Can't figure out why that quoted portion is all crapily (yes that's a made up word...just roll with it) formatted with extra carriage returns. Sorry. I guess Mo Doesn't Know that.
:(
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Massive amounts of meat served on giants swords (Vegas pt. 2)
Well now its been almost a week and a half since I was in Vegas but we're gonna give 'er the ol' college try @ recounting at least day two...the only full day I was there.
Ready? .....set? ....blackjack!!! oh wait...
So day two was all set to begin at 10:30 in the a.m. Good thing I didn't go to bed at 5:30am that morning. Oh well. Its Vegas and as Fred always says..."sleep is a crutch." I don't think this could be any more true than in Vegas. So Pomo & Hidalg (yours truly)...
...drag their asses out of bed to meet at the predetermined meeting place (Revolution lounge downstairs in the Mirage....cool little lounge...Beatles themed....sweet neon pink/white sign that was big enough that you could sit in certain letters of the REVOLUTION marquee...yea that was a terrible explanation) @ said time of 10:30am. Well we waited for a good 20 minutes (I actually ran back up to the room to use some Q-tips bc I forgot to do that before we left the first time...shut up I need Q-tips or my ears feel funny all day) only not to see a single person show up. Figures. Oh well. We were supposed to meet up to head over to In-and-Out before going bowling @ The Rio's Lucky Strike Lanes. Turns out several of the group still made it over for bowling...but were late and didn't make it to In-and-Out. Meh. Been there before (in AZ) and I've been bowling before...with this group in fact...so I was fine with more gambling and just kickin' it with Pomo....and possibly the Bo-gizzles (nickname we gave the Bogaths when we got off the plane and were running up and down that moving walkway...OMG! I <3 those moving walkway things and escalators. Seriously they're so great. I could (and have) just walk up and down them for no reason.
So we hit the tables some more. We're all over this blackjack business. Decide to head back to TI bc it was so good to us the night before. Really don't remember anything specific between then and lunch. I won some more I know...bc I managed to win at every table...but nothing stands out now. Brian wasn't there yet...our fun, kind of mean but you know he's just playing, dealer from the night before. Yea. So I called Fred around noon or whenever we got hungry and Jason answered. I guess he was just about to head out and Fred woke up so he was gonna wait for him then they'd come meet us for lunch. Sweet. Meet back at the Mirage and decide to go eat at the food court over in the Venetian. Cheaper. And then we have several options. Sweet. Obviously I went for the Panda Express. I mean seriously. So money. Orange chicken & mushroom chicken. If I wasn't so sure it was loaded with 8000 calories I'd probably eat that everyday...that and there isn't one downtown....which is total crap bc there's two malls down here....every mall should have a Panda Express. EVERY MALL!!! rawr.
Ok...so lunch is good and now we have the rest of the afternoon to do whatever we want. Figure we're going to eat before the show, which is @ 7:00pm so we figure dinner somewhere in the hotel around 6:00pm will work perfect. But in the meantime what should we do? Clearly we needed to play more blackjack. So we hit the tables again. Hard. We rocked it...well I did. Like I said I don't remember all the specifics but it was good times. Played until about 5:00 or so when we all started to really lose steam...well everyone except Jay. So we went back to our rooms to get ready for dinner and take power naps. So money. Seriously. Little power naps are the way to go in Vegas. Sleep 3-4 hours at night/in the morning and then take a quick power nap or two for 20-30 minutes.
So we're all rested...well....sort of...and ready to grub. We decided to go to this Brazilian BBQ place in the hotel called Samba. I didn't feel too hungry and wasn't so sure about this all you can eat, Brazilian style BBQ. A few of the steaks did look tasty but eventually I decided "screw it...its Vegas...bring on the BBQ!!" and boy was that the right decision. Wow. So not only was it all delicious but they bring the meat around to the different tables (to those who are having the all you can eat BBQ...and its based on this little piece of wood with a red end and a green end...clearly ours was flipped green side up so the meat kept on coming!) on giants SWORDS. Apparently they're supposed to be "skewers" but they're really just giant swords. It was out of control awesome. Ribs. Pork. Chicken wings. Steaks. Sausages. Turkey wrapped in bacon. Freaking tasty. My favorite was this Spanish seasoned/cooked steak...I forget the name but it was probably the best steak I've ever had. It was amazing. Juicy. Tender. Flavorful. Oh man now I want some right now...and I'm not even hungry. Not even a little...but thats just how good it was.
So we finish up dinner and have about 20 minutes before we need to be at the show to be seated...but first we need to make a quick stop for some YARD MARGARITAS!!!! Unfortunately the Mirage doesn't have any places that sell them so we had to head to the closest one over at TI. Bless that tram. Really. Catch the tram over to Kahunaville (who's giant yard drinks are covered in all the employees' pictures...so the guy who made our drinks (Randy) is on my yard margarita making a stupid face...it was a stupid, gimmicky place but one of my goals on this trip was to get a yard margarita so I couldn't be too picky at this point) inside TI. They pride themselves as this stellar party bar or something bc all the bartenders can do fancy drink tricks like Tom Cruise in Cocktail. Meh. I'd rather just have a good drink at a good price. Oh well. We we hook up a yard margarita for myself and Fred and then a yard daquiri for Pomo....someone had to be DW...designated walker...so Jay volunteered his services to ensure we could get back to the show on time.
So we're headed back and its past 7:00pm. The tickets say to show up half hour before the start of the show (which was 7:30pm) bc the first five rows or something are only guaranteed up to 30 minutes before the start of the show. Luckily they hadn't given away our seats...2ND ROW CENTER! So sweet. And now we have giant (Fred later measured and found out they were 60 oz.) blended beverages of bliss too. Bring on the show!...but wait....while we were waiting for the show to start they had music playing over the speakers. And not just any music...but kick ass, old, funky type music. Like Brick House and the YMCA. So Pomo & I were rocking out in our chairs to the tunes. Even Fred joined in during the YMCA. So fun. Everyone around us was laughing at us for being so ridiculous but also bc we were being so AWESOME.
