Category Archives: Travel

The Vegas Recap

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The trip to Las Vegas was fun. I just got the pictures online, so feel free to check those out, along with the ones from my birthday, which I also posted today. Here’s the blow-by-blow:

Thursday afternoon: Flew to Vegas. Relatively uneventful flight. Checked in at the Golden Nugget, which is one of the older casinos in Las Vegas (it’s downtown, not on the strip). We ate dinner at the casino, and went to bed early.

Friday: My all-day meeting. Ho-hum, boring work stuff. Dave and I met up in the hotel room that evening (he had a great time playing slots all afternoon), changed clothes and went to my company’s dinner/event thing. Which was, of course, at a bowling alley. The perk was that this time, there was an open bar. Which would’ve been great, except that I felt sick after my first drink (I’m still not sure why), and Dave already had a headache, so we were there for less than an hour total.

Saturday: We went to check out the Strip. See photos. We had lunch at the New York, New York, and then stopped at some random little bar on the strip for a strawberry daiquiri, which I had been craving ever since we arrived. We walked a few more blocks to the Paris, which I didn’t realize was owned by the Hiltons, and probably has some affiliation with that skank ho daughter of theirs. Around the time we got there, I got sicker than I have been in recent memory. I still don’t know what happened, if it was the daiquiri or the food we had for lunch, but my stomach was in knots. I’ll spare you all the gruesome details, suffice it to say that I thought I was going to have to go to the emergency room, but we decided to just go back to the hotel so I could lie down for a while and see if that helped. I almost fainted while we waited in line for a taxi; Dave got us out of the line and sat me down until the cold sweats passed and I stopped seeing spots. We finally got back to the hotel, and I sent Dave out of the room so I could be miserable on my own. (I don’t like witnesses to be present when I’m violently ill.)

Three hours later, I was fine. I went down to the casino floor to find Dave – he had won $180 on the penny slot machines. (After all was said and done, I think he lost $20 total, but he played the damn things for about 8 hours over the weekend, so he did pretty well.) We went to dinner because after my little… um, unintended purge, I was suddenly hungry. Then we crashed for the night.

Sunday: We learned the hard way that everyone and their grandma flies to Vegas for the weekend, and they all fly back home on Sunday. The airport was insane. I haven’t seen security lines like that since the time I tried to fly less than a week after 9/11. We thought we had allowed plenty of time, but it turns out we were sadly mistaken. We finally got through the security line at exactly the time our plane was supposed to be leaving. We speed-walked to the gate, figuring that we were probably going to have to go standby on the next flight, but hoping that maybe our plane was delayed. And what do you know, they were still boarding the flight when we got there. Hooray! So we made it, just barely.

Then we came home, ate Thai leftovers for dinner, and watched “Surreal Life,” “Strange Love” and “Celebrity Fit Club” on VH-1. (For the record, I hate “Celebrity Fit Club” because I think it’s cruel and mean-spirited, but I can’t stop watching it.)

Dodgeball, Vegas-style

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With all the excitement about cohabitating, I forgot to mention that this weekend is my company’s semi-annual meeting. Which, same as last year, is in Las Vegas. But this will be cooler than last time, because (a) last time I had only been with the company for 3 weeks and I didn’t know anyone there; and (b) Dave is coming with me. So we’ll fly down on Thursday evening, we have our meeting all day Friday (somehow I think I might come down with a suspicious headache before it’s all over and have to retire to my room), and then we have some kind of company “fun” activity that night. Last time it was bowling. Whee. Luckily, attendance isn’t required for that last part. We’re opting to spend Saturday night there too, because there’s nothing like taking a 3-day weekend vacation when you’re in the middle of trying to move. (Actually, that decision was made before the move thing started.)

Also, one of the HR ladies sent out this meeting’s agenda, and as you may recall, last time all the new hires (which included me) had to put on some type of poem/skit thing, which was completely horrible and humiliating. Seriously, I still wince when I think about it. This year, all of the new hires have to play dodgeball. WTF?? Why couldn’t I be in THAT group? Not that I’m a fan of dodgeball at all, but somehow it just doesn’t seem quite as embarassing as the skit that we had to do. Whatever.

Back to normal life: the apartment drama continues. It turns out that it’s actually more expensive to break my lease than to just pay rent every month until it expires (which will be in April). And if I don’t break my lease, I have at least a slight chance of getting my deposit back. Plus, this way I can pay it per month, rather than trying to come up with some exorbitant penalty fee up front. So I think that’s what I’m going to do, even though I’m still moving to Dave’s. It’s cool because it means that I can take my sweet time moving my stuff out. Which is good, because before I can move my stuff out, we have to make room for my stuff at the house.

