I’ve been majorly slacking. Normally, I have posts written for all, well most, of my blogs and scheduled to go. I believe this is what we call Vegas brain. I have a serious case of it.

Returning to the real world is just not as fun as slot machines, walking the strip, plotting ways to break into shops in the Forums, planning out exactly how you are going to worm your way through Mariah Carey’s entourage and hang out with that crazy bitch.

Seriously, Chicago has nothing on Las Vegas!

After a ridiculous flight in sitting in front of three freshly 21 year olds, I wanted to kill myself. No, really, I wanted to bust out the window next to me and squeeze my big ass out of it in flight because they were so amazingly annoying that I didn’t even this this kind of annoying existed. First, I had to listen to them plot out how they were going to bring down the casino a la 21 and practice counting cards. Then I had to listen to this kid sing the same part of Paper Planes over and over very loudly. After which, dealt with him kicking my seat repeatedly. The lone girl in the group would moan because they were being annoying but she was just as annoying with her moaning. Throw in a chorus of GO, DJ! THAT’S MY DJ! and some fake vomiting sounds, I was about ready to jump over the back of my seat and murder them.

We stayed at Planet Hollywood this time which was a great choice. Our room was Macaulay Culking themed. Of course, one would expect Home Alone but it was Getting Even With Dad, complete with a tshirt little he wore during filming. There is nothing like waking up to Macaulay as soon as you open your eyes. Okay, it was kind of creepy. I loved our hotel, Planet Dailies has great food and a ginormous ice cream sundae that we unfortunately didn’t have a chance to get this time, the mall was right next to us which was quite convenient. Our first walk through the casino and William spots Vanilla Ice playing craps. I was very tempted to go up and ask him for a photo but he was surrounded by tons of dudes and I wasn’t about to be the one female all up in that.

making our way to the Fashion Show mall near the Wynn and Treasure Island

That night we decide to hit up Tao in the Venetian. This place was kind of ridiculous. If you do clubs and happen to be in Las Vegas, make this your first stop. I will recommend not buying a new pair of heels hours before you go because they will murder your feet and you will spend the whole night withering in pain but still trying to enjoy yourself. That place is definitely on my list of places to go back to with proper footwear. This totally wouldn’t had happened if I had my adorable peep toe shoes that mysteriously disappeared :(

If you are a buffet person, check out the Wynn. They had everything you could possibly imagine. The chicken noodle soup was so so soooo good. The had a make your own pasta bar. Seafood, sushi, Italian, Mexican, fried chicken, bacon cut from the slab, everything. The dessert bar was crazy! Definitely go there.

Next time I go to Las Vegas, I want to stay in the Palms. We went their one night to check out Moon, Ghostbar and the Playboy club. Moon was shut down for an event which sucked but we made our way into Playboy. The dj played good music, the vibe was cool. I really liked it. We ended up practically shutting the place down so we didn’t get a chance to go to Ghostbar.

My favorite casino hands down was Paris. I loved the inside of it! Mon Ami Gabi is on my list of places to go to next time.

I took this photo sitting on the steps outside of our hotel

We went to Caesar’s Palace because I wanted to go look at the Forum shops. I’m pretty sure I could live in there. I may or may not have been pressed up against the glass of Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Fendi looking longingly at beautiful things. I also found out that night that Mariah Carey would be hosting the Bank at the Bellagio. I was this close to trying to talk boyfriend into going because I LOVE Mariah. Daydream was the first cd I ever owned and it’s been a love affair since even when she was passing out popsicles in a big tshirt on TRL.

In the Venetian, we went on a gondola and were serenaded by our gondolier. We were also stared at and had our photos taken by many a tourist which was kind of creepy.  We caught the fountains at the Bellagio many times since it was right across the street from our hotel. My favorite time was when it went along with Sinatra.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures because I was just enjoying myself and forgot about the camera but there are a couple more over at my flickr.

All I know is, I’m ready to go back.

Now.

I overslept today. My reader is at a billion. I have so much admin work to do on the shopping blog. Class! I’m exhausted. My brain hurts.

