catch-up post #1 (Holidays + Vegas trip)
Hello everyone! Let's see, how long has it been... like 2 months since my last proper entry, eh? I'm not gonna try to remember everything I missed, but I want to write about some stuff, like my NYE Vegas trip. Normally I do a "year-in-review" type post at the start of the New Year, and I will probably still do that even though it's already February... but for now, installment #1 of catchup posts:
Christmas
The holidays were typical with lots of family time, and this year all the visiting was spread over a few weeks, so it was like an extended onslaught of family instead of one hectic week. Which is kind of nice. I had fun at the pre-Christmas get-together on my Mom's side... I have always been the "in between" cousin, 'cause there is an older group, a younger group, and I'm somewhere in the gap. It was nice chatting with a few of my younger cousins who are now high-schoolers and pretty cool/funny people. :) And I won the traditional family card game, "Oh Heck." That may be partly because my grandparents weren't in the game messing everyone up with their crazy-ridiculous bets, but still.
My parents and I ended up having the house to ourselves on Christmas day itself--a first, and a little strangely quiet for my tastes. I think my brothers grew up and went their separate ways before I was ready to let go of crazy Christmas mornings with toys and games, and I always miss that vibe a bit. (But who doesn't, right?) We watched A Christmas Story for the first time, and the part where the kid snarfs into his food pretending he's a pig or something, completely cracked us all up. That and the Chinese Christmas duck and how they are all laughing at it, and how the waiter-dude chops off his head, ha! Definitely a new classic for me, to be watched at Christmases hence.
After Christmas, my dad's side of the family had a get-together, and for some reason I really dug the food, especially the salad. And I had a good talk with my aunt and uncle (both very talented, worldly sort of people) about music and inspiration, the need to get out there and do stuff, explore, surround yourself with new things, in order to spark creativity. They live a T ride away from Boston so I may be staying with them on and off while I apartment/job-search, once I can afford to move down there. For now though, it was nice to have their encouragement and understanding. :)
And of course, I saw my siblings, niece, and nephew... always nice, if sometimes exhausting. ;)
New Year's in Vegas
For New Year's, I hopped on a plane to Vegas, where I met up with a bunch of friends--the group I roomed with a few years back (most of them, anyway) plus a few friends of friends. Unfortunately I got whacked with a nasty cold just before leaving, so I didn't have the energy or sense of adventure I might have otherwise... that did lead to not spending much on alcohol, which I guess is a plus. ;) We spent New Year's Eve at Margaritaville, where I had Jerk Chicken that was really good but HOT. Thankfully the margaritas helped, so my mouth wasn't aflame all night. We watched some dude jump his motorcycle onto the fake Arc de Triomphe on TV, danced a bit to a cover band... I'm beginning to wonder if I'm actually capable of dancing cool. I used to think that I can, and just chose not to, but now I'm not so sure. But hey, being cool is overrated. It's all about having FUN! hehe.
We went out to the strip just before midnight to watch the "fireworks" and be with the big crazy crowd for the countdown... the fireworks were pretty lame, but we could at least see one set of them by TI. I've never been amongst a crowd for NYE so that was kind of neat, but I can't say I really prefer it over just watching the countdown from home. Also it was weird to see the East Coast celebrate on TV when it was only 9 o'clock for us--I'm used to having NYE first, dammit! ;) So after the countdown, we all eventually made our way back to NYNY... Cyn was nervous about the big half-drunken crowd, and scared about getting lost in the shuffle, so we held hands the entire way down the strip. Karen too, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't scared. She had her arm all tense like she was ready to beat someone up, hahahah. It was silly. Fun-silly, though. And miraculously, walking 2/3rds of the strip in high-heeled boots didn't cause me any pain whatsoever. Man I love those boots. I only paid like $12 for them but they are worth something like $90 and are sooooo comfy. Anyway, I digress.
(shows)
-Most of us saw KA one night, which was really wonderful. We had seats fairly close to the stage, so there were times that the show "overflowed" on us a bit--like when it was "snowing" on stage, it came floating down on us, too. That was probably one of my favorite moments, actually, it was so pretty and serene. A couple of the cool acrobatic set things... one was this big rectangular stage that rotated and flipped up on its side, and they had arrows "shoot" into it, so the actors had handholds to twirl around and hang onto. It was so cool lookin'! There was also this big modified ferris wheel kinda structure, er... well it reminded me of one of those perpetual motion thingys you see on office desks. And they had these people riding in it and making it move like hamsters in a wheel. And this one guy ran around on the top of one of the wheels and jump roped and leapt around, getting serious air. And then there was an awesome turtle, and a starfish, and a sandworm-thing. The costuming/storyline had an Asian sorta flair--and it seemed like it had more of a solid "plot" than any other Cirque shows I've seen, which I liked. I thought it was going to be the FIRE SHOW and there wasn't actually a whole lot of fire (though there were some fireWORKS that made my eyes freak out they were so bright), but plenty of other effects to make up for it. All in all, an excellent show and I'd recommend it to anyone, especially if you like artsy-schmartsy stuff and people bouncing/flying around like human ping pong balls or badminton birds or somesuch.
