Hi, remember me?
Yeah, I know, it's been awhile, hasn't it? Okay, we can blame the evil truth of school for some of this. Violin lessons for some and my own stinking laziness for the rest. But, we all seem to be doing fine. I know Piper has been a lot better at updating that I've been.
Right now though, I'm on this great thing called Spring Break, which means I have a whole week to catch up, practice, and (most importantly) have lots and lots of fun with Piper. *evil grin*
This last weekend we went to the states to visit my grandfather and Melanie. I haven't seen them like forever and I realized I missed them both. We were talking about it Friday, Piper and I, and she looked at me and said, "What's keeping you from going and visiting?"
And I realized she's right. I mean, flying to the states is not a huge deal at the speeds I can travel. So I called to make sure it was all right, we packed a few things and off we went.
Grandpa Turless and Melanie have bought a house in Vegas, I guess they decided that an apartment wouldn't do for the bikes. Not just their own bikes, but it seems that Mom's friends are hanging out with them a lot and in the old apartment people were complaining that the guest parking spaces were always clogged with bikes. So, they got a house instead, just outside of Vegas, with a big driveway and a lot of land in general around it for parking bikes.
So, we get there Friday evening and Turless and Melanie show Piper and I rooms where we can sleep. So, we dump our stuff, freshen up and all of that stuff. Then, Grandpa Turless comes in and asks me if I'm hungry.
"I'm Saiyajin, you have to ask?"
So, we all went to this buffet at one of the casinos to eat, which I guess is pretty much what Melanie and Grandpa Turless do a lot, which makes a lot of sense. All you can eat? Yeah, even if the buffet is one of the more expensive ones, it's still cheaper than trying to buy the amount of food Turless eats at the supermarket.
So, we ate. Well, for a lot of the meal, Melanie and Piper got to watch Grandpa Turless and I eat. You know, Melanie and Piper seem to have this habbit of waiting until we had our mouths full, then asking a question. *g* At the beginning, I thought it was merely a coincidence, but looking back, it seems like it happened an awful lot. And they did a lot of giggling, watching us trying to chew and swallow quickly so we wouldn't talk with our mouths full. Hmmm.
After we made the folks at the buffet cry, Turless asked if we were up for a little partying. Not sure what he meant, but curious, we both agreed.
When you're in Vegas you think of everything as glitzy and sparkly and neon, you know? Well, not for Grandpa Turless. I mean, he does go to the casinos and stuff and hangs on the strip a bit, but when he wants to party, he wants to do it his way. So, we ended up going to this place outside the city. To this building that looked like it had been built as a bomb shelter or something. Big place, made of grey cinderblocks. Big square thing, sprawling out in the middle of no where with a huge parking lot surrounding it and all these cars and bikes parked around it. Mostly bikes.
"Gee, Grandpa, is this the library?"
He reached around and whacked me upside the head, not hard. "Library, my ass. This, is my favorite club. Good music here. Good beer too."
That's when Piper and I started looking at each other with these worried looks. "Uh, Grandpa, we're not 21. Don't you have to be 21 to go into these places?"
Grandpa Turless shrugs. "Maybe legally, but who says I ever do anything by the book?"
Well, I was already making mental plans that when Piper and I were refused to get in, we'd let Melanie and Grandpa Turless stay and we'd head back to the city. But we walk up to the door, go inside.
When you walk inside this place, you step into another world. I mean, the first thing that hits you is the noise. Band playing music as loud as they can, and the sound just bounces off the cinderblocks, so for a moment, you're struck... numb by it all.
Then the smell hits you. Stale beer, stale ciggarette smoke, and stale people. Yeah, a few folks there could stand to be a little more intimate with our old pals soap and water.
Once you get past the smell, you have to wait for your eyes to adjust cause they place is dark for the most part. Then, slowly, as your pupils dialate, you realize that as big as the building looked outside, it's an optical illusion and in reality, it's much bigger on the inside. Big and dark. Except for the stage, which is bathed in lights so bright and white that you find your eyes drawn to it like a moth to flame.
Given all of this, the first reactions Piper and I had were to stand there like a couple of idiots and just blink and look around. I'm probably not doing the place justice with my description, but it's the best I can do. It really is like entering a different world.
So, while Piper and I are looking stupid and totally out of place, Grandpa Turless is paying the cover charge. No one asks for ID from Piper and I. The guy just takes Grandpa's cash and stamps our hands with this stamp that has a picture of a skull and crossbones and there's a joint hanging out of the skull's mouth. It's big too, covers almost the entire back of my hand.