But I’m back. Did you miss me? Did I miss anything?!

I had an AMAZING time in Las Vegas and almost didn’t come back. I have a ton to write about and a few pictures. Sorry, I was totally slacking on the photo front. I have my poor feet to care for. I feel like I can sleep for three days!

Highlights:
- Vanilla Ice playing craps 5 feet away from me
- Tao
- the food!
- our Macauley Caulkin room (what?)
- Paris
- getting serenaded on a gondola

Low Lights:
- buying new heels and attempting to wear them to the club
- my feet feeling like they are going to fall off
- the bandaids…oh, the bandaids
- spending $75 on those bitch ass uncomfortable heels that tore my feet up

In Blog News:
- Thanks Katelin and Amanda for guest posting! You girls are awesome and I love you both.
- My shopping blog is now on Alltop! So is Umm…Now What? Yay!
- a new giveaway at the the shopping blog as well
- a bunch of posts of mine up at Rone Break

So go check those things out while I try to process my ridiculous weekend!

This weekend I’ll be living it up in Sin City. I’ve been itching to get back there since the first time I went in December, I was really sick and didn’t get to do it up right. Come Saturday, I plan on being well and so far from sicky that I will bathe in orange juice and live in a bubble until I step foot on that airplane if need be. A weekend vacation could not be any more needed right now!

Of course this means, last minute Vegas preparations because I can’t go there looking like a hot mess. This means a haircut is in order. If you have been reading this blog long enough, you know what a big sissy I am when it comes to my hair. I HATE haircuts and will let it grow out for over 6 months before I’ll go get a trim and I wait until the very last minute to see if I can get an appointment. Hopefully today when I call, my stylist and hair guru, Mary, can fit me in on Friday. Also, since I’m bringing in boyfriend to get his haircut, I hope I get a sweet discount for referring him!

I briefly asked this on twitter yesterday but since more of you read this than my twitter I’ll pose the question here as well.

What are must do/see/eats in Vegas?

GO!

P.S. Umm…Now What? is looking for guest posters.
P.P.S. I’m talking about 5 1/2 inch heel-less boots over at Rone Break. Fashion forward or fashion flop?
P.P.P.S. This girl is in need of a new hair straightener. If you enter this contest, I hope you give it to me if you win!

Almost three weeks after coming home from Las Vegas, I’m finally getting the last of these pictures up here! I really wish I took more. It’s okay though, soon enough, I will go back. I’m already pestering the boyfriend about when we are going back. He wants to go back to, so all we need is a date and some funds. I feel like there is so much I didn’t see the first time around. We barely covered one end of the strip! Plus, there is shopping and all the clubs I didn’t get to go to because I felt like death! I’m pretty sure I’m going to pack up and move there. See ya!

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I briefly mentioned the creepy cab driver in my previous chapter of my trip to Las Vegas. I think it’s time for the whole story.

The night we arrived, the boyfriend, his cousin and I decided we were going to hit up LAX in the Luxor, you know the big pyramid with the Sphinx in front? Well, we get all dolled up and are ready to go. I’m in my adorable black pointy toe heels and jeans that make me look leggy.  The boyfriend is looking incredibly good in some dark denim, white button down, grey pullover sweater and this amazing leather jacket. Seriously, I love it. His cousin, dressed similarly to me in cute top, jeans and heels. We catch a cab to the Luxor and walk in. There is this really swanky lounge area right outside the entrance to the club and we note we have to get a drink there later. Not many people are near the entrance, so that’s good, doesn’t seem to crowded. I wasn’t sure exactly where to go in because there was a few lines and like 5 big, mean looking bouncer dudes, so I just walked up to the nearest one. He tells me to hold on one second, but first that, “the gentlemen in my party would have to change his shoes or get a sport coat”.

Hold up.

Seriously? My boyfriend is better dressed that more than half of these douches waiting to get in, with their ugly button down graphic shirts and hideous white sneakers, but since they have a blazer on, they can walk right up. We get told he can’t go in because he has a brand new pair of white low top Converse on and is otherwise, impeccably dressed in a non-douchey way? How does that make sense? Turns out the boyfriend didn’t bring any dress shoes and it was already 11:30PM, so no stores carrying shoes would be open. We decide to catch a cab back to our hotel to gamble some and decide where we are going to go from there.