So now we're all pumped from our crazy good dancing, the good tunes & giant adult beverages. WOO HOO!!!So the show: Danny Gans. He's been voted the best Vegas performer for 10 years or something crazy ridiculous like that...which is also probably why his tickets were $110 each. Yea. Wowzers. Thing was....it was totally worth it. The show was amazing. Unreal talented. Even the references that were over my head...I could still tell he was nailing them based on the crowd's reactions. I mean this one guy was impersonating...and doing it phenomenally well....everyone from Stevie Wonder to James Blunt & Anita Baker to Dean Martin and just about everything and everyone in between. Broke it up by generation....so 30s, 50s, 70s and so on...even threw in some contemporary stuff like James Blunt, Michael Buble, Howie Day & Five For Fighting. My favorite part had to be his Johnny Carson impersonation, especially his Karnak. Now Carson was a bit before my time, but I've seen some of his work and Karnak has always been my favorite (if you don't know Karnak...you need to go look him up on YouTube right now bc its hilarious...Carson puts on this giant genie-esque hat and holds a little envelope up to his head...then he tells you the answer to the card which seems harmless and boring enough...he proceeds to open the card then read what it says...which is the punchline...ok so it sounds stupid but I promise its hilarious). Most of the jokes are funny...but if the audience's reaction isn't good enough...he pulled out "insults" from inside his jacket pocket...which were just as clever and funny as the jokes. Danny Gans is just extremely talented and is worth seeing. Even Fred & Jason who have seen numerous shows in Vegas (like Jay Leno, The Blue Man Group & more...), said this was a 10 and was one of their favorites, if not their favorite.
After the show we're all jacked up from giant margaritas and a stellar show. The night is still young and I have yet to walk away from a blackjack table w/o winning money. So clearly more blackjack is in store. Now I can't remember if it was during this time but this is where I'm choosing to share the hand that you DREAM of getting. I got dealt two aces...and the dealer wasn't showing and ace or a ten so I split 'em...and hope for a double blackjack. The only problem here was that I put out a $35-$60 bet (can't remember exactly how much but it was (for me) substantially more than the $5 or $10 minimumbet) and now had to double it. Great!...big money, big money, no whammies, no whammies...STOP! Oh...wrong show...err...yea. Ok so here comes my two 10's....nope. First hit is ANOTHER ace. The play is to split again...so I do. So now I had over $100 out on this hand/3 hands. If I get paid off on this hand I'm freaking ecstatic and feel UNBEATABLE. Well I didn't get any face cards or tens, but as I remember it I had decent hands...maybe an 18 or two. So what happened? WHAT HAPPENED??
....stay tuned until next time and I will tell all. Hahahahaha...kidding.
I honestly can't remember now. I think I ended up pusing on two hands and losing one, or possibly even pushing all three (but I don't remember all three hands being the same...so that wouldn't work) but all I know is that the dealer didn't bust and I didn't get paid. I may have even lost all three...but that doesn't sound right either bc I'm PRETTY sure I would've remembered losing three times in one hand. Oh well. Whatever happened...I still managed to leave the table up dollars so its all good.
OH! I also forgot to say that we ran into three of the girls on our way to the tables and they told us everyone was going to the Playboy club at the Palm's around 11:00. Hey. Sounds sweet to me! Bring on more Vegas, baby!! Well what I didn't realize is that we had to all be there by 11pm (and so I didn't have time to change into something slick or clubbish...damn...guess that plain black polo was going to have to do....sad) or they might not let any of us in. So by the time everyone congregated it was almost 10:45. Yikes. Luckily the Palms isn't too far...but it was still three or four taxi rides due to the size of our group.
...and sadly...this is where this post ends bc its late (tho it won't show that bc I started it earlier today...or yesterday...but I swear its (wow) 12:34am right now (that wow was for Jim Bob and he would know why if he read this)) and I'm tired. So the next, and final, Vegas post will start with the Playboy club & end similar to the way the trip started...drinking at the airport :D
***I would also like to extend my sincerest thanks to those of you who have, in one way or another, told me you have read (and hopefully will keep reading!!) my blog and have enjoyed either my crazy stories or my writing style. So far this has been a lot of fun for me to do and I hope to be able to keep up with multiple posts each week. It makes it that much more fun and easy to find the time when you get positive feedback. So thank you again for reading and I hope to keep you all reading and entertained.***
Ready? .....set? ....blackjack!!! oh wait...
So day two was all set to begin at 10:30 in the a.m. Good thing I didn't go to bed at 5:30am that morning. Oh well. Its Vegas and as Fred always says..."sleep is a crutch." I don't think this could be any more true than in Vegas. So Pomo & Hidalg (yours truly)...
***Side note of important explanation***So one morning at Starbucks, Sarah
& I both ordered a delicious breakfast sandwich. When you order these
scrumptious treats you are required to give them your name so they can more
easily track youdown once they've been warmed up. Now Sarah had always wanted me to give them some ridiculous name but I never could quite bring myself to do
it...at least not with a straight face. Well this time I decided to speak on
Sarah's behalfwhen she was asked her name...and I said it was Pomona. No idea
where that name came from but it just kind of came out so splendidly that it was
clearly destined to be her nickname. Well...turnabout is fair play so when I was
asked to give my name she answered for me...and said it was Hidalgo. I guess you
could call these our work aliases as we both used these names @ the company
christmas party in which we bowled. Yep. Fun stuff...so now you know (what Mo
knows...lol) and knowing is half the battle....GI JOE!!!