TV stuff: Does anyone still watch “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”? Last night I caught the re-run of last week’s episode, where they fixed the guy up for his wedding before he was deployed to Iraq. I cried for pretty much the whole hour. If you get a chance to watch it, please do so. It was great.

Holiday Madness!

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Brace yourselves, this is gonna be a long one.

December 23rd: Early in the morning, we headed to the airport for our flight to Jackson, only to find out that the first leg was going to be delayed for 2 hours. This meant that we were going to miss our connection in Dallas. So I called the airline to find out which later flight we would be on, and I was informed that we could maybe get on standby for the first flight out on Christmas Eve, but it wasn’t likely. (Keep in mind Teenie was with us, so if we had to stay in a hotel, we would’ve had to get food, litter box & all other kitty accoutrements that my mom already has at her house.) Dave and I made the executive decision to screw the 2nd flight, rent a car in Dallas, and drive to Jackson so we could get there the same day. We told the airline this, and they said that they’d change our luggage orders so our bags would stop in Dallas. Turns out, my bag stopped in Dallas, but Dave’s apparently traveled on without him. Oh well. We got the car and I drove us the 450-ish miles from Dallas to Jackson. Dave slept for 5 1/2 of the 6 hours – he woke up in Vicksburg, so he was conscious for the last 40 miles or so. We got to my parents’ house sometime around 2 a.m., and promptly collapsed.

December 24th: We had to go to the airport in Jackson to get Dave’s bags, and in spite of the previous day’s bad travel luck, we actually got them. Whew. I should add, my sister flew to Jackson on the 22nd, and she didn’t get her suitcase until the 24th, either. And then there was all the news coverage about the thousands of people whose bags were lost by the airlines, so we felt pretty lucky by comparison. Anyway, we all went to the candlelight church service that evening, came home, had the Huge Christmas Dinner, and opened presents. I cleaned up this year. I got clothes from my parents and a pashmina from my sister, which were all great. Then Dave got me a necklace that I absolutely adore, a purse that is nicer than anything I have ever owned in my life, and other assorted goodies. I got him a grandfather mantle clock, which he seemed to really like – although he only got pictures of it at Christmas, because it was too big and breakable to get it from Seattle to Jackson and back again. (He got the real clock when we got home yesterday.) What can I say, Christmas was good.

December 25th: The worst migraine I have had in ages. My mom even gave me one of her heavy-duty narcotic painkillers, which did absolutely nothing for it. Somehow, in spite of the pounding in my head, I managed to get myself dressed and packed, and we headed down to New Orleans. We had to take a roundabout way to get there, because it had actually snowed in Louisiana, which is something that never happens there, ever. But, we arrived safe & sound, and we had a great time visiting with relatives that night and on the 26th. Then Mom & Tracy headed back to Jackson, Dave & I got another rental car, and we had the city all to ourselves.

December 27th: The first day of our vacation without my family around. We woke up at 9 a.m., showered, lay in bed to watch the news coverage of the tsunami, and fell asleep until well after 1 in the afternoon. Ah, laziness. I love vacation. After we woke up, we went to an absolutely horrible lunch (at a restaurant that both of my parents raved about, oddly enough), and then wandered around the French Quarter for the rest of the day/night.

December 28th: Slept late. Got up, checked out of the hotel, drove around New Orleans for a bit before heading back to Jackson. Hung out with my parents and watched “Collateral”. It was good.

December 29th: Slept late again. Actually, that was an accident, I got up at 11:00, went into Dave’s room to wake him up (no co-ed sleeping arrangements in my parents’ house), and I lay down on the bed next to him and fell asleep for 2 hours. I was worried that my parents might have caught us like that and freaked out because the door was wide open, but he was under the covers and I was on top of them, so I think it was ok. If they walked down the hall and saw us, they didn’t say anything about it. Anyway, we eventually got up and drove to Memphis. We checked into our hotel, met up with Kris for dinner and then went to play pool at a sketchy bar near the university, which used to be one of our regular hang-outs. Kind of funny to be there again, although I didn’t run into anyone that I knew. Which is probably a good thing.