-Our last night, Karen and I saw the Tournament of Kings show at the Excalibur... which I have already seen twice, haha. I know, I know, I'm a huge dork for loving this show. But there are horses, and fighting knights, and cute squires, and an evil knight, and the tomato soup is just so damn good! I have fun with all the stupid interactive cheering and singing and stuff. I sang and clinked my plastic Pepsi mug [I never ever drink Pepsi except in at medieval knight tournaments] with our country's squire, and Karen almost did but she was too slow and missed it. ;) We sat in the Russia section, and our King turned out to be the asshole King that is always taking cheap shots and thinking he's awesome. But it's kinda funny (he spends half of the show threatening the midget, haha!), and it was all in good fun to cheer for him (and make a fuss along with him when he gets penalized). I did notice that he was the only King that gave his horse lots of love, especially when the show was all done and they were all waiting around for the final ride. I was like, awww... King Russia's a jerk but our actor is nice to his horse! yay! I think I got into the show way more than Karen, but I think you have to be as uninhibited as possible to enjoy it to the fullest, hehe. We did have a good time laughing at how much Prince Christopher (or Christian, or whatever his name was) looked like Dr. Chase from House. The resemblance was eerie. We were like, "go Chase! kill the evil knight! you can do it!" hahahahah. Oh man. Perfect show for dorks like me.
-A few of ended up at a Blue Man show, too, but sadly I have to say I was disappointed. Maybe it's 'cause we were farther back and I'm spoiled by the intimacy of the Charles, but I just never felt that special vibe/energy that /makes/ the show... and the actors were good but seemed to play it by the book, instead of busting out random silly stuff. Or maybe it was that I saw the silly Tournament show the same night and had so much fun there. Can't really put a finger on it. Though it WAS really friggin' hilarious when Nicole mimicked the Twinkie Girl, who was like, this elderly black lady who wouldn't stop yammerin' at the Blue Men, hahah she was cool. One of those people you laugh at and simultaneously say "haha, I love her!", you know? So in short... it wasn't that the show was /bad/, it just wasn't great for me. *shrug* I think I might have been in a weird mood, too, which some great wine that evening didn't totally alleviate. I didn't get any photos at the meet and greet since it was busy and no one I was with really cared to greet the performers (except Karen, who chatted with a band a bit--sorry again if I was all stupid and awkward, Karen). Two of the Blue Men I'd seen before (Scott S. and Marc C.), and I'm not sure who the third was, but he had a gentle face and his character often elicited the "aww" response in me, hehe. That's really all I remember though, as far as I know nothing "out of the ordinary" happened, besides the Twinkie Girl pick (took the poor woman a very long time to get back to her faraway seat, LOL).
(otherwise)
The rest of the trip, we mostly spent walking around, hanging out and chatting... most of us hadn't seen each other in years so it was nice to catch up and get reacquainted, especially since I'm not really in regular/direct contact with most of these folks anymore. Just one of those things where you are close with certain people for a time and then you end up going in different directions, even if you still see each other once in a while and will always be friends. It's not a bad thing, it just meant the excitement and energy level that we've had as a group before was more mellow this time. Well, except for when Nicole and I laughed so damn hard we cried and hid our faces in our napkins at the Brazilian Meat Place (not really my thing, but neat to try... and the pineapple was awesome). And there were definitely silly times--like when a few of us hung out in the shops/food court area at NYNY after midnight on New Year's, and John went to sit down across the aisle ('cause there weren't enough seats and he was kind of out of it, hehe), and he looked like a broken-down businessman bum on the streets. Karen and I went to the carnival arcade in the Excalibur, where I won two stuffed animals for winning the horse-racing game (once against 8ish people, once against just Karen), which I gave to a couple small children. I kinda love giving prizes/tickets away to kids at arcades. They almost always seem SO excited about it. In this case, the girl was very quiet and kind of aloof but hugged the Lion right away... the boy (her older brother) didn't seem to care at all, but he got some cheapo snake thing so I can't say I blame him.