So, we go into the main section of the building. The place is just full of people. I'm figuring we're going to have to find a nice spot up against the wall to stake a claim, but as we're weaving our way through the throngs of people, several of them are yelling out to Grandpa Turless and Melanie. They're waving back too, but not stopping.
Finally, we all make our way to this huge table real close to the stage, where the Midnight Riders are sitting. We all scream out hellos. I get asked a lot how Mom is doing. I get called "Baby's baby" for awhile, then they try to call me BB, but I explain that's my brothers nickname. So, they start calling me BJ, and making a lot of snickering comments about that. BJ goes to... well, you can guess right? Then it gets shortened to "Jobber." Which is just what I didn't want, but I decide to roll with it.
So, we sit down with them. And, honestly, I'm still experiencing culture shock. I think Piper was too, cause the two of us kept looking at each other, doing this anime-wide-eyes-blinking thing.
Meanwhile, a waitress makes her way over. Grandpa Turless asks what we want to drink. We get orange juice, figuring they had to have that, just to make screwdrivers for others, right? Well, not really. They use Tang. But its orange flavored... and it's not alcoholic. So, we end up getting Tang. Both Piper and I get a lot of teasing about not drinking alcohol. It's not mean though, it's just friendly teasing. But, it just went further in pointing out how out of our element Piper and I really were here. I mean, I'm sure Piper has seen more of this kind of stuff with her work with IGPol, but let's face it, when it comes to this stuff, I've lead a very sheltered life.
But, you know... despite of the noise, despite the smell, despite the feeling that I fit into this place about as well as a black olive on a wedding cake... I had a really good time. Once I just let go and got used to the music, the band wasn't so bad. And you could even dance to some of their stuff. They did a lot of older music, but they changed it around a lot, so it sounded familiar, yet totally new. I ended up buying a couple of their CD's that they had for sale.
So, we ended up there until about 4:00 in the morning, dancing, drinking lukewarm Tang, listening to the music. When they finally closed down the place (no doubt to hose it down before the next night...) all of us, Me, Grandpa Turless, Melanie, Piper and the gang, went to another place for the breakfast buffet.
Most of Saturday we spent sleeping.
Saturday night we ended up doing more "normal Vegas" things. We went to Excalibur and the MGM Grand, a few other places too.
It was a great weekend. And even though I think Piper and I had a wonderful time, we were still glad to get home too. We needed a rest from the vacation.
Right now though, I'm on this great thing called Spring Break, which means I have a whole week to catch up, practice, and (most importantly) have lots and lots of fun with Piper. *evil grin*
This last weekend we went to the states to visit my grandfather and Melanie. I haven't seen them like forever and I realized I missed them both. We were talking about it Friday, Piper and I, and she looked at me and said, "What's keeping you from going and visiting?"
And I realized she's right. I mean, flying to the states is not a huge deal at the speeds I can travel. So I called to make sure it was all right, we packed a few things and off we went.
Grandpa Turless and Melanie have bought a house in Vegas, I guess they decided that an apartment wouldn't do for the bikes. Not just their own bikes, but it seems that Mom's friends are hanging out with them a lot and in the old apartment people were complaining that the guest parking spaces were always clogged with bikes. So, they got a house instead, just outside of Vegas, with a big driveway and a lot of land in general around it for parking bikes.
So, we get there Friday evening and Turless and Melanie show Piper and I rooms where we can sleep. So, we dump our stuff, freshen up and all of that stuff. Then, Grandpa Turless comes in and asks me if I'm hungry.
"I'm Saiyajin, you have to ask?"
So, we all went to this buffet at one of the casinos to eat, which I guess is pretty much what Melanie and Grandpa Turless do a lot, which makes a lot of sense. All you can eat? Yeah, even if the buffet is one of the more expensive ones, it's still cheaper than trying to buy the amount of food Turless eats at the supermarket.
So, we ate. Well, for a lot of the meal, Melanie and Piper got to watch Grandpa Turless and I eat. You know, Melanie and Piper seem to have this habbit of waiting until we had our mouths full, then asking a question. *g* At the beginning, I thought it was merely a coincidence, but looking back, it seems like it happened an awful lot. And they did a lot of giggling, watching us trying to chew and swallow quickly so we wouldn't talk with our mouths full. Hmmm.
After we made the folks at the buffet cry, Turless asked if we were up for a little partying. Not sure what he meant, but curious, we both agreed.
