Missing it

"Society teaches us that having feelings and crying is bad and wrong. Well, that's baloney, because grief isn't wrong. There's such a thing called good grief. Just ask Charlie Brown."

-Michael Scott

Last Hurrah...

Last weekend, Kaysen, one of my best friends from back home paid a little visit with some of her pals from CalPoly.  We all went out Friday and Saturday and and it was FUN. I think I got like 6 hours of sleep the whole weekend, but it was worth it. I never go out in Vegas and I'll be honest, it's a good time every once in a while, especially when you have fun people to go out with. And these girls were crazy fun. They were non-stop.

All of us at Pure

Body English w/ Ben Lyons.  Am I the only one that watches E!?

Me and Kays. I really need to starting lifting weights

Winding down 

HEEEEEYY!!!!

Great way to say goodbye to Sin City.  Tomorrow is my last day of work.  I have mixed feelings, but overall, I'm stoked to get out to CA and make it happen.  No looking back!

Things that are not helping my chronic anxiety:

1. Dental insurance

2. Visa bill

3. Moving furniture to California

4. Moving, in general, to California

5. The Cat

6. $4.53/gal

7. Cleaning out my refridgerator

8. Witnessing 2 car accidents outside my office window

9. Pool parties

10. Overdue library books

You can get anything you want in this city; as long as you have the guts to ask for it.


I'm really not a confrontational person. In fact, I tend to do whatever I can to avoid it. However there are times where being blunt, brutally honest, and demanding sure get you places.

Or free upgrades at awesome hotels.

Today I was sent on assignment by the chairman of my company to purchase a weekend stay + spa packages + dinner gift certificates at the new Palms Place Hotel. It's this new swanky hotel/condo that just opened and is super trendy right now in Vegas. Our attorney just won this big lawsuit for my company and as a thank-you, Mr. Chairman decided to get him and his wife a weekend of fun and relaxation at Palms Place. Cool, right? I know.

So I head down there, walk inside and stand in line waiting to speak with one of the front desk people. I notice this man at the counter in front of me. He's clearly upset, his arms full of couple garment bags and several suitcases at his feet. Unable to avoid overhearing, I listen to him complain to the poor check-in girl that he wants to check-in immediately, even though check-in is not available until a few hours later. Having worked in a service-oriented environment, I totally sympathize with the Palms employee and start rolling my eyes at this clearly impatient, pushy man. I'm so sure, dude. It's 10:00 in the morning. It's not even check-out time yet. Drop off your luggage and hit the cabana by the pool like every normal person would. But no. He continues to complain, raising his voice, demanding to speak with a manager. Manager walks up, does the whole "is there a problem here?" bit and the angry man proceeds to explain to him that he was told he could check-in early.

"There are no rooms available right now. Check out time is noon. After noon, we should be able to check you in."

Sounds reasonable to me. Not to this guy though, who refuses the offer and continues to cry about having to live roomless for 2 whole hours.

Well, somewhere in there, the hotel manager breaks down and offers the guy an upgrade to a 2 bedroom penthouse suite if he will be able to wait until noon.

WTF???!!!!!

I stand there, gaping at what I've just heard. I could not believe they were giving in to this cry-baby idiot.

The man expresses a deep sigh, like "if that's the least you can do," signs the registration card and heads to the hotel bar like a freaking pro. I swear I saw a little smirk twitch across his face as he walked past me, dropped his luggage off at the concierge and strolled into the bar where I'm sure he'd be anyway had he been able to check-in early.

My turn at check in. I purchase the room and ask for a gift certificate. The same girl looks a little blank and goes, "Oh, I've never done one of those before. Hold on." Now, I understand this place is new and there are bound to be some glitches in the system as the whole hotel gets into the swing of things. However, do not ask me how or why I stood and waited in that hotel lobby for 45 minutes while four (4) people attempted to activate a stupid gift card. Apparently no one had been trained on how to do it, and only a certain computer could activate the cards, but that computer was not working so could you please follow me to the boutique and we'll try over there.

Right about now is when I begin to think that maybe Mr. Penthouse Upgrade isn't so stupid after all. This was ridiculous. I mean, I'm patient and sympathetic, but this was a little extreme. I begin to show little pangs of frustration, you know, to test the water, get a feel for what kind of leverage I might have.

Forcefully, I let out "Do you know if this is going to work because I really need to get back to work."

It's strong, but not demanding. Serious, but subtle.

"Oh, well you can leave your credit card number and we'll charge it once we figure out how to do it."

Umm, not really what I was looking for. Where's my penthouse? My spa package? Do I need to throw a fit to get some perks around here, or what?

Well, annoyed now and clearly too prideful to start subjecting myself to a temper tantrum, I oblige and get the hell out of that place.

