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2:06 PM, Monday,
August 28th, 2006:
"So, what
when you get stressed you go to Japan and Vegas?!"
- Adam's mom, 8/27/06
That quote made me
giggle yesterday. Both instances where pre-planned
vacations ended up occuring at a coincidental time of
great stress.
Smiley Girl is 21.
Her mom treated us to 3 nights in Vegas and we had an
absolute blast. As I mentioned in the last entry,
nothing I like more right now than to completely
ignore how devastating the harddrive loss is. Still no
update on that situation other than I had double
copied all but 2 Journey Videos, so my "loss" is now
only all personal videos, songs and the trinitrons.
Gulp. Moving on...
We stayed
at the Stratosphere which houses some pretty
nifty rides as well as a breathtaking view.
Well, they're breathtaking rides as well, but
for slightly different reasons. A roller
coaster that slides you off the edge of the
tower 900 feet in the air certainly steals
your breath... because you're screaming it
out as fast as possible.
...and of course
we did it.
I guess I'm
kinda skipping ahead because I look somewhat
"cool" in that picture. I was not very cool
on the first fall (they do it 3 times)...
HAHAHA. That's
awesome. My hands started above my head... LOL.
And then when you think they're just bringing you back
for good, they drop the whole thing a quick 50
feet...
My favorite part
had to be Cassi being scared shitless to go on,
screaming her brains out...and then saying how it
wasn't that scary once she was done.
RIGHT:
You don't look
scared at all. :-)
At a complete
surprise to Cassi her mom booked a helicopter ride
into the Grand Canyon! How cool is
that?!?!
(I'll have you
know that no one else took this picture, both Cassi
and I took it - go photoshop)
Boy
what we went through to get to this
flight. We mixed up where we were meeting
each other in the morning and ended up
missing the bus to the airport. Then
proceeded to turn a 45 minute ride into
Boulder City into 24 minutes in my car
(actually beating our bus) and were all
winded before the helicopter even took
off. The helicopter ride was a breeze
after that.
I can't
thank Tracey enough for planning this. It
was spectacular and it absolutely never
would have occured to me
otherwise.
Of
course what's Vegas without gambling. Like
most people I took out my allotted
money to lose and promptly lost it. LOL.
This was of course before I found a
$2/$4 Texas Hold 'Em table where Tracey
and I kicked ass. We were there for
90 minutes and she broke even and I won
about $20. We could've stayed there all
night.
The
poker slots might as well be called:
"Fastest $20 you'll ever spend" because
even when you win at it you still lose. A
pair of Aces AND a pair of Kings? Great,
here's the $1.25 you just spent for that
deal. It is however great fun playing it
and as long as you stay under your
allottment you don't feel too shitty for
it. And hey - free drinks. Which was
actually a bad thing in our hotel because
then you had to find your room. What
genius thought up this room numbering
system?
That
took me a minute
SOBER.
Of course being
the big 2-1 for Smiley Girl, there was a little
alcohol involved. Cassi decided she had to go to
Coyote Ugly and proceeded to get up on the bar and go
crazy. I will leave that to your imagination but one
shot just has to be shared with the world. Her mom
decided to jump up there and embarrass the ever lovin'
crap out of her daughter and it was indeed a beautiful
moment:
:-) Moms have this
power their entire lives. I love it.
Of
course the biggest moment for me, and any
Beatles nut in Vegas this year, was of
course the new Beatles Show: Love.
Geroge
Martin (Beatles Producer) and his son
Giles remixed the Beatles catalog and the
performers of Cirque Du Soleil transformed
every song into a new experience. As a
life-long Beatle fan I was absolutely
floored at what they did. They pieced
together an audio score taking the songs
down to their individual tracks and
overlaying several songs at once.
Reminiscent of the work Danger Mouse did
with the "Grey Album" (I have to
think that played some influence on this
although no one associated with the
Beatles would ever admit that), everything
seemed new again. You'd have to see and
hear it 5 times to catch it all.
Wondrous.
Even
more spectacular was the theater's sound
system. Speakers in your headrest,
speakers on the bar ahead of you - and
they're all wired for INDIVIDUAL shit.
Like during one song, John's voice was in
my headrest poppin' in every now and
again. It makes me smile just thinking of
it.
Of
course the entire theater was decked out
in color and shininess. It's exactly what
you The Beatles in the 21st Century should
be. As you walked into the Theater you
knew you were walking into a new
experience.
The
performers were also spectacular, but
that's almost a given with Cirque Du
Soleil. That's why everyne was so excited
by this collaboration because it's
excellence on every level. Their control
over their bodies and creative
choreography was literally too much to
behold on one viewing. I pray this
gets to DVD in a timely manner because
it's really going to be the only way you
can catch it all unless you're simply made
of money.
Speaking
of which, how 'bout that mixed drink
entitled "Can't Buy Me Love" for $14.50?
LMAO. I guess you can buy
it...
I had
an amazing time to say the least. If there
was ever a weekend I needed to forget
about some shit - this was it. Cassi and
I crashed the Flamingo resort on the
last day and went on their waterslides for
an hour. I swear it was like
I was 10 years old again.
Ha,
that picture. If that's not a 10 year old
in a 30 year old's body. You know what
kills me when I look at that picture?
You know what I see? The coolest dad
on the planet. Man that's a permeating
feeling.
Career
or family, the ultimate set-up for a
lifetime of "what-ifs".
In
downtown Vegas (a place I never even
knew about) they have this video ceiling
that spans 5 football fields. Every hour
they play some video / song arrangement
and everyone lines up looking at the
ceiling for 10 minutes. A pick pocket's
wet dream. LOL. I guess that's why
they say it's now a family friendly place,
because each casino has some "clean" lure
to make you gamble and drink at THEIR
place. It's really a crock of shit. This
is not a place for children, it's every
sin under the sun with a disneyland coat
of paint on it. I think parents just
fool themselves into thinking it's family
friendly so they can go. I mean
seriously, can you imagine a more enticing
thing on the planet to a kid than a video
game with oodles of flashing lights that
you can win money on? No kid can
understand the danger of gambling and
I think it's a pretty stupid thing to
expose 'em to. My 2 cents of
course.
That
picture was a pretty cool catch for me.
I was taking shots of the ceiling
when I saw this dude with the flag
behind his back. I RAAAAAN up to him
and kneeled beneath him and PRAYED that
the American flag would come up on the
ceiling and lo and behold, there it was.
One of the better pictures I've ever
taken.
As we
left the strip on Saturday night,
I was quickly reminded at just what
I was returning home to the next
day...
I swear these
fuckin' machines own our lives.
Adam
PS -
The helicopter pilot actually put "Fly
Away" through our headsets. I thought it
was just too cool so I lip-synced to it.
There's a Journey
video
in everything if you look hard
enough...
