I am back from Vegas. The drive was uneventful. We left Salt Lake at about 6:45 in the PM and 
drove into Vegas at about 12:30 in the AM. The next day we traveled over to the Monte Carlo hotel and casino. We stood in line for about 3 hours waiting to have Janet sign our books. Here I am with my mom and sister Shauna waiting in line...
Traci was there too so I took a picture of her by herself to
document it...
I didn't get a picture of the line, but I believe that there were about 1000 people there waiting in line with us. We were about 3/4 of the way back. We waited for 3 hours. Did I say that already? When we finally got up there she was super nice. Traci asked if she wanted any ibuprophen and she said that she didn't, she takes that before the book signing even starts, but that her ass was numb. 
Traci offered to find someone to massage it for her and Janet thought that was a great idea, if she could find anyone. Here we all are with Janet, our new best friend!
We finally got back to the hotel at about 7pm. I went down to the pool and swam with Traci and then went back up to the room to get ready for the night. Jim flew into Vegas from a business trip so we was going to hang with us for the night as well. When he got to the hotel we set off for the strip. My mommy stayed behind to read her new book signed by Janet Evanovich, and we (Me, Shauna, Traci and Jim) set out for the strip!
It was about 10:30 PM by the time we left the
hotel. We saw a sign at the Tropicana that said Karaoke! So, what do you think we did? You got it! Shauna, Jim and I all sang a song each. Here I am with our wacky karaoke DJ... I called him Crazy Eddie. I couldn't remember what his name really was and I swear that he thought he was a rock star from 1988, truly, I mean... look at him. By the time we left the Tropicana it was almost 2AM. I was dead tired and wanted to get some sleep before the drive back the next day, so they dropped me back off at the 
hotel and I went to bed.
While they were out until 3:45 AM they took a picture of the strip all lit up. It's a little blurry, but you get the point that we were indeed in Vegas! The next moring I went and layed out by the pool, read my book and soaked in some rays. When I went back up to the room, Jim had a wad a cash as though he had just won bunches and bunches of money... okay $150 that we all gave him for the hotel room but, I there was no way that I wasn't going to put this picture in... it was fu-unny!
We hit the road back to SL at about 10:30 AM and pulled into my driveway at home at 5:45 PM. I had a great time with my mommy and my sissy's and Jim too. Thanks guys for helping make my weekend away loads of fun!
Tales of a Vegas Trip
I stayed up WAAAAY too late!
I stayed up until 3am this morning reading the new Stephanie Plum book! I am hooked... then I dreamed about Morelli and Ranger for the 4 hours that I slept. I love when the new Stephanie Plum book comes out... I get sucked in and I don't come up for air until I am finished. I have about 9 more chapters to read and I think maybe I should savor them. It will be one more year before I get to read the next one.
Anyway, I am leaving to Las Vegas tonight! I am sooo stoked! I am packing my bag, bringing my swim suit and rockstars and we are off! We won't be hitting the road until about 7, so we won't be rolling into the city of sin until after midnight. I am fine with that, I love driving into Vegas when the city is all lit up. I will give you all the break down of how it went when I get back, until then... ciao!
Have you Noticed...!!!
I use exclamation points a lot and the dot, dot, dot too! I don't know why I thought that I would start this post out with that statement, but it is true... I was looking back at some of my earlier posts and I use exclamation points and the dot, dot, dot way too much. But, now it's a part of who I am as a blogger, so I guess it doesn't matter, you will still read my blog even though... I use... that stuff... way too much!!!
Anyway, I started reading the new Stephanie Plum novel last night. It is pretty good so far. I am only 3 chapters in so I can't say for sure if it will be a hit or not, but I haven't lost interest in it yet. I don't know when I am going to get another chance to read again, though. Mike is out of town until Saturday night and I have all this stuff going on between now and when he gets back. You would think with him gone I would be able to relax, sit back and read, read, read... but, nope. Not this time. Usually when he leaves town I am stuck here with nothing but time on my hands.
This time I am going to
My friend Abby sent me an email yesterday with this quiz on movies... not so much a quiz, more of a chance to rate all of these different movies and see if your friends liked them as much as you did. I guess people take this really seriously and try to find chicks and dudes to date based on the movies they liked. I can say that it doesn't matter what kind of movies people like, if you like them you will like them whether they loved 2001: A Space Odyssey or not. And I still like Abby, even though she gave Return of the King 3 stars. And I still like my sister Traci, even though she gave Narnia 2 stars. It doesn't matter what movies they like or not... you can still like them even if they have bad taste in movies. I will say though that Traci scored the highest out of all the people I sent invitations to rate the movies to. She and I are still kindred spirits... even though she didn't like Narnia. Abby on the other hand, that one is still up for debate; it says that we are a TERRIBLE MATCH.
Stephanie Plum in VEGAS!!!
I am heading down to Sin City on Thursday. I am going with one of my sisters and my mom... we are meeting one of my other sisters there. We are going for a book signing of an author that we all enjoy. Janet Evanovich is the authors name, she has written LOTS of romance novels, which I have read only one of and didn't care for at all, frankly. She also has written a series called 'The Stephanie Plum Series' . They are chicklet mystery novels, apparently. There are 12 books total... as of today. The 12th one was released today, Twelve Sharp is the title.
Anyway, the series follows this heroine (if you can call her that) Stephanie Plum who has pretty much blackmailed her cousin Vinnie into being a bounty hunter for Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, because she was broke and had no other options. Each book has a big bad guy that she is trying to find and catch for a large or small bond. Throughout the series she goes back and forth between two love interests... Joe Morelli and Ranger. And, mingled through out all the books are her quirky family, friends and lots of other hilarious goings on. So, if you haven't ever heard anything about the Stephanie Plum series... you can't say that you haven't now. Go and check out the first novel "One for the Money" and let me know what you think. I am just excited to go to Vegas to get away for a couple days and have a chance to meet Janet Evanovich... the master mind behind this clever series of books.