Anyway, I gotta yoink some photos from Nicole, Lal, and Brian--I didn't end up taking a single photo! durrr. It was a nice trip to Vegas. Not the craziest I've ever had, partly due to being sick, but it was nice to see everyone, and a fun way to kick of 2009. :)
Christmas
The holidays were typical with lots of family time, and this year all the visiting was spread over a few weeks, so it was like an extended onslaught of family instead of one hectic week. Which is kind of nice. I had fun at the pre-Christmas get-together on my Mom's side... I have always been the "in between" cousin, 'cause there is an older group, a younger group, and I'm somewhere in the gap. It was nice chatting with a few of my younger cousins who are now high-schoolers and pretty cool/funny people. :) And I won the traditional family card game, "Oh Heck." That may be partly because my grandparents weren't in the game messing everyone up with their crazy-ridiculous bets, but still.
My parents and I ended up having the house to ourselves on Christmas day itself--a first, and a little strangely quiet for my tastes. I think my brothers grew up and went their separate ways before I was ready to let go of crazy Christmas mornings with toys and games, and I always miss that vibe a bit. (But who doesn't, right?) We watched A Christmas Story for the first time, and the part where the kid snarfs into his food pretending he's a pig or something, completely cracked us all up. That and the Chinese Christmas duck and how they are all laughing at it, and how the waiter-dude chops off his head, ha! Definitely a new classic for me, to be watched at Christmases hence.
After Christmas, my dad's side of the family had a get-together, and for some reason I really dug the food, especially the salad. And I had a good talk with my aunt and uncle (both very talented, worldly sort of people) about music and inspiration, the need to get out there and do stuff, explore, surround yourself with new things, in order to spark creativity. They live a T ride away from Boston so I may be staying with them on and off while I apartment/job-search, once I can afford to move down there. For now though, it was nice to have their encouragement and understanding. :)
And of course, I saw my siblings, niece, and nephew... always nice, if sometimes exhausting. ;)
New Year's in Vegas
For New Year's, I hopped on a plane to Vegas, where I met up with a bunch of friends--the group I roomed with a few years back (most of them, anyway) plus a few friends of friends. Unfortunately I got whacked with a nasty cold just before leaving, so I didn't have the energy or sense of adventure I might have otherwise... that did lead to not spending much on alcohol, which I guess is a plus. ;) We spent New Year's Eve at Margaritaville, where I had Jerk Chicken that was really good but HOT. Thankfully the margaritas helped, so my mouth wasn't aflame all night. We watched some dude jump his motorcycle onto the fake Arc de Triomphe on TV, danced a bit to a cover band... I'm beginning to wonder if I'm actually capable of dancing cool. I used to think that I can, and just chose not to, but now I'm not so sure. But hey, being cool is overrated. It's all about having FUN! hehe.
We went out to the strip just before midnight to watch the "fireworks" and be with the big crazy crowd for the countdown... the fireworks were pretty lame, but we could at least see one set of them by TI. I've never been amongst a crowd for NYE so that was kind of neat, but I can't say I really prefer it over just watching the countdown from home. Also it was weird to see the East Coast celebrate on TV when it was only 9 o'clock for us--I'm used to having NYE first, dammit! ;) So after the countdown, we all eventually made our way back to NYNY... Cyn was nervous about the big half-drunken crowd, and scared about getting lost in the shuffle, so we held hands the entire way down the strip. Karen too, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't scared. She had her arm all tense like she was ready to beat someone up, hahahah. It was silly. Fun-silly, though. And miraculously, walking 2/3rds of the strip in high-heeled boots didn't cause me any pain whatsoever. Man I love those boots. I only paid like $12 for them but they are worth something like $90 and are sooooo comfy. Anyway, I digress.
(shows)
-Most of us saw KA one night, which was really wonderful. We had seats fairly close to the stage, so there were times that the show "overflowed" on us a bit--like when it was "snowing" on stage, it came floating down on us, too. That was probably one of my favorite moments, actually, it was so pretty and serene. A couple of the cool acrobatic set things... one was this big rectangular stage that rotated and flipped up on its side, and they had arrows "shoot" into it, so the actors had handholds to twirl around and hang onto. It was so cool lookin'! There was also this big modified ferris wheel kinda structure, er... well it reminded me of one of those perpetual motion thingys you see on office desks. And they had these people riding in it and making it move like hamsters in a wheel. And this one guy ran around on the top of one of the wheels and jump roped and leapt around, getting serious air. And then there was an awesome turtle, and a starfish, and a sandworm-thing. The costuming/storyline had an Asian sorta flair--and it seemed like it had more of a solid "plot" than any other Cirque shows I've seen, which I liked. I thought it was going to be the FIRE SHOW and there wasn't actually a whole lot of fire (though there were some fireWORKS that made my eyes freak out they were so bright), but plenty of other effects to make up for it. All in all, an excellent show and I'd recommend it to anyone, especially if you like artsy-schmartsy stuff and people bouncing/flying around like human ping pong balls or badminton birds or somesuch.