...drag their asses out of bed to meet at the predetermined meeting place (Revolution lounge downstairs in the Mirage....cool little lounge...Beatles themed....sweet neon pink/white sign that was big enough that you could sit in certain letters of the REVOLUTION marquee...yea that was a terrible explanation) @ said time of 10:30am. Well we waited for a good 20 minutes (I actually ran back up to the room to use some Q-tips bc I forgot to do that before we left the first time...shut up I need Q-tips or my ears feel funny all day) only not to see a single person show up. Figures. Oh well. We were supposed to meet up to head over to In-and-Out before going bowling @ The Rio's Lucky Strike Lanes. Turns out several of the group still made it over for bowling...but were late and didn't make it to In-and-Out. Meh. Been there before (in AZ) and I've been bowling before...with this group in fact...so I was fine with more gambling and just kickin' it with Pomo....and possibly the Bo-gizzles (nickname we gave the Bogaths when we got off the plane and were running up and down that moving walkway...OMG! I <3 those moving walkway things and escalators. Seriously they're so great. I could (and have) just walk up and down them for no reason.
So we hit the tables some more. We're all over this blackjack business. Decide to head back to TI bc it was so good to us the night before. Really don't remember anything specific between then and lunch. I won some more I know...bc I managed to win at every table...but nothing stands out now. Brian wasn't there yet...our fun, kind of mean but you know he's just playing, dealer from the night before. Yea. So I called Fred around noon or whenever we got hungry and Jason answered. I guess he was just about to head out and Fred woke up so he was gonna wait for him then they'd come meet us for lunch. Sweet. Meet back at the Mirage and decide to go eat at the food court over in the Venetian. Cheaper. And then we have several options. Sweet. Obviously I went for the Panda Express. I mean seriously. So money. Orange chicken & mushroom chicken. If I wasn't so sure it was loaded with 8000 calories I'd probably eat that everyday...that and there isn't one downtown....which is total crap bc there's two malls down here....every mall should have a Panda Express. EVERY MALL!!! rawr.
Ok...so lunch is good and now we have the rest of the afternoon to do whatever we want. Figure we're going to eat before the show, which is @ 7:00pm so we figure dinner somewhere in the hotel around 6:00pm will work perfect. But in the meantime what should we do? Clearly we needed to play more blackjack. So we hit the tables again. Hard. We rocked it...well I did. Like I said I don't remember all the specifics but it was good times. Played until about 5:00 or so when we all started to really lose steam...well everyone except Jay. So we went back to our rooms to get ready for dinner and take power naps. So money. Seriously. Little power naps are the way to go in Vegas. Sleep 3-4 hours at night/in the morning and then take a quick power nap or two for 20-30 minutes.
So we're all rested...well....sort of...and ready to grub. We decided to go to this Brazilian BBQ place in the hotel called Samba. I didn't feel too hungry and wasn't so sure about this all you can eat, Brazilian style BBQ. A few of the steaks did look tasty but eventually I decided "screw it...its Vegas...bring on the BBQ!!" and boy was that the right decision. Wow. So not only was it all delicious but they bring the meat around to the different tables (to those who are having the all you can eat BBQ...and its based on this little piece of wood with a red end and a green end...clearly ours was flipped green side up so the meat kept on coming!) on giants SWORDS. Apparently they're supposed to be "skewers" but they're really just giant swords. It was out of control awesome. Ribs. Pork. Chicken wings. Steaks. Sausages. Turkey wrapped in bacon. Freaking tasty. My favorite was this Spanish seasoned/cooked steak...I forget the name but it was probably the best steak I've ever had. It was amazing. Juicy. Tender. Flavorful. Oh man now I want some right now...and I'm not even hungry. Not even a little...but thats just how good it was.
So we finish up dinner and have about 20 minutes before we need to be at the show to be seated...but first we need to make a quick stop for some YARD MARGARITAS!!!! Unfortunately the Mirage doesn't have any places that sell them so we had to head to the closest one over at TI. Bless that tram. Really. Catch the tram over to Kahunaville (who's giant yard drinks are covered in all the employees' pictures...so the guy who made our drinks (Randy) is on my yard margarita making a stupid face...it was a stupid, gimmicky place but one of my goals on this trip was to get a yard margarita so I couldn't be too picky at this point) inside TI. They pride themselves as this stellar party bar or something bc all the bartenders can do fancy drink tricks like Tom Cruise in Cocktail. Meh. I'd rather just have a good drink at a good price. Oh well. We we hook up a yard margarita for myself and Fred and then a yard daquiri for Pomo....someone had to be DW...designated walker...so Jay volunteered his services to ensure we could get back to the show on time.
So we're headed back and its past 7:00pm. The tickets say to show up half hour before the start of the show (which was 7:30pm) bc the first five rows or something are only guaranteed up to 30 minutes before the start of the show. Luckily they hadn't given away our seats...2ND ROW CENTER! So sweet. And now we have giant (Fred later measured and found out they were 60 oz.) blended beverages of bliss too. Bring on the show!...but wait....while we were waiting for the show to start they had music playing over the speakers. And not just any music...but kick ass, old, funky type music. Like Brick House and the YMCA. So Pomo & I were rocking out in our chairs to the tunes. Even Fred joined in during the YMCA. So fun. Everyone around us was laughing at us for being so ridiculous but also bc we were being so AWESOME.
