Independence!

It has been far too long, Internet!

What with the final crush that is the completion of a show and the subsequent exhaustion that followed, I have been neglecting my little blog.

Then, during the subsequent exhaustion, I decided I wanted to go on a spur-of-the-moment jaunt to Vegas.

That's #1 on the "List of Why I Like L.A.": proximity to Las Vegas.

About 250 miles away, Vegas is pretty much the perfect weekend getaway. I was cranky and tired and sick of being here, where everything reminds me of work, so when I heard that some people at work were going to spend the three-day weekend in Vegas, I jumped on the idea.

My sister is generally my travel buddy. We talked on Thursday night and left for Vegas early Friday morning. Went shopping in the outlets at Primm, about 40 miles closer to L.A. than Vegas is, blew a ton of money on clothes, shoes, bags, the works, then refueled with lunch and caffeine and got to Vegas. Knew I was in trouble when I saw the temperature when we were just outside the Strip:



















We stayed at the Luxor. Checked in around 3:30, went up to the 26th floor room we got, taking the strange sideways-traveling elevator (to accommodate for the pyramid shape).

Unpacked a couple things, made sure that toiletries hadn't melted into goop, and took some pictures of our view out the slanting (and dirty) window:
























Excalibur on the right. Luxor and Excalibur are connected by a tram, so you don't even have to step outside. On the other side of it, Luxor is connected to Mandalay Bay by a sort of corridor lined with shops and salons and such.
























Such pretty clouds; they lulled me into a false sense of "how hot could it possibly be outside?" which is DANGEROUS because it's always hotter than Hades:




















After taking the photos, we took a disco nap for a few hours. Shopping + extreme heat + waiting for valet parking = wilted girls.

Didn't wake up until 7:30 or so. Took a shower, felt better after sleeping in a frigidly air-conditioned hotel room, and had dinner at Luxor. There was no way I was going to leave the coldness after being out in the sun earlier in the day.

Went back to our room and got ready to meet up my work people for a night out. I don't even want to get into the drama, so I'll just say that we ended up at Tryst in the Wynn, getting there around 12:30 or so. (The cabbie that took us there was delightful!)

Got back to the hotel after a night of sardine-can conditions and sweaty dancing. The sister decided she wanted chicken strips or Little Caeser's Pizza, so we changed and went down to the casino level of Luxor. Little Caeser's was closed and McDonald's entire register system took a dive while we were in line, so we ended up at Nathan's at 4:00 in the morning, standing in line in front of a hilariously inebriated English dude.

We had chicken strips and French fries and went to bed. Probably not a good idea, but when in Vegas, all bad ideas seem GENIUS.

Saturday (Happy 4th of July!) we went across the way to Mandalay Bay. I loved this light with the bamboos. Too bad there were people in the way, ruining it:
























There's a restaurant inside Mandalay Bay that was inappropriately named. We went to check out the menu just because of the name of the place and were not impressed:



















There's also a walkway inside Mandalay Bay with huge windows that display their "Beach." It looked so nice, if overly crowded and burningly hot (and look, there's an American flag! I was patriotic in Vegas!):
























SO MANY PEOPLE. Like little ants all over an anthill. I think the proximity of sweaty people and the strong sunshine combined would have killed me. I don't do well in the sun- after ten minutes, I'm bright red. After twenty minutes, I'm burnt to a crisp. I peel like a snake the next day, then I'm back to being pasty white.



















Beauty shot of Mandalay Bay, just because the sky was such a pretty blue and there were little cottonball clouds puffing away.
























On the drive back. The sky is such an amazing color in the desert. I know L.A. has smog and whatever else polluting its sky, but I never realize how washed-out the color is until I'm out and somewhere else.




















After the quick overnighter in Vegas, came back and spent some quality time with the parents and got some rest on Sunday (finally). There's never much sleep to be had in Vegas.

Yesterday, went to Disneyland after work. My friend and I both have annual passes. This is #2 on my "List of Why I Like L.A.": proximity to Disneyland.

We only went on a few rides:

- Indiana Jones
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Haunted Mansion
- Buzz Lightyear
- Snow White

Friend got a churro, we pushed through the summer vacationing crowds, it was all good.

I'm so glad I'm back to 8-hour days. I can do so much extracurricular stuff!

Dinner tonight with a friend that just got back from Paris. Concert tomorrow night at the Santa Monica Pier. House party Saturday night in Marina del Rey.

Whew.

I'll keep racking up the reasons to love this city!