Walking out of the Luxor we grumble all the way into the cab about how ridiculous this is and the cab driver asks what we are talking about so we tell him. Cab driver seemingly sympathizes and says he can take us to the Walmart “just past the airport” to pick up a pair of black shoes. We say sure, because they airport was like 5-10 minutes away so it should be a quick run and then we can go back to LAX or where ever else. He was a young guy, late 20s, for some reason he had some RayBan like sunglasses on, BUT THERE WERE NO LENSES IN THEM?! First wierdo thing about him. Second, he starts telling us his life story, about his kids, blah blah. Okay, he’s just a chatty cab driver, fine, everyone’s had a cab driver who likes to talk. Right? Then he goes on about how he’s been divorced twice and this and that and we notice, we have been driving for awhile and start getting in to a residential area? I’m pretty sure on the way to the hotel from the airport, it definitely did not take this long.  Hmm. He’s still rambling along and then asks what the boyfriend is going to do with the shoes he is wearing after he buy some new ones. Good question. We hadn’t thought of that and we definitely don’t want to go back to the hotel and then catch another cab back to a club. We would spend most of our night in cabs!

Creepo cab driver has the answer and tells us this story:

One day he was doing something he really shouldn’t have been doing and had to meet with someone. He had a knife on him and didn’t want the people he was meeting with to find the knife on him. He decided the best idea was to ditch the knife in a McDonald’s bathroom under a sink. Goes to his meeting then picks up the knife after. Tells boyfriend he can just hide his shoes in a bathroom like he did.

The boyfriend and I look at each other, officially weirded out and wondering why this goddamn cab ride is taking so long. Creepo decides he is going to “help us out” by parking once we get to Walmart, stopping the meter and going in with us to pick out some shoes because he has to “help his man get some shoes”. I grabbed the boyfriend’s hand and relayed the fact that OMG I’M TOTALLY CREEPED OUT RIGHT NOW just by looking at him and I can see that he is too. He picks up his phone and pretends to call someone, “hangs up the phone” and tells creepo cab driver that someone is just gonna pick us up there and we are going to go grab some food with them, so there is no need for us to accept his generous offer. We say thanks and practically jump out the cab while it’s slowing down in front of Walmart.

Where does this leave us? Stuck at a Walmart “just outside the airport”, the $15 cab ride tells you exactly how close we were. So it’s almost midnight, we are at some random Walmart, can you guess what kind of shady characters hang out at Walmart at midnight? Seriously. We are completely overdressed in the shoe aisle, trying to decide on which pair of ugly black shoes to buy. We decide on the less of all evils, with the promise to hit up the mall the next day and find some decent shoes. Walking up to the register, we discuss how we are going to get back to the strip since no cabs drive by around here. Will pays for the shoes and we ask customer service to call us a cab, which they do, but it will be at least 20 minutes to an hour until someone can pick us up. Now we are stuck at a shady Walmart with ugly shoes, praying a cab will hurry up and come get us. Boyfriend’s cousin decides she has seen enough for one night and doesn’t even want to go back out after this, so the shoes get returned.

We made a pointless trip to Walmart to buy and return ugly shoes, wasted $30 on cab rides back and forth, almost were the victims of a serial killer cab driver and didn’t even end up going to any clubs.

How’s that for your first night in Sin City?

A week and a half ago I was in Las Vegas. Never having been there before, I was so excited! I was to leave the day after Christmas and stay for 4 days, 3 nights. I’ve been talking about it forever. I did Vegas shopping, bought two little black dresses, 2 pairs of shoes, got my hair cut and stepping foot in the salon was a feat in itself, let me tell you! — I was so freaking ready.

Then The Christmas Curse came and those little black dresses never got worn.

See, every year for the past 3-4 years, I’ve been sick on Christmas. I always end up getting a horrible cold and feel miserable. It never fails, which is why I dubbed it the Christmas Curse. I should have expected this year would be no different.