So now we're all pumped from our crazy good dancing, the good tunes & giant adult beverages. WOO HOO!!!So the show: Danny Gans. He's been voted the best Vegas performer for 10 years or something crazy ridiculous like that...which is also probably why his tickets were $110 each. Yea. Wowzers. Thing was....it was totally worth it. The show was amazing. Unreal talented. Even the references that were over my head...I could still tell he was nailing them based on the crowd's reactions. I mean this one guy was impersonating...and doing it phenomenally well....everyone from Stevie Wonder to James Blunt & Anita Baker to Dean Martin and just about everything and everyone in between. Broke it up by generation....so 30s, 50s, 70s and so on...even threw in some contemporary stuff like James Blunt, Michael Buble, Howie Day & Five For Fighting. My favorite part had to be his Johnny Carson impersonation, especially his Karnak. Now Carson was a bit before my time, but I've seen some of his work and Karnak has always been my favorite (if you don't know Karnak...you need to go look him up on YouTube right now bc its hilarious...Carson puts on this giant genie-esque hat and holds a little envelope up to his head...then he tells you the answer to the card which seems harmless and boring enough...he proceeds to open the card then read what it says...which is the punchline...ok so it sounds stupid but I promise its hilarious). Most of the jokes are funny...but if the audience's reaction isn't good enough...he pulled out "insults" from inside his jacket pocket...which were just as clever and funny as the jokes. Danny Gans is just extremely talented and is worth seeing. Even Fred & Jason who have seen numerous shows in Vegas (like Jay Leno, The Blue Man Group & more...), said this was a 10 and was one of their favorites, if not their favorite.
After the show we're all jacked up from giant margaritas and a stellar show. The night is still young and I have yet to walk away from a blackjack table w/o winning money. So clearly more blackjack is in store. Now I can't remember if it was during this time but this is where I'm choosing to share the hand that you DREAM of getting. I got dealt two aces...and the dealer wasn't showing and ace or a ten so I split 'em...and hope for a double blackjack. The only problem here was that I put out a $35-$60 bet (can't remember exactly how much but it was (for me) substantially more than the $5 or $10 minimumbet) and now had to double it. Great!...big money, big money, no whammies, no whammies...STOP! Oh...wrong show...err...yea. Ok so here comes my two 10's....nope. First hit is ANOTHER ace. The play is to split again...so I do. So now I had over $100 out on this hand/3 hands. If I get paid off on this hand I'm freaking ecstatic and feel UNBEATABLE. Well I didn't get any face cards or tens, but as I remember it I had decent hands...maybe an 18 or two. So what happened? WHAT HAPPENED??
....stay tuned until next time and I will tell all. Hahahahaha...kidding.
I honestly can't remember now. I think I ended up pusing on two hands and losing one, or possibly even pushing all three (but I don't remember all three hands being the same...so that wouldn't work) but all I know is that the dealer didn't bust and I didn't get paid. I may have even lost all three...but that doesn't sound right either bc I'm PRETTY sure I would've remembered losing three times in one hand. Oh well. Whatever happened...I still managed to leave the table up dollars so its all good.
OH! I also forgot to say that we ran into three of the girls on our way to the tables and they told us everyone was going to the Playboy club at the Palm's around 11:00. Hey. Sounds sweet to me! Bring on more Vegas, baby!! Well what I didn't realize is that we had to all be there by 11pm (and so I didn't have time to change into something slick or clubbish...damn...guess that plain black polo was going to have to do....sad) or they might not let any of us in. So by the time everyone congregated it was almost 10:45. Yikes. Luckily the Palms isn't too far...but it was still three or four taxi rides due to the size of our group.
...and sadly...this is where this post ends bc its late (tho it won't show that bc I started it earlier today...or yesterday...but I swear its (wow) 12:34am right now (that wow was for Jim Bob and he would know why if he read this)) and I'm tired. So the next, and final, Vegas post will start with the Playboy club & end similar to the way the trip started...drinking at the airport :D
***I would also like to extend my sincerest thanks to those of you who have, in one way or another, told me you have read (and hopefully will keep reading!!) my blog and have enjoyed either my crazy stories or my writing style. So far this has been a lot of fun for me to do and I hope to be able to keep up with multiple posts each week. It makes it that much more fun and easy to find the time when you get positive feedback. So thank you again for reading and I hope to keep you all reading and entertained.***
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Dang gina...
So I've slept roughly 3-4 hours in the last 36 hours or so....and I haven't been in Vegas for a full 8+ days now. WTH?
:-/
:-/
Mongolia, Germany & Canada
How could those three countries possibly be related? I "visited" them all this weekend...that's how. Yea. What's up?!
Let's start with Friday night tho. A Year @ The Movies: 1981 went well. Two movies night down, and it seems like its catching on so there should be plenty more to come. Once again I had my heard set on a freaking action classic (Raiders of the Lost Ark) and the HufflePuffins brought in the dark horse winner (I don't even know what that means) to spoil my 80s action bliss. They brought Stripes which was the winning selection. Funnier than the 1980 winner, Airplane, but still not quite amazing. I'd give it 3.5/5 stars for quality, low brow humor, senseless nudity & a jacked up military RV of destruction. Nothing too exciting happened after the movie ended. I did download Bubble Bobble onto my Wii...which is AWESOME. That game is incredibly simple but so fun.
Saturday afternoon Dan & I went up to Everett (cities!!) to eat at Chang's Mongolia Grill (yay for a "visit" to Mongolia). Now the thing about Chang's is that its awesome. I mean its my favorite restaurant on the planet for any occasion except really special events...which don't happen very often (and my really special I'm talking anniversaries (not married yet so none of them) and uber romantic dates...things like that) so Chang's is the best. On the way back home we stopped by the Lynnwood (omg more cities) Best Buy to see what kind of trouble we could get into there. Turns out it was my turn to get into a little trouble (and my trouble I mean buying things I don't really need but that are awesome). I picked up Stevie Wonder's The Definitive Collection....mostly bc we heard a few Stevie songs @ Chopstix...and especially bc of my dad's Superstition request. Also picked up the Crossbow game for the Wii. Haven't had a chance to play yet but I hear its fun. Solid trip to Best Buy. w00t...wth? why aren't the zeroes taller than the letters? what a weak font. i'm so upset i can't even properly capitalize my thoughts. gd-it.