I really didn't intend for this post to turn into a plug for the Plum series... it just kind of happened.
I Need A Vacation!!!
There is one thing that I know for sure... I need a vacation and BAD! Work has been so super stressful that I can hardly breathe. All I dream about lately is laying out on a nice white sandy beach, getting the most kickin' tan in the world and sipping on a margarita. Work has kind of sucked some major ones lately. I pretty well botched the billing for a huge contract and because of my mistakes... we are now getting audited. yay!
Today was actually better than it has been the last week and a half or so. I can barely see the light at the end of the tunnel, but a glimmer of light is better than 
no light at all, right? Hopefully by Monday the light will get brighter and brighter... I am crossing my fingeeees!
I feel so completely overwhelmed lately. I work all the time and then when I get home I see my messy house and I get overwhelmed at that... then I step on the scale and, oh my goodness... I am sooooo overwhelmed I can hardly even stand it. So, all I can do is sit. I just sit and wait for it to be time to go to bed, then what do I do...? I go to bed.
How do I make the madness stop? I guess I am being harder on myself than is necessary, I did go running this week, which is a huge accomplishment for me and we are planning on hiking Mt. Olympus tomorrow (if the weather holds up). So, it isn't as though I have been a complete waste of skin this week. I have determined something about the way I feel about running. I love the idea of running. I love the way I feel after I am finished running... but during, I would rather eat the end of a 12 gauge! I can't stand the during part! I huff and puff and sweat like no other. I sweat worse than a man. 
It's a fact.
When I go to the gym and am on the treadmill for 10 minutes, I am dripping with beads of sweat and Mike looks like he just barely got on. Maybe thats why I hate the during part. If I didn't look like a stinky sweaty man while I ran, I might actually enjoy it a bit more. No, that wouldn't change my mind.
But, the sad part about running is that it is the only way that I will be able to look super fantastic in a bathing suit when we go on our vacation. I am not sure where we are going to go or how soon it will be, but it will be this year and... it will be somewhere with white sandy beaches and maragitas!
What Happened to all My Blogging PEEPS?
There were lots of you and now there is one and maybe even none...
What happened?
Did I scare you away?
Was I not attentive enough for you to stick around?
It makes me sad that I have such fair-weather blogging peeps. Tell me what I need to do in order to keep you interested in making comments on my blog, please, thanks.
Tanning... Anyone?!?!
This last week has been CRAZY!!! I have been going non-stop. I was at work until 11PM last night and might be here quite late tonight as well. It all depends. The world of my job is starting to crash in on me. We are on the verge of losing one our biggest contracts and I might get blamed for losing it and then in turn... lose my job. Such is Life! IF that happens I'll just go find a job at a Tanning Salon where I can read all day long and wipe down tanning beds. That sounds SUPER FANTASTIC actually.
I finally have a moment to let you all know that I am indeed alive and kicking, just stressed as all get out.
If any of you have any words of encouragement, I'm here with my eyes and ears wide open. Right now all I can think of is how nice it sounds to sit in a tanning salon, get free tans, read my books and not have all the burden that is on my shoulders right now. This too shall pass, I know... it just isn't passing fast enough.
*sigh*
When I was Little...
Don't you love it that all kids say "when I was little..." even if they still are little? My little niece says this all the time and she is 4 years old. I think it is the cutest thing in the world. Little kids want to be grown up so badly they can hardly stand it. But, then you hit your 20's and that inevitable question creeps up on you..."When did I grow up?" I remember when the "When did I grow up" thing hit me. I went to lunch with my brother one day and was sitting in his car and it hit me... I am all grown up! I have to be responsible! I have to take care of myself! And, I just started to bawl in the front seat. I think it took him about 10 or so minutes to finally calm me down. But, once I finally did, I was fine. I was indeed a grown up, having to pay bills and do all that grown up stuff. The thing is though that I had been taking care of myself for about 2 years before this breakdown in the car. I don't know why it hit me then... but it did. I guess I just wanted to be a kid again for that moment or it just hit me that I will never be a kid again. I won't ever be able to be carefree, like when I was 12.
I still feel like I am 12 most of the time and I am sure that I act that way too.
I went to dinner with some of my oldest friends last summer, we hung out for the night and went to "Sandy Station" for karaoke. While we were there we were all dorks, just like old times. When we left we were walking back to the car and there was a large Winnebago parked next to the car with a few guys inside. They had the lights on, widows open and obviously had put back a few. When we 4 gals get together we seem to go back to the way we were when we were all 12. We are giddy and silly and think that EVERYTHING is funny. Well all of the guys in the Winnebago picked up on our silliness and asked if we were high or drunk. (none of us had had a drop of alcohol or any other substance) Lolly and Beck both said at the exact same time... "Ya, we're High on LIFE!!!" It was so dang funny, none of us could control the laughter! All those drunken guys must have thought we were crazies! But, we weren't really crazy, we were just 4 girls having a good time catching up and acting as though we were all 12 again.
I think that when you get old you should say "when I was grown up" instead of "when I was little" just to mix it up a bit. The world needs to be mixed up a bit and I think it should start with this statement.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Traci... my bestest of best friends!
Happy Birthday! You are now 28 years old and I hope that you not only have a FANTASTIC birthday, but a fantastic year too.
Luvs, S*