Still Humping the American Dream

I have now returned from Las Vegas and a grand time was had! The excitement of the post previous to this one continued pretty much through the entire trip and even sustained itself through the drive home and the next day at work since I had Wicked at the Pantages theater with Angela to look forward to all day Tuesday.
Here is a nice picture dump to give you as small sense of how it felt and tasted to be there.
Okay, well this isn't all about the trip, this is actual a photo taken during the brief visit I had with Carrie last week at Devin and Dylan's. Faithful readers of this blog will remember Carrie from some letters transcribed here a few years back. Carrie is now doing excellent and on the other side of the law, law school to be exact. She is really doing fabulous and I thought it worth noting for those following the larger story. Life can really take some hard shots at a person, but Carrie can take the best that anyone can throw at her and make it work. Yay!
Here we are, taking a break from travels to enjoy a bite at Del Taco somewhere near Victorville. This photo is designed to show the fabulous nature of the french braid which Angela sported gracefully the entire trip. Special thanks to her receptionist at work Ashley who was kind enough to make this nice addition to her already lovely head before we left, I for one very much enjoyed it.
Devin and Dylan are pictured here at Canter's Deli in the Mirage. Canter's Los Angeles is pictured elswhere in my blog so I thought there was some nice full circle elements at play in posting the Vegas version here. However Canter's LA sees much more business at 1 a.m. than this one appears to. It's a rather cute picture of the boys though, and they see a lot of business after 1 a.m.! :)
Here is a shot after we had Arrived. We stayed at the Venetian with Dennis, the boys stayed at Circus Circus, Where we would all be staying had the Nazi's won the war... I sadly grabbed no pictures with Dennis with my phone, probably because anytime he was around I had a shot of tequila in one hand and a 16 ounce of budlight in the other. This photo of Devin and I took place as we walked from the Mirage to Caesar's Palace.
As did this picture of Dylan and Angela. Dennis joined us at the Mirage but made the wise decision to leave us just before these pictures occurred. He was in town working a convention for the lingerie convention. He takes pictures of nearly naked women for a living and stays in some pretty fabulous suites while setting up convention booths of some of those photos. A fascinating occupation if ever I've heard of one.
Here is a morning after shot of the suite, note the fainting couch sculpture in the back left of the photograph.
I will on occasion smoke a cigar but I never enjoy it and I really only do it in tribute to my father, it reminds me of many wonderful evenings we spent on the deck we built in Olathe having a beer or wine and catching up on the days events.
The bed in our suite was sweet. Soft white sheets. Angela and I developed a game where one person would turn on their side and say, "do you know what I like early in the morning?", then the other person would run and take a flying leap onto the bed. From the persective of the person laying in bed it was just a funny little blur flying from the other side of the room. Dennis even enjoyed a few rounds of this game.
I just liked the look of the buildings and the sky here. This was taken from the pool deck of the venetian.
Don't Jump!
This photo says something about Las Vegas, what does it mean to you? Comment below~!
Here I am, enjoying the Suite, enjoying my life and particularly this new hat which Angela bought for me.
Angela and I in the Beatles Revolution lounge. Dennis, Angela and I enjoyed cocktails here while we waited for Devin and Dylan to finish up eating at Japonaise, where they had gone in hopes of meeting a guy we grew up with in Paradise.
This was pretty much the last trip related picture my Camera Phone recorded. From here we went to O' sheash, where the drinks are cheap and freely flowing. We had a blast there. Then we travled by Taxi to the Griffen in downtown. This night just got crazy and I'm so glad to have been a part of it.
Of course this fellow was missing us while we were away, so we had to get back to see him.
And how could you deny this?

This beautiful shot is taken at the taco bell on vine, where we went to have a small snack before going to see Wicked. Lovely.


Bye now~!

Getting ready to leave!

A breath of the fresh!

Hi all, it has been too few and far between. I'm about to embark on a mission to las Vegas, within the hour I say I'll be hitting the road. It's very exciting stuff you know! I have not been in some time and I'm very excited.
For the second time in my life I will travel to Las Vegas to meet Dennis, a friend from years ago and thousands of miles away. I can count on one finger the number of times that I have seen Dennis in the last six years, and that was a brief sighting in a city that I had never seen either, therefore I feel our reconnection got a bit lost in the cyclone. Dennis will be in town on some sort of business that he has declined so far to expand upon,he has only gone on record to say that he will tell me in person and that I will laugh. How very giddy I am!

The last trip I took to Vegas to meet Dennis was a whirlwind, and I don't recall very much of it, but probably more than most people remember their trips to Las Vegas. At the time I was living with Devin in Winnetka, working at Ralph's market. Devin and I Drove my car, accompanied by a co-worker mine named Matt, who has completely disappeared from my life.