Get back to the house and chill for the mid part of the day...bc the big part of the day awaits us in the evening. We had planned on going over to the Shark Club in Kirkland (another city). Dan had been there before, and I was game to check it out and play wing man. Well before we left Dan looked up directions and found out they were having a live band play that night...an AC/DC cover band of sorts. Might have been cool but we were looking to "bust a move" and not \m/ (think of that as a hand making the international sign for rock...see it? no? well then you clearly don't rock hard enough). Decide to just go to Dante's again....which is in Seattle (we live in Shoreline so that's another city...five?). We get there and THEY'RE HAVING A LIVE BAND PLAY. Unreal. We decided to stick around and see if they're any good bc the place is packed...and there's plenty of cute ladies. Well they sucked. Hard. So we left around 10:45 and decided to head back up the road to one of our favorite bars, Die Bierstube (a German bar, and sister bar of Prost! (our bar of choice when we lived near Greenlake) & Fieirabend (sp?))...so there's our Germany visit. It was crowded, but one of our favorite bartenders was working...Mari. We hadn't seen her in awhile so it was good to see her. At this point tho we were both pretty bummed out that the night didn't go as planned...so we decided to just head home after Dan's first & only bier.
Damn. The big weekend plans are a bust. At least I was able to get Dan to drink two beers & do a shot before we left...so he's got a little buzz...at least I hope he did. (OMG I've had Stevie playing and Superstition just came on...YES!!) Well I had been texting my friend Sierra to come hang out with us since we were going to be heading back to our place. Now I've tried to get her to come out before and it takes massive amounts of pleading and promises of fun...and then she still usually won't come over....but this time she decided to come. Hooray! Well before she got over Dan decided to go to bed. Weak. It was maybe midnight...and a Saturday night! We could've made the best of it (haha...and boy did we...but just not with Dan) but he's Captain of the Anti-Fun Brigade...or something...so to bed he went.
Sierra shows up and is disappointed Dan is asleep. Agreed. So we're just chillin' downstairs, catching up on things bc we haven't hung out in ages....and trying to think of something fun to do. Oddly enough...while I was peeing...I had this crazy idea of how ridiculous it would be to drive to Canada that night...really for no other reason than to say we left the country. So I come out of the bathroom and share my crazy (and highly unrealistic) idea. She agrees it would be crazy but also fun. After a few rounds of "are you serious?...you really want to go?"....we decide to go for it. WHAT?! Yep. Canada here we come. Well first we had to drive back to Bellevue (another city...this is like...what?...18? :P) to get her birth certificate so we could cross the border. I grabbed my passport so we're golden. Get to Bellevue...get the b.c. and head for B.C. (haha! sometimes my cleverness astounds me...) She drove to her place, then decided it was my turn to drive...all the way to Canada. Great. I get to drive the whole way. Thanks. Guess that means I'm in charge of the music. Booyah!
So we're off. Hit some rain. And a little snow as we passed through north Snohomish county, but nothing too bad. Then we got up into Mt. Vernon/Burlington area (yes more cities...) and I have this crazy idea for a side trip. We'll make a little detour to my family's campsite we own at this little private campground off Highway 20, up near Conrete (cities galore!). I don't have the key card to get in, but hope a gate is unlocked or maybe we can climb a fence and do something crazy like go skinny dipping in the Skagit River (OMG...would've been so cold) or the pool...tho I was pretty sure it would be drained bc its still winter. So we get there. All locked up. And we don't much feel like climbing a fence to then de-robe, jump in freezing cold water & not have a towel or anything to dry off with....maybe this plan was ill-conceived from the start. Dang. Turn around and get back on I-5. If anything...this side trip ate up some time so we don't arrive at the border at too ungodly of an hour. Nope. Wrong. Not the case.
After battling more snow and bad road conditions, we get to the border and decide our story is we're just coming up for the day. Well the border patrol guy was not having any of this. He asked where we were going and I said BC (which made sense in my head bc in Washington we refer to Vancouver, WA as Vancouver...and then Vancouver, BC is just BC)...whoops. I think this is where it all started to go downhill...and he said "its a big province...where exactly are you going?" to which I replied, Vancouver. Then he kept asking us where we were staying, and where exactly we were going...and I just kept saying "around." Its a day trip...we're not staying anywhere and we're just going to do whatever we want. He didn't like this one bit. He made me roll down the back window, bc its tinted, to make sure we weren't hiding anything? I guess. He then asked if we were carrying any "firearms or weapons" and I didn't hear so I said..."fire-able (as in able to fire...not a weapon related to fire...ok now we're clear) weapons?"...again he did not take kindly to this. He re-enunciated his question and I told him we had no such items. His final question was "have you slept at all?" and w/o thinking I responded with this gem..."yea i slept before I came up here." OMG. He hates us so bad now. Then he handed me a piece of paper and told us to park up to the left and go inside. Perfect. We're being detained. Sierra was shaking her head at me for failing to get us passed (I think I've been going with past...but I just realized that's wrong...past is "in the past" and passed is "we drove passed"...shoot....sorry) w/o incident.
This is the first time I've been detained. I have no idea what to expect. I guess she'd been detained before...but its hard to say what it'll entail at 5am on a Sunday morning. Ugh. At this point though...we're technically in Canada (I think)...so we made it and in doing so physically visited the last country from the aforementioned country list. Um. Yea sure. I guess the other countries were "visited" but I was actually in Canada...so ha. And stuff.
