Only In Vegas

Welcome to the newest feature of this blog called "Only in Vegas."

This installment was brought to you by my SIL Sarah, sent to me via text:

"You know you're in Vegas when you find a sparkly purple bikini top in the bushes outside the gym."

I Can Do Gum

Me: Olive, what do you want for Christmas?

Olive: Hmmmm.  I know!  A Barbie!  That talks!  And is alive!

Me:  Huh.  Interesting.  What else?

Olive: Hmmmm. A roller coaster!  That I can put in my room!  And that I can ride on!

Me:  Mmmmm...all right.  What else?

Olive:  Gum!

Well, at least she'll be getting at least one thing she wants for Christmas.  I admire her imagination though, and her childlike disconnect from the harsh realities that adulthood can bring, such as knowing that a roller coaster would in no way fit in her room, and that alive Barbies who talk actually do exist but we try to avoid their kind, as to lessen any amount of violent thoughts we may have towards them and their perfect everythings.  As for me, I'm still waiting on that metal detector.

Farty Pants

Olive can't pronounce the "sm" sound correctly. Instead, she inserts an "f" sound.  This has provided some much-needed comic relief 'round these parts lately.

P.S. - Speaking of comic relief, are you reading my aunt's blog?  You totally should be.

New York in List Form

Highlights:

-Being with Go without the responsibilities of children.  I love my kids but sometimes a break is exactly what a woman needs to feel human again. 

-Jimmy Fallon.  I met him.  And talked to him, like a full on conversation.  And I may or may not have done jazz hands during one point of the conversation.  I had met him once in the green room when we were hanging out with ID (that's when the alleged jazz hands may or may not have occurred) and then we got to talk to him again after the show, we were in the studio off to the side; he came over and thanked us for coming.  Just as he was turning to leave, Go caught him by the arm and pulled him back over, saying "My wife is your biggest fan," and then he proceeded to tell Jimmy just what a big huge geeker I am, how I saw more of Jimmy than I saw of him during his residency and how when he would come home at night, I'd show him the funny clips from the show, how I'd seen everything Jimmy had ever done, etc etc etc and that's when Jimmy shook my hand for the fourth time saying "You're so awesome!  Thanks pal!" and then he turned to Go as he was leaving, patted him on the shoulder and said "You're a good man."  Yes.  He is.  A very good man.  

-Seeing ID play in such weird circumstances, in front of only a hand full of people and zero people up in the stands for the audience.  They still killed it.  

-Here are a few pictures I managed to snap while at Jimmy Fallon:

The dancing ET was hilarious and is one of the writers.   I wanted to get a picture with Jimmy but there's something in me that won't let me ask celebrities for photos.  I just want to let them be.  Since these guys are writers, they're quasi-celebrities, the kind that get stoked when randoms ask for their picture.

Here are some pictures I took during sound check. The studio is way smaller than it looks on TV, I could hardly believe it.  These pics are big time contraband, by the way.  I wasn't suppose to be taking any photos whatsoever and a security guard came over to the girlfriend of one of the band members while she was taking pictures with her phone and made her delete them.  I was super uncharacteristically stealth.

Because of the hurricane, Jimmy only had about half of an audience and due to safety reasons as well, he sent them home, wanting no one in the audience so he could do the whole bit, so this is were Go, I and the band watched the show, next door in the green room.

-Being in NYC when chaos ensues.  I just happened to be there for 9/11 so I felt right at home.  Disaster is so my jam.  This is Go and I on Times Square one night.  We were two of maybe twenty people out on the street.  Bizarre.

-Hanging with two of my BILs for a week.  I love my in-law family.  They are one of the hugest sources of joy in my life.

-Seeing Newsies on Broadway--my first Broadway show.  We won really cheap lottery tickets.  It was thrilling to hear my name called.  I never win anything!

-Just being there in the city. I really do love it.

-The Guggenheim--the only museum I hadn't visited.  The exhibit was so-so.  The building was AMAZING.

(photo credit)

-We were supposed to leave back to Vegas Tuesday morning, but because of the storm, we left Thursday morning.  What was supposed to be a short not-quite-4-day trip turned into almost a week affair.  We missed Halloween, which was a bummer for our kids, but my SIL sent me some pictures.  

-As of Monday night, our hotel at limited running water and no power.  Fun times!  Luckily my BILs' hotel, which was much nicer and more north, out of the path of the power outage, had power and water so we charged our cell phones and showered at their place.

We had a great time.  A trip that will go down in (my own personal) history for sure.