When you're in Vegas you think of everything as glitzy and sparkly and neon, you know? Well, not for Grandpa Turless. I mean, he does go to the casinos and stuff and hangs on the strip a bit, but when he wants to party, he wants to do it his way. So, we ended up going to this place outside the city. To this building that looked like it had been built as a bomb shelter or something. Big place, made of grey cinderblocks. Big square thing, sprawling out in the middle of no where with a huge parking lot surrounding it and all these cars and bikes parked around it. Mostly bikes.
"Gee, Grandpa, is this the library?"
He reached around and whacked me upside the head, not hard. "Library, my ass. This, is my favorite club. Good music here. Good beer too."
That's when Piper and I started looking at each other with these worried looks. "Uh, Grandpa, we're not 21. Don't you have to be 21 to go into these places?"
Grandpa Turless shrugs. "Maybe legally, but who says I ever do anything by the book?"
Well, I was already making mental plans that when Piper and I were refused to get in, we'd let Melanie and Grandpa Turless stay and we'd head back to the city. But we walk up to the door, go inside.
When you walk inside this place, you step into another world. I mean, the first thing that hits you is the noise. Band playing music as loud as they can, and the sound just bounces off the cinderblocks, so for a moment, you're struck... numb by it all.
Then the smell hits you. Stale beer, stale ciggarette smoke, and stale people. Yeah, a few folks there could stand to be a little more intimate with our old pals soap and water.
Once you get past the smell, you have to wait for your eyes to adjust cause they place is dark for the most part. Then, slowly, as your pupils dialate, you realize that as big as the building looked outside, it's an optical illusion and in reality, it's much bigger on the inside. Big and dark. Except for the stage, which is bathed in lights so bright and white that you find your eyes drawn to it like a moth to flame.
Given all of this, the first reactions Piper and I had were to stand there like a couple of idiots and just blink and look around. I'm probably not doing the place justice with my description, but it's the best I can do. It really is like entering a different world.
So, while Piper and I are looking stupid and totally out of place, Grandpa Turless is paying the cover charge. No one asks for ID from Piper and I. The guy just takes Grandpa's cash and stamps our hands with this stamp that has a picture of a skull and crossbones and there's a joint hanging out of the skull's mouth. It's big too, covers almost the entire back of my hand.
So, we go into the main section of the building. The place is just full of people. I'm figuring we're going to have to find a nice spot up against the wall to stake a claim, but as we're weaving our way through the throngs of people, several of them are yelling out to Grandpa Turless and Melanie. They're waving back too, but not stopping.
Finally, we all make our way to this huge table real close to the stage, where the Midnight Riders are sitting. We all scream out hellos. I get asked a lot how Mom is doing. I get called "Baby's baby" for awhile, then they try to call me BB, but I explain that's my brothers nickname. So, they start calling me BJ, and making a lot of snickering comments about that. BJ goes to... well, you can guess right? Then it gets shortened to "Jobber." Which is just what I didn't want, but I decide to roll with it.
So, we sit down with them. And, honestly, I'm still experiencing culture shock. I think Piper was too, cause the two of us kept looking at each other, doing this anime-wide-eyes-blinking thing.
Meanwhile, a waitress makes her way over. Grandpa Turless asks what we want to drink. We get orange juice, figuring they had to have that, just to make screwdrivers for others, right? Well, not really. They use Tang. But its orange flavored... and it's not alcoholic. So, we end up getting Tang. Both Piper and I get a lot of teasing about not drinking alcohol. It's not mean though, it's just friendly teasing. But, it just went further in pointing out how out of our element Piper and I really were here. I mean, I'm sure Piper has seen more of this kind of stuff with her work with IGPol, but let's face it, when it comes to this stuff, I've lead a very sheltered life.
But, you know... despite of the noise, despite the smell, despite the feeling that I fit into this place about as well as a black olive on a wedding cake... I had a really good time. Once I just let go and got used to the music, the band wasn't so bad. And you could even dance to some of their stuff. They did a lot of older music, but they changed it around a lot, so it sounded familiar, yet totally new. I ended up buying a couple of their CD's that they had for sale.
So, we ended up there until about 4:00 in the morning, dancing, drinking lukewarm Tang, listening to the music. When they finally closed down the place (no doubt to hose it down before the next night...) all of us, Me, Grandpa Turless, Melanie, Piper and the gang, went to another place for the breakfast buffet.
Most of Saturday we spent sleeping.
Saturday night we ended up doing more "normal Vegas" things. We went to Excalibur and the MGM Grand, a few other places too.
It was a great weekend. And even though I think Piper and I had a wonderful time, we were still glad to get home too. We needed a rest from the vacation.