Eventually another man calls us over and asks a few questions...where do you live?...where do you work?...how long have you known each other?....what are you doing here?....etc. We sit back down. Then he calls me over and asks me to empty my pockets, lift up my shirt (so he can see my waistline...to ensure my claim of "no weapon" is still true) and then wants to see the tops of both my socks (ok I get it but wow). Asks me if I've ever been in trouble before with the law...been arrested...anything like that. Nope. He looks through my wallet...at every credit card...through the cash (bc one of the questions at the border was are you carrying $10,000 or more in any currency) and then tells me I can sit down...but keeps the car key...so that he can go out and inspect the car. Nothing there? Really? Maybe that's bc we're not hiding anything and your freaking uber-investigative border patrol man caught me so off guard and intimidated me like no other...that I answered nervously and sounded more suspect that I actually was. BLAME CANADA INDEED.
Sierra's turn. He's digging through her purse and finds her pepper spray. He then proceeds to tell her that pepper spray is considered a firearm in Canada, and its not allowed. WTH?! Yea. So he has to confiscate it. I guess he kept moving it further and further away from her and he continued to ask her questions and inspect her items. Weird. He lets her sit back down. After a little bit he calls her back up to sign a form, which states she gave him permission to destroy the pepper spray. LOL. I guess he gave her the benefit of the doubt that she didn't know pepper spray wasn't allowed (which she did not know) and so she wasn't in any trouble. Good. That was about the only break we caught. We then called me over and told me we were free to enter the country. Sweet. Another detour...only 30 minutes this time. So now its 5:30am and we're in Canada. Shibby.
Head into the country towards BC, but decide that's kind of far way so maybe we'll just stop in Surrey (foreign cities!!) and see what's open. Um. We get kind of lost. Not sure where we are...but everything we pass is closed. Hmmm. Well...probably should just head back then. Turn around. Don't see a sign for Seattle so we end up driving passed (ah!) where we originally turned off the highway...bc we saw a Seattle sign on our way into the town. Um. If I confused you just now...don't worry...its not that important. Ok. So we're back on the highway towards the border. We get there and its this sweet old dude. Nice guy. Asks us where we're from and how long we've been in Canada...
"Uhhh...about 20 minutes? "
"Wait what?"
"Yea. We had this crazy idea to come up for the day but got here and lost all our enthusiasm so we decided to just head back home."
"And they admitted you into the country?
"Yea."
"So what time did you leave to come up here?"
"3am"
"So you drove up in the middle of the night...why don't you want to stay now?"
"Everything is closed."
And the guy just looked at us like we were crazy and told us to move on. He was hilarious. The look on his face was priceless...kind of like "WTF...you kids are crazy." Oh man he was great. Wish we could have had him going into the country...oh well.
So now its roughly 6am and we're headed back for home. Hopefully no more detours, and we can be back in Seattle for some breakfast around 8am....and then hopefully one of our roommates will wake up...see we're both gone and call us to see what's going on. (Now I get ahead of the timeline here...but neither of them called...which was too bad bc we were both hoping one of them would...would've been HI-larious. Oh man.) Still not too tired yet, and feel good about getting back home to sleep. We both have to pee but for whatever reason forget to stop off to take care of that...probably bc we hit a freaking snowstorm. I'm talking GI-NORMOUS flakes the size of dollar bills. Seriously...ok well not that big...but they were huge. Now the roads are covered in snow & probably ice...so getting home will now take longer bc we slow down to be safer. A lot of good this did.
So we're going along nice and smooth and up ahead I see a semi truck in front of us, but well enough ahead, in the right lane. In the left lane was another car...about 30-40 feet behind the truck...but in the other lane. As we approached the truck I tried to slow down slowly...so as not to hit the truck or spin out of control by skidding on the ice. Feelin' like I have it all under control when this stupid other car decides to change lanes behind the truck...with no blinker...and effectively cut us off (there was a still a good amount of distance between us but bc of the inclement weather conditions this was like cutting someone off on the freeway by a few inches)...so now I have a car a lot closer to me than the truck was and I can tell I'm not going to be able to stop in time w/o hitting the breaks too hard....so I try and change lanes as carefully as possible to continue slowing down and miss this car at the same time. I was able to miss the car...but in my attempt to change lanes the car started to skid. I did my best to steer into the skid and regain control before the car spun out of control. Nope. The road was so slick that was soon as I tried to attempt to right the car...the back end spun out to the left...then back to the right...and the whole car followed to the right and the front end started to come back around but at that point we were off to the left side of the road and had skidded to a halt in a ditch. A small ditch...thankfully. Somehow the car didn't stall and was still running. I turned it off and made sure Sierra was ok. She said she was fine but looked visibly shaken. Understandable.
Now did the guy who cut us off slow or stop after making us wipe out? NO. WHAT AN ASS. We were both livid. We were able to get back on the road and were looking for the next exit. Get off at a rest stop...and the guy (no wait it was a woman!) who cut us off also pulled into the rest stop. Paid us no attention at all. Figures. We get out, expecting the worst...and the car appears to be fine. Its dark and snowing...but there's no visible body damage...no dents...scrapes...scratches...nothing....nothing but a lot of mud all over the side of the car and stuck in the rims. Whew. Pee and come back and remove the lodged dirt with a stick. Ok. That was pretty awful but we're ok and we'll just take it real slow.
After about 10 minutes I feel that something still isn't right so we pull off again. The front passenger tire is flat. Great. Get in the trunk and she has a full size spare. Good. Um...how do you get the jack out? Uh...uh....oh...you twist this and push and pull and its out. Took way too long and it made me feel really stupid. Put it down and get the car up. Start on the lug nuts with the lug wrench and see a cop pull up near where we were parked (in this little parking lot). We figure he'd come by to make sure we were ok. Nope. You gotta be kidding me...I mean yes we had it under control but still. I guess it was a-hole driver morning or something. Get all the lug nuts off except one...which is round. What? How the hell do you get a round lug nut off? I guess you need a special key. Shoot. This car is fairly new for her still...new enough that she's not had to deal with this before and isn't even sure if she has the key. At least its NOT SNOWING...oh wait it was. Thankfully tho she found the key and I was able to get the tire off. Get the new one one. And we're back in business. I'm dirty. Cold. Tired. Exhausted. She decides to drive.