After the most uncomfortable flight ever, we finally land and basically drop our shit off in our rooms and we are off! It was pretty chilly the whole time we were there, around 30 degrees. Walking up and down the strip all day with an awful cold, left me exhausted by the time it was time to hit up the clubs. The first night, I sucked it up and was ready to hit up LAX, but our plans got thrown off track due to black shoes and a creepy cab driver. That story deserves it’s own entry though, TRUST ME. It’s coming though. The next two nights, I just couldn’t do it. My face was a bright shade of red, my eyes hurt like hell, runny nose and scratchy throat. My head weighed a million pounds and every time I ate, I felt like I was going to be sick. That’s what happens when you go from eating practically nothing, so you, yourself, don’t weigh a million pounds to eating a bunch of heavy food all day. Not smart. Anyway, point is — I was out by 10 every night. I couldn’t help it. I was exhausted. That did not stop me from making the most of the time I was up and about though! I will write more about that later though. Let’s just take it slow!

I didn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked. Also, when you take out the pictures that actually show my face, you don’t have much. I can’t find my camera cord so the cute, cuddly tigers and other pictures will have to wait until next time.

Since I have no camera, you get the couple pictures the boyfriend took with the iPhone!

That’s our little hotel peeking out in the back, you know with the huge Statue of Liberty and giant roller coaster. The New York New York was a great place to stay for my first trip to Las Vegas.

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Most of you missed the great blog fiasco this weekend. Okay, it really wasn’t a fiasco to anyone but me. I stupidly thought I could update Wordpress on my own, screwed it up, had to delete my whole blog, reinstalled, fortunately had a backup of all entries and comments, lost all my themes and widgets and got everything back up and running. Once I got everything back up, I realized my blog wasn’t coming up on feed readers. For some reason, they were marking all my new entries as old and dating them months back even though they were new.

All that matters is I’m up and running! Should you so choose, you can also subscribe by email now or through a reader, both options are over there on the right. ————–>

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On to other matters of the non-bloggy kind. We are having some freakishly spring weather over here in Chicago for the past few days! It’s been in the 50s, kind of wet and rainy and we are having a flash flood warning until tomorrow. It’s a fabulous change from freezing, below-zero temperatures and heavy snow though. Chicago will set me straight soon enough with a drastic change that will leave me scrambling for my parka and ugly boots.

I promise, tomorrow I will have something up about my Las Vegas trip. So far all I gave you was a Coco and Ice T sighting and while I know how much everyone loves Coco, it’s just not that much of an update. I have pictures of cute, cuddly lions! Playing with each other!

This week I only work two days. I’ve worked only one day in the past two weeks with Christmas and my own vacation. It’s made me absolutely slothful. You couldn’t pay me to get out of comfy clothes and do something other than lay around. I’m trying to enjoy my days off while I have them. Next week starts two months of nonstop go go go. I’ll write more about that later though, it’s an entry all in itself.

Shout out to the bizarro Detroit me for the Juno soundtrack! Thanks, ilu!

On Thursday, I was walking around Planet Hollywood and the connecting Miracle Mile shops with the boyfriend checking out the shops. Guess who we see walk by?

Ice T and Coco

This picture is actually from that night at the opening of new club Prive in Planet Hollywood. I found it on Oh No They Didn’t! (more at the link)

She’s totally just as trashy looking in person. haha They didn’t look too happy, so I didn’t want to bust out my camera and get all paparazzi on them.

P.S. I promise to write more on Vegas soon. I found out some shitty news and everything I try to write is just a jumbled mess of whining and ranting. Once I can string together something a bit more eloquent than that, I will have something up here.

I’m back from Sin City. I will write more about it later, but I will say, I was sick as hell the whole time.

Huge bummer.

I’ll write about it soon and post a few pictures.

Google reader is like 200 deep!

I have tons to catch up on.

This time tomorrow:

Currently, I am packing my cute, pink rolling suitcase and mentally preparing myself for the amazing time that will be had!

I hope everyone had an amazing holiday. I will do my best to write again soon! BYE!