I blog this all not because it's interesting but because I am excited! It's nice to have friends that pop in and out of your life. It's nice to get out of town. It's nice to go to Las Vegas. It's nice to be able to travel somewhere with Angela because she packs better than anyone I have ever met.

Can you tell I am excited?

I have been working hard at work lately and I feel like I'm really coming into my own there. I handle many situations as they come up because if I don't handle them there is really only one other person there who can, and he's got too much to do as it is. It makes me feel useful, which isn't really as fun as feeling excited, like I'm feeling now.

This is interesting, have you noticed that I'm really blogging present tense, which is something I seldom do? I don't even think this post began that way, oh yes, maybe it did.

So I assume the added work at work is what has really cut down on my blogging, which is why I'm typing the rare blog not from work. If you are my employer and you happen to be reading this I don't blog from work, I only work at work, saying that I blog from work is just a joke I have for those people who read my blog from their work . If my employers happen to be reading this I would bet dollars to doughnuts they are reading it from work anyway.

It's getting near the time to go and I am very excited! I've mentioned this before, yes?

I have been running ever so much lately. I've recently taken a new approach to my running, rather than running fast and killing myself I have started running slower but steadier and over a bit longer period of time and mileage. I'm actually a bit more exhausted at the end of it but it seems to be a little easier to confront it each day knowing that the suffering will be gradual.

Okay, the excitement is getting the better of me. I must take a few moments for me and prepare.

I will type here again, maybe even from my phone during the trip.

Eight Oh Eight Oh Eight

As I wrote the date for the first time today I was taken back to certain memory fragments from my childhood, and one repeated phrase that once used to hold special meaning.

As school children living on farm in Western Kansas about 15 miles from our grade school it was necessary for us to get a ride into town and then get on a school bus to venture one town over to our grade school. When we first started school it was my fathers job to get us up and around and then drive us into town to meet the bus. Why I remembered this today is that we had to leave by 8:08 am in order to catch the bus. So each morning when time had finally ran out at home and we had to go get into the jeep to drive into town Dad would yell out, "Eight oh eight oh Eight!", and we'd all go. I don't know why he added the extra Oh eight, I guess it had a better ring.

Dad was always making things fun for us on the way. The sunlight in western Kansas at that time in the morning is particularly stunning, and perhaps because there are so few things out there to cast a shadow, the things that do cast a shadow are all the more inpressive. My dads brown and orange jeep was one such particular shadow casting object. As it rolled down Highway K-18 the sun would be shining and casting a perfect shadow of the vehicle in the grass ditch just next to us, sometimes slightly behind us. As shadows do it would go with us the entire drive to school. The effect was made all the more personal for us kids during certain months of the year when the top was off the jeep and each passanger could wave their arms above their head and locate there own silouette.
Dad reffered to the family of shadows that followed us by our last name spelled backwards, since shadow images like mirror images are backwards of sorts. Each member of the family had their own shadow family member and it was their name said backwards. I remember really liking the way my shadow's name sounded "Nodnarb", it was so fitting.

Sometimes when going about my business of adulthood I will catch a glimpse of Nodnarb, he's bigger now all grown up, but I will wave to him and he waves back and it makes me feel a bit like a child.

Life is too weird

If someone had told me when I was 18 that one day I'd be sitting in an office in north hollywood, having just lead a scheduling meeting for a small but profitable company, listening to the president of my company sing along with a song written and recorded by my uncle Ronnie over and over again I very much doubt I would have believed you.

This is exactly what is happening. My boss Craig who normally presides over the morning schedule meeting was out to an appointment. He gave me one paper with one job needing done and left me in charge. I actually pulled it off in a manner which I felt the technicians appreciated and still got the job done.

Yesterday Ronnie sent me a real old timey country song he'd written having a little go at a friend of his who didn't deal with his wife leaving him very well. Ronnie finally got around to recording that song Monday and over the weekend. It's called I ain't there and I love it. Just a classic in my opinion.
I was playing it at work yesterday and my country loving boss came running out of her office wanting to know what it was. Within the first listen she was singing harmony on the chorus.
At the end of the day yesterday I emailed her a copy of the song, she came in this morning with an entire duet part worked out. Now she is in her office singing over and over again and I'm in a small corner of my own private heaven. It's great to be surrounded by pieces of the people you care about, especially when they come out of the blue and knock your skirt up.
I'm grateful that life will always find ways to be weird.

Update 1:
It keeps getting odd...
Ronnie just got online and told me today is his birthday... the big 6 oh. Happy birthday Ronnie!