Get back to Marysville (last city...thank God!) and it feels like its driving funny. Great. Get off bc there is a Schwab right off the freeway. Oh wait...they're closed on Sundays. Perfect. She decides its fine and it was just the ice/snow on the road that was causing it to feel funny. Get back on the freeway and make it back to my place. WOW! That didn't go anything like we planned. But we're back...and safe...and the car seems to be driving fine again. I go in and get ready to head to bed...but am going to stay up until she texts me to let me know she got home safely. While I'm waiting Dan wakes up and asks me why I'm up so early. HA! I tell him I haven't gone to sleep yet...WHAT!? Yea....I just got back. He looks confused. Back from where? Wait...I don't have a car and his keys were in his room which was locked. Oh wait...he remembers Sierra was here and had a car. His no longer confused and only slightly shocked I'm still awake...then I tell him all of this and the shock returns to his face. Not only did I go to Canada but we spun out on the freeway and got a flat tire. He thinks its one of the craziest stories he's ever heard..and I agree.
Little while later I get my text from Sierra. Home and safe. Good. Tho now I'm not tired bc I'm all jacked up again from telling my story to Dan. Great. Watch a little TV then finally fall asleep around 9:40am...and set my alarm for 12:30 so as not to sleep all day and not be able to sleep come night. Got up around 1:00 or so and that was that. Met my mom, sister, brother, aunt & g-ma (well my mom came and picked me up bc I still have no car) for birthday (sister & g-ma's) dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory. Delicious. Makes me even more tired.
Come back home and struggle to stay awake until now...10:43pm on Sunday evening. Some adventure. Its kind of funny, and exciting now bc we're both ok and as far as we know there's been no permanent damage to anything...except maybe our fondness of Canada (lol...that was never there tho)...still don't want to experience anything like that ever again.
Damn. This postponed the final Vegas entries...hopefully I can get to those tomorrow...if I can stay awake :)
Let's start with Friday night tho. A Year @ The Movies: 1981 went well. Two movies night down, and it seems like its catching on so there should be plenty more to come. Once again I had my heard set on a freaking action classic (Raiders of the Lost Ark) and the HufflePuffins brought in the dark horse winner (I don't even know what that means) to spoil my 80s action bliss. They brought Stripes which was the winning selection. Funnier than the 1980 winner, Airplane, but still not quite amazing. I'd give it 3.5/5 stars for quality, low brow humor, senseless nudity & a jacked up military RV of destruction. Nothing too exciting happened after the movie ended. I did download Bubble Bobble onto my Wii...which is AWESOME. That game is incredibly simple but so fun.
Saturday afternoon Dan & I went up to Everett (cities!!) to eat at Chang's Mongolia Grill (yay for a "visit" to Mongolia). Now the thing about Chang's is that its awesome. I mean its my favorite restaurant on the planet for any occasion except really special events...which don't happen very often (and my really special I'm talking anniversaries (not married yet so none of them) and uber romantic dates...things like that) so Chang's is the best. On the way back home we stopped by the Lynnwood (omg more cities) Best Buy to see what kind of trouble we could get into there. Turns out it was my turn to get into a little trouble (and my trouble I mean buying things I don't really need but that are awesome). I picked up Stevie Wonder's The Definitive Collection....mostly bc we heard a few Stevie songs @ Chopstix...and especially bc of my dad's Superstition request. Also picked up the Crossbow game for the Wii. Haven't had a chance to play yet but I hear its fun. Solid trip to Best Buy. w00t...wth? why aren't the zeroes taller than the letters? what a weak font. i'm so upset i can't even properly capitalize my thoughts. gd-it.
Get back to the house and chill for the mid part of the day...bc the big part of the day awaits us in the evening. We had planned on going over to the Shark Club in Kirkland (another city). Dan had been there before, and I was game to check it out and play wing man. Well before we left Dan looked up directions and found out they were having a live band play that night...an AC/DC cover band of sorts. Might have been cool but we were looking to "bust a move" and not \m/ (think of that as a hand making the international sign for rock...see it? no? well then you clearly don't rock hard enough). Decide to just go to Dante's again....which is in Seattle (we live in Shoreline so that's another city...five?). We get there and THEY'RE HAVING A LIVE BAND PLAY. Unreal. We decided to stick around and see if they're any good bc the place is packed...and there's plenty of cute ladies. Well they sucked. Hard. So we left around 10:45 and decided to head back up the road to one of our favorite bars, Die Bierstube (a German bar, and sister bar of Prost! (our bar of choice when we lived near Greenlake) & Fieirabend (sp?))...so there's our Germany visit. It was crowded, but one of our favorite bartenders was working...Mari. We hadn't seen her in awhile so it was good to see her. At this point tho we were both pretty bummed out that the night didn't go as planned...so we decided to just head home after Dan's first & only bier.
Damn. The big weekend plans are a bust. At least I was able to get Dan to drink two beers & do a shot before we left...so he's got a little buzz...at least I hope he did. (OMG I've had Stevie playing and Superstition just came on...YES!!) Well I had been texting my friend Sierra to come hang out with us since we were going to be heading back to our place. Now I've tried to get her to come out before and it takes massive amounts of pleading and promises of fun...and then she still usually won't come over....but this time she decided to come. Hooray! Well before she got over Dan decided to go to bed. Weak. It was maybe midnight...and a Saturday night! We could've made the best of it (haha...and boy did we...but just not with Dan) but he's Captain of the Anti-Fun Brigade...or something...so to bed he went.
