was a long trip, but a good one overall.

After I arrived home, I did a bit of laundry, and did some final packing for my trip to Denver to see Relient K, Copeland and Barcelona with my sister.

That will have to be part two of the saga, however. Stay tuned...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Our bathroom at the hotel in Lake Tahoe had a tv in it too and yes, I totally took a bath and watched tv. Sounds like a fun trip!