-Our last night, Karen and I saw the Tournament of Kings show at the Excalibur... which I have already seen twice, haha. I know, I know, I'm a huge dork for loving this show. But there are horses, and fighting knights, and cute squires, and an evil knight, and the tomato soup is just so damn good! I have fun with all the stupid interactive cheering and singing and stuff. I sang and clinked my plastic Pepsi mug [I never ever drink Pepsi except in at medieval knight tournaments] with our country's squire, and Karen almost did but she was too slow and missed it. ;) We sat in the Russia section, and our King turned out to be the asshole King that is always taking cheap shots and thinking he's awesome. But it's kinda funny (he spends half of the show threatening the midget, haha!), and it was all in good fun to cheer for him (and make a fuss along with him when he gets penalized). I did notice that he was the only King that gave his horse lots of love, especially when the show was all done and they were all waiting around for the final ride. I was like, awww... King Russia's a jerk but our actor is nice to his horse! yay! I think I got into the show way more than Karen, but I think you have to be as uninhibited as possible to enjoy it to the fullest, hehe. We did have a good time laughing at how much Prince Christopher (or Christian, or whatever his name was) looked like Dr. Chase from House. The resemblance was eerie. We were like, "go Chase! kill the evil knight! you can do it!" hahahahah. Oh man. Perfect show for dorks like me.
-A few of ended up at a Blue Man show, too, but sadly I have to say I was disappointed. Maybe it's 'cause we were farther back and I'm spoiled by the intimacy of the Charles, but I just never felt that special vibe/energy that /makes/ the show... and the actors were good but seemed to play it by the book, instead of busting out random silly stuff. Or maybe it was that I saw the silly Tournament show the same night and had so much fun there. Can't really put a finger on it. Though it WAS really friggin' hilarious when Nicole mimicked the Twinkie Girl, who was like, this elderly black lady who wouldn't stop yammerin' at the Blue Men, hahah she was cool. One of those people you laugh at and simultaneously say "haha, I love her!", you know? So in short... it wasn't that the show was /bad/, it just wasn't great for me. *shrug* I think I might have been in a weird mood, too, which some great wine that evening didn't totally alleviate. I didn't get any photos at the meet and greet since it was busy and no one I was with really cared to greet the performers (except Karen, who chatted with a band a bit--sorry again if I was all stupid and awkward, Karen). Two of the Blue Men I'd seen before (Scott S. and Marc C.), and I'm not sure who the third was, but he had a gentle face and his character often elicited the "aww" response in me, hehe. That's really all I remember though, as far as I know nothing "out of the ordinary" happened, besides the Twinkie Girl pick (took the poor woman a very long time to get back to her faraway seat, LOL).
(otherwise)
The rest of the trip, we mostly spent walking around, hanging out and chatting... most of us hadn't seen each other in years so it was nice to catch up and get reacquainted, especially since I'm not really in regular/direct contact with most of these folks anymore. Just one of those things where you are close with certain people for a time and then you end up going in different directions, even if you still see each other once in a while and will always be friends. It's not a bad thing, it just meant the excitement and energy level that we've had as a group before was more mellow this time. Well, except for when Nicole and I laughed so damn hard we cried and hid our faces in our napkins at the Brazilian Meat Place (not really my thing, but neat to try... and the pineapple was awesome). And there were definitely silly times--like when a few of us hung out in the shops/food court area at NYNY after midnight on New Year's, and John went to sit down across the aisle ('cause there weren't enough seats and he was kind of out of it, hehe), and he looked like a broken-down businessman bum on the streets. Karen and I went to the carnival arcade in the Excalibur, where I won two stuffed animals for winning the horse-racing game (once against 8ish people, once against just Karen), which I gave to a couple small children. I kinda love giving prizes/tickets away to kids at arcades. They almost always seem SO excited about it. In this case, the girl was very quiet and kind of aloof but hugged the Lion right away... the boy (her older brother) didn't seem to care at all, but he got some cheapo snake thing so I can't say I blame him.
Anyway, I gotta yoink some photos from Nicole, Lal, and Brian--I didn't end up taking a single photo! durrr. It was a nice trip to Vegas. Not the craziest I've ever had, partly due to being sick, but it was nice to see everyone, and a fun way to kick of 2009. :)