But let me just say that I think it's really lame that just because I'm a nice, patient, understanding customer, I am denied the awesome upgrades and free stuff that are thrown at some people who act like 2 year-olds, just so they'll shut-up. And you know they do it on purpose. They know exactly how to take advantage of the system.

Not fair.

No Big Deal

A few months ago, my friend Manti and I went to the U.S.A. vs. Virgin Islands exhibition game here in Vegas. He sent me this photo this morning that he found on ESPN.com.

Take look at the bottom left hand corner.

Yes. That's me in the black shirt, and Manti on the right. We made ESPN!

SYTYCD

Ok. I'm so sick of reality television and have sort of taken a stance against watching and inevidably getting sucked into other stupid show. Which is why I have abstained from the hoopla surrounding So You Think You Can Dance. It seems everyone I know is obsessed with this show and I had no desire to even check it out. I have zero dance background and therefore really had no interest in tuning in to what is basically a dance version of American Idol.

However.

My good friend Megan insisted I watch a couple segments from her Tivo'd version. She told me I was totally missing out and needed to see it. Not really caring, I agreed to watch a bit of it.

Ok, let me tell you. Some of these dances left me speechless, gave me goosebumps, etc. I had no idea this kind of talent existed and here I was, opting not to view it. Like I said, I have no dance experience so I really didn't expect to be all that blown away by it. But, some of these people are so intense, so talented, you can't help but respect and admire their skills.

This one in particular blew me away:



It's Chelsie and Mark dancing to "Beautiful" by Me'Shell N'degoocello, which is a song I'd never heard, but am now listening to on repeat. This dance was choreographed by Mia Michaels, who won an emmy for this dance from last season. She's amazing.

Cool, right?

So now I'm a fan.

Neglect.

I haven't been in any sort of mood to post anything lately.

However, I will mention a few things:

I've been living alone for a few weeks now and it's starting to freak me out. I've never been the kind to get scared by being home alone, but lately, some sketchy stuff has sort of left me a little uncomfortable. It doesn't help that I've been watching a lot of CSI reruns.

It's forecasted to be 105 degrees all week. Too bad my HOA stripped me of my pool pass.

Going to to Verizon store this weekend to get my new phone/number. Did I mention I'm moving to Sacramento? Vegas is beat. More on this later.

Sundays are lame.

I mean, besides church. But let's be honest, even that isn't a sure thing.

There is nothing on tv on Sundays.

No one updates their blogs, news, etc. on Sundays so there's nothing new to read.

It's the day before Monday, which has obvious depressing connotations.

Larry King is replayed WAY to much over the weekend. He's like, the worst interviewer ever. I'm so over CNN.

It's too hot to go do anything outside.

Kitty Hawk was whining profusely upstairs in the loft for like 5 minutes when I finally decided I better go check and make sure she wasn't dying or something. I round the corner and she's standing over a dead bird. Awesome. This is in addition to the pigeon she had in her mouth in the kitchen Friday afternoon. That one survived after I shook it from her mouth. Poor thing had a broken wing I think because it couldn't fly. I felt so bad for it that I went back outside and picked it up with a towel and put it in a Steve Madden shoe box. I thought about keeping it for a while, you know, until it recovered, but I figured that might be crossing all sorts of lines. So I walked around the corner of my block and found these huge bushes to hide the box under so it would be safe and out of the sun. Hopefully, it heals and doesn't die of starvation. I've lost count on how many birds, dead and alive, I've had in this house. It's bound to be in double digits.

My family is in Rehobeth right now. I'm not going this year, which is a bummer for sure. Apparently it's hotter than a mother out there though so that kind of sucks. Hot and humid is no fun, although very consistent with east coast summers. Hopefully it cools down a bit for everyone.

Retail Therapy

I don't really like to shop. I like having nice, new things, but I hate the process of finding them. I'm not a big mall person and after about 20 minutes carousing Norstrom I'm ready to head upstairs and get a drink and CCC (chocolate chip cookie) in the cafe. However, when I get stressed and pummeled by anxiety, I find myself more times than not, in a retail venue, spending money to exercise some sort of release. *Very simliar to cutting, but less blood and less depressing.

Last night I found myself in such a predicament and discovered my state of panic was nothing a pair of blue shoes couldn't handle. Cute, right? Half off, too.

I also have failed to blog about my most expensive and coveted purchase to date:


New laptop was badly needed, in more ways than one and I'm loving it. And as soon as I learn to use all the cool stuff on it, I know I'm going to love it even more. The only thing I'm a little bugged about are the fingerprints. They show really easily all over it. I guess I'll have to start washing my hands more often.

*I do NOT cut myself. I use this comparison in sarcasm and in no way intend to offend the seriousness of such a sad and horrible complusion.

Pound it

This is seriously why I'm a supporter of Barack Obama. This right here.

WATCH: