Crank up your volume, you'll get it about eight paragraphs down. :)
I would like to think that Rich and I are still young and capable to doing the late nights that we have become accustomed to when in Vegas...apparently something has happened and we're getting old. Or stupid. Yes, it's either old or stupid....my money is on the latter.
On Sunday morning, we woke a little before 4:00am to be in the car by 4:15am to head to San Fransisco to make a flight that left at 7:00am. Now, both of us work MILES from our house. I think it might be two miles from our front door to my school and it might be four or five miles from our door to Rich's work. The term "commuting to work" will never apply to us. THANK GOD! You may find this hard to believe, but apparently it is possible to have road rage at 5:00 in the morning. I am not a fan of road rage, well unless I am the one driving, and Rich knows this. That's why he kept saying to me
...."I'll give them ten more seconds before I flash my lights to get them to MOVE THE HELL OVER!" I'd like to say this happened once, maybe twice, but unfortunately it happened several times. We made it to SF in plenty of time.
So back to being stupid. This was the plan. Plane takes off from SF at 7:00am, arrives in LV at 8:15ish, take a cab straight to MGM to get in line for the shuttle out to the outlets that leaves at 9:15am. Are you following? On paper, it sounded good and looked doable. But when you've been up since 3:45am and you have already been in the car for an hour and a half getting to the airport, then on a flight for an hour and fifteen minutes, the thought of hauling ass to a casino to get tickets to then turn around and get on a bus for 45 more minutes to outlets in the middle of a desert sounds S-T-U-P-I-D!!!!!!
Time out---Remember the post I did a long time back where I had told you that Rich lied to the man at the desk about us being "guests" at the MGM hotel and got me on the bus for free after putting down a bogus room number? Do you remember how furious I was that he had done that and then all I could think about was that they were going to come and find me and call me out for something he did to save TWELVE DOLLARS???? Remember that? Well, right when we got to MGM Rich stops me and says..."You have to play along." I looked at him, realization hit and then I screamed..."NO I DON'T AND NO YOU ARE NOT!!" He smiled and then I told him I am not standing next you, I do not know you, and I am not a part of this at all!!!!! Approximately three minutes after Rich walked up to the counter, he was walking toward me with two tickets comped!!! I am not pleased for him and his smug smile that was all over his face, I am now again worried that at some point we will be escorted off the bus, in front of everyone, because he wouldn't cough up the twelve dollars for us to go!!!
You know what relieves stress? Stress that comes from your husbands antics? Shopping. Shopping relieves stress. So that's what I did...for three hours straight. I shopped and shopped. And you know what? I did feel better!
So, because we were still on a time crunch, we got back to the hotel in time to check in and Rich headed off to his first meeting. While he went there, I went to the room to get ready. Because even though we have been up since 3:45am, we still had a full night of plans.
(And real quick, do to the craziness of our schedule up until this point, I thought I would mention that it was around 3:00pm and the only thing Rich and I had eaten at this point was a granola bar.) At 4:00pm we had a cocktail walk-thru down at the convention and two beers on an empty stomach...not such a great thing. At 5:00pm we headed to the mall because I needed make-up and I know this sounds weird, but I always get my make-up while we're in Vegas. While I was getting make-up, Rich went and picked up our Garth tickets. We met back up at the food court...not the finest dining establishment in Vegas, but fourteen hours of nothing but a granola bar said we were eating whatever was available. Finally, tickets in hand and stomachs full, we headed to Garth.
GARTH--I have no words. Well, maybe a few. Best show I have ever seen. Yes, even better than Bon Jovi (GASP!). And the best part....Rich like it too. He didn't fall asleep and snore like he did watching Phantom of the Opera, he didn't roll his eyes and complain about a $14 margarita like he did at Elton John. No! He clapped, laughed, made fun of me acting like a twelve year old....it was was great. Garth was unbelievable!
My absolute favorite part of the night was during his 70's part. (He went through the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and present day with favorite songs) He talked about a song that used to play on the radio while his mom drove his dad to work and he said it was one of those songs that you could fall asleep, take a short nap, and it would still be playing when you woke up. I of course turned to Rich and screamed....AMERICAN PIE!!!! Quickly, let me tell you why I made it my life's goal to learn all 8 minutes and 34 seconds of this song. I was on trip to Disneyland with the Lee's (my best friends family growing up) and we were on our way home going through LA traffic and this song came on the radio and it went on forever, and ever. And Amber's parents, Deanna and Joe, knew every word to every verse. The first couple of minutes Amber, Staci and I made fun of them singing it and made fun of the crazy lyrics. By the sixth minute of the song, we then were singing and humming to the chorus. From that day on I said....I have to learn this song. And I did. Every weekend when I drove home to Lodi from Chico I played this song and learned every word to every verse. And so when Garth started playing it, I went crazy and sang at the top of my lungs. Rich looked at me like I was crazy and said...
"How do you know the words to this song?" and I looked at him and said,
"How do you NOT know them????" Because I was pretty sure he was the only one not singing at the top of his lungs. Best part of the concert!! I turned to Rich and said
"That alone was worth the price of the ticket!"
The last part of this very detailed long post was our eating...after that first day. We had all day buffet passes. You could go in for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Before the trip I thought....that will be nice, we won't have to spend a lot of money at different restaurants and we literally could go whenever we wanted. This will be good. Fast forward to Tuesday at lunch when I turned to Rich and said,
"I'm not eating at another buffet for fourteen more years!!!" I can't look at a buffet again for a long time. Not that we ate a lot, but it was just the same thing over and over. The best thing I had was a salad because they had beets and I love beets like crazy, so my main meals were beets with a side of lettuce. Uhh...no more buffets. He'll have to go with someone else from now on!
Overall we had a great trip. Can't wait to head back same time next year!