December 30th: Got up, had lunch, and gave Dave a driving tour of all the places I’ve lived in Memphis. Took him back to the hotel to shower, and then he wanted some quiet time, so I left him there while I went to go hang out with Kris for a couple of hours. We went to some of the local artists’ shops in midtown, which I love. Then Kris and I went back to to the hotel to pick up Dave, and we went to check out Peabody Place. This is one of those cool new things that’s happened to Memphis since I left the city – downtown is actually nice now. Who knew? It’s fabulous. We shopped and went to the Peabody Hotel next door to see the ducks. We avoided Beale Street because it was insanely packed, apparently there was some parade going on there, which may or may not have had something to do with the Liberty Bowl, we weren’t sure. The three of us met up with Becky, Naina and Carrie for dinner that night, which was great. Dave seemed to get good reviews from all of my friends, so that’s good.

December 31st: Spa day! Kris arranged for us to get manicures, pedicures, facials and massages. Ah, so lovely. I had never had a pedicure before, and I haven’t had a facial in years, so that was absolutely wonderful. And it took up the better part of the day; meanwhile, Dave had the rental car and he went off to explore Memphis on his own. We met up at the hotel that evening, got dressed, and went over to Kris’s house for her New Year’s party. I had way too much to drink and was quite obnoxious. Dave somehow managed to get me to bed, where I promptly passed out. Didn’t feel too hot the next day, either.

January 1st: Got up, checked out right at noon (barely made it), drove to Jackson. Chilled out with my parents. Watched “The Manchurian Candidate”. Dave & I had already seen it, but I knew there was no sex in the movie, so I would be safe to watch it with my dad. He seemed to like it.

January 2nd: Flew home. Not nearly as much airport drama as last time, just that we were tired and irritable. But I had so much fun on this vacation, it’s probably one of the best holidays I’ve had in years. I was sad that it was over. And I’m sad that I don’t get to see Dave every day anymore, I really enjoyed that. Even when I was pissy and he was getting on my nerves, I was still glad that he was around. Go figure.

beach pics

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After I got off work yesterday, Dave and I headed off to the beach. We didn’t know exactly where we were going, but we had a map and headed in the general direction of the Pacific Ocean. We wound up in Newport Beach, which is not far at all from Santa Ana. We took a ton of photos, which I added today (see the link on the right) during my downtime at work, which I have a lot of these days.

After the beach, we stopped at a sushi restaurant for dinner. This was my idea, surprisingly enough. I’ve always been vehemently opposed to even trying sushi, but there’s something about being near the water in southern California… I don’t know, it made me want to try it. So I did. And I liked it a lot. Scott once told me that he thought I would like eel, and I thought it sounded disgusting, but it happens that that was probably my favorite of all the things we tried.

Anyway, this week has been much more fun having Dave around. It’s a little weird being around each other so much because we haven’t done that yet, but it’s good. I think we’re getting a vibe for each other’s idiosyncracies (i.e., he likes to watch CNN at 3 a.m., and I tend to say/do things in the middle of the night that I don’t remember – apparently the other night I sat up in bed and said “what the….?”, and I have no idea why). And considering how I tend to be pretty demanding of my “me-time”, so far Dave hasn’t managed to really irritate me (yet), so I think that’s a good sign. 

One more day in the office, then… Disneyland, baby!! More pictures to follow, I’m sure.  

the final countdown

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Dave & I flew in to southern California last night. That was interesting, I’ve never flown anywhere with a boyfriend before. I think we both got to see each other’s less-than-attractive airport-stress behavior, but overall we did pretty well. Good thing for those Mile-High Bloody Mary’s in all airport bars. Once we got through check-in and security, everything was smooth sailing from there. Besides, I think it’s good that we’re learning each other’s negative traits – they all eventually come out when you’re with someone long enough anyway, so better sooner than later. I don’t think we have any deal-breakers between the two of us (so far).  

Anyway, the flight was relatively uneventful. Our baggage didn’t get lost – hooray! And we even opted for the rental car upgrade, so we now have a red Ford Mustang. That’s pretty cool, I’ve never driven a Mustang before. It’s definitely a muscle car, I’m starting to get why people love them so much. Lots of power in that gas pedal, for sure.

So, one thing I learned last week that I’ve been meaning to write about: This will be my last week flying to Santa Ana. This project is just dull-dull-dull, and there’s not enough work to keep all of the engineers busy, so they’re cutting back the team. Which includes me. I’m honestly thankful for it. This means that I’ll hopefully have a little downtime to work on my Microsoft certification exams before my next project. And I’m crossing my fingers and praying that my next project will be somewhere in the greater Seattle area, so I don’t have to fly every week anymore. Yes, frequent flyer miles are nice & all, but I also like sleeping in my own bed at night. With my cat. Surrounded by my stuff. So if any of you want to throw some “get Cindy a good Seattle project” vibes in my direction, it’d be much appreciated.

And I’m psyched that Dave is here for my last week. I’m really looking forward to the stuff we have planned for this weekend, and I think it’ll make a good farewell for my stint in “the O.C.”

vacation! (well, sort of…)

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Next week, Dave is coming down to southern California with me. He’s going to do his own thing during the week while I’m at work, then we’re going to stay over the weekend and do fun stuff, like Disneyland and Universal Studios. Whee!

Meanwhile, work is painfully dull, but I’ll spare you readers the details of my discontent.

Short post today. Nothing else to write about, really. Just… um, hi. I’m bored.

Vegas, baby!

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Ok, the recap of the trip:

Arrived on Thursday afternoon. Checked into the hotel, met my roommate (nice girl, but very very quiet & shy – not the type of person I’m going to be best buddies with), changed clothes & headed over to our evening meeting. We got lost trying to find the casino where our meeting was, so we were about 20 minutes late. However, this led to my one celebrity sighting of the trip. We stopped at one of the hotels’ information desks to get directions, and at the registration desk was Wee-Man from “Jackass”. He looked at me, probably noticing the fact that I was staring at him like an idiot, and probably waiting for me to say something. But I couldn’t come up with anything to say, because it seems lame that a 28 year-old professional female should recognize a professional skateboarding little person (especially in the presence of 3 of my co-workers), so I just stared & kept my mouth shut. I heard later that he was in town for his bachelor party. Good for him.

Anyway, I finally got to the meeting & found out what this “team activity involving creativity & fun” was all about. They took all the new hires (read: me, plus about 50 other folks), divided us into teams, and told us that we had to come up with either a skit or a love poem that demonstrated our passion for technology. There was also a list of technical terms that we got bonus points for using. The skit/poem would have to be performed in front of everyone (about 200 people) at our meeting the next day. Upon learning of this assignment, I decided to start drinking heavily. We opted for the love poem instead of the skit, and decided to make it as dirty as possible (i.e., “my firewall burns with desire”, that type of thing). Turns out that pretty much everyone had the same idea as we did, and it was very embarassing to do this in front of a crowd of people the next day (after we had all sobered up), but they also gave us props/costumes to use. And it occurred to me that you can do just about anything when you’re wearing giant clown sunglasses, a witch’s hat and a feather boa. But it was still pretty awful.

As for the bowling, I tried. I really did. But I suck, and the 5 or 6 beers I had consumed beforehand didn’t help my cause. I bowled the first 7 frames, at which point I had a total score of 18. (I had some of the prettiest gutter balls you’ve ever seen.) I asked one of my teammates to start bowling for me after that, because I didn’t want to be the person with the lowest possible score. As it was, at our meeting the next day they gave out the winner/loser awards, and I won “Least Graceful Bowler”. Yay me. My prize was a shot glass. As if that’s going to help me improve my aim. In any case, there was a big powerpoint slide on the projector screen, with my name in big bold letters on it, which led to the most surreal moment of the whole trip…

This girl came up to me during one of the breaks & asked me if I grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. I said yes, and my brain was trying to place where I knew her from. Turns out she’s someone who I went from 1st through 9th grade with. How strange is that? I haven’t seen this person in over 13 years, and boom, there she is. She’s based in Phoenix now, and she’s a developer, so the odds that I’ll see her at work are slim to none. She looks pretty much exactly the same as she did in 9th grade, too. She’s lost some weight, but her hair is still huge, and she still wears frosty blue eye shadow – all the way up to the brow, not a speck of eyelid showing. It was good/weird to catch up, but that moment just totally freaked me out for the rest of the day.

Oh yeah, after bowling on Thursday night, I ended up kissing a co-worker. He was on my love poem/skit team, and it was one of those rare instances where we met & instantly started picking on each other. I’m hardly ever at ease that quickly with someone, so that’s cool. He’s based in Denver so I’ll probably never see him again – or at least not until the next regional meeting. So no big deal. But damn, he was cute. And a really good kisser. Hey, what happens in Vegas….

Anyway, I got back to town late Friday night & collapsed. Scott & I got massages on Saturday (that was awesome), and Saturday night I went dancing by myself because no one else seemed to be around & up for it. I met a really cute Air Force guy, who’s probably way too young for me (he’s 23), but he was also a damn good kisser. So there’s been lots of good male attention happening for me lately. I must be having a good mojo week or something.