Sierra shows up and is disappointed Dan is asleep. Agreed. So we're just chillin' downstairs, catching up on things bc we haven't hung out in ages....and trying to think of something fun to do. Oddly enough...while I was peeing...I had this crazy idea of how ridiculous it would be to drive to Canada that night...really for no other reason than to say we left the country. So I come out of the bathroom and share my crazy (and highly unrealistic) idea. She agrees it would be crazy but also fun. After a few rounds of "are you serious?...you really want to go?"....we decide to go for it. WHAT?! Yep. Canada here we come. Well first we had to drive back to Bellevue (another city...this is like...what?...18? :P) to get her birth certificate so we could cross the border. I grabbed my passport so we're golden. Get to Bellevue...get the b.c. and head for B.C. (haha! sometimes my cleverness astounds me...) She drove to her place, then decided it was my turn to drive...all the way to Canada. Great. I get to drive the whole way. Thanks. Guess that means I'm in charge of the music. Booyah!
So we're off. Hit some rain. And a little snow as we passed through north Snohomish county, but nothing too bad. Then we got up into Mt. Vernon/Burlington area (yes more cities...) and I have this crazy idea for a side trip. We'll make a little detour to my family's campsite we own at this little private campground off Highway 20, up near Conrete (cities galore!). I don't have the key card to get in, but hope a gate is unlocked or maybe we can climb a fence and do something crazy like go skinny dipping in the Skagit River (OMG...would've been so cold) or the pool...tho I was pretty sure it would be drained bc its still winter. So we get there. All locked up. And we don't much feel like climbing a fence to then de-robe, jump in freezing cold water & not have a towel or anything to dry off with....maybe this plan was ill-conceived from the start. Dang. Turn around and get back on I-5. If anything...this side trip ate up some time so we don't arrive at the border at too ungodly of an hour. Nope. Wrong. Not the case.
After battling more snow and bad road conditions, we get to the border and decide our story is we're just coming up for the day. Well the border patrol guy was not having any of this. He asked where we were going and I said BC (which made sense in my head bc in Washington we refer to Vancouver, WA as Vancouver...and then Vancouver, BC is just BC)...whoops. I think this is where it all started to go downhill...and he said "its a big province...where exactly are you going?" to which I replied, Vancouver. Then he kept asking us where we were staying, and where exactly we were going...and I just kept saying "around." Its a day trip...we're not staying anywhere and we're just going to do whatever we want. He didn't like this one bit. He made me roll down the back window, bc its tinted, to make sure we weren't hiding anything? I guess. He then asked if we were carrying any "firearms or weapons" and I didn't hear so I said..."fire-able (as in able to fire...not a weapon related to fire...ok now we're clear) weapons?"...again he did not take kindly to this. He re-enunciated his question and I told him we had no such items. His final question was "have you slept at all?" and w/o thinking I responded with this gem..."yea i slept before I came up here." OMG. He hates us so bad now. Then he handed me a piece of paper and told us to park up to the left and go inside. Perfect. We're being detained. Sierra was shaking her head at me for failing to get us passed (I think I've been going with past...but I just realized that's wrong...past is "in the past" and passed is "we drove passed"...shoot....sorry) w/o incident.
This is the first time I've been detained. I have no idea what to expect. I guess she'd been detained before...but its hard to say what it'll entail at 5am on a Sunday morning. Ugh. At this point though...we're technically in Canada (I think)...so we made it and in doing so physically visited the last country from the aforementioned country list. Um. Yea sure. I guess the other countries were "visited" but I was actually in Canada...so ha. And stuff.
Eventually another man calls us over and asks a few questions...where do you live?...where do you work?...how long have you known each other?....what are you doing here?....etc. We sit back down. Then he calls me over and asks me to empty my pockets, lift up my shirt (so he can see my waistline...to ensure my claim of "no weapon" is still true) and then wants to see the tops of both my socks (ok I get it but wow). Asks me if I've ever been in trouble before with the law...been arrested...anything like that. Nope. He looks through my wallet...at every credit card...through the cash (bc one of the questions at the border was are you carrying $10,000 or more in any currency) and then tells me I can sit down...but keeps the car key...so that he can go out and inspect the car. Nothing there? Really? Maybe that's bc we're not hiding anything and your freaking uber-investigative border patrol man caught me so off guard and intimidated me like no other...that I answered nervously and sounded more suspect that I actually was. BLAME CANADA INDEED.
Sierra's turn. He's digging through her purse and finds her pepper spray. He then proceeds to tell her that pepper spray is considered a firearm in Canada, and its not allowed. WTH?! Yea. So he has to confiscate it. I guess he kept moving it further and further away from her and he continued to ask her questions and inspect her items. Weird. He lets her sit back down. After a little bit he calls her back up to sign a form, which states she gave him permission to destroy the pepper spray. LOL. I guess he gave her the benefit of the doubt that she didn't know pepper spray wasn't allowed (which she did not know) and so she wasn't in any trouble. Good. That was about the only break we caught. We then called me over and told me we were free to enter the country. Sweet. Another detour...only 30 minutes this time. So now its 5:30am and we're in Canada. Shibby.
Head into the country towards BC, but decide that's kind of far way so maybe we'll just stop in Surrey (foreign cities!!) and see what's open. Um. We get kind of lost. Not sure where we are...but everything we pass is closed. Hmmm. Well...probably should just head back then. Turn around. Don't see a sign for Seattle so we end up driving passed (ah!) where we originally turned off the highway...bc we saw a Seattle sign on our way into the town. Um. If I confused you just now...don't worry...its not that important. Ok. So we're back on the highway towards the border. We get there and its this sweet old dude. Nice guy. Asks us where we're from and how long we've been in Canada...
"Uhhh...about 20 minutes? "
"Wait what?"
"Yea. We had this crazy idea to come up for the day but got here and lost all our enthusiasm so we decided to just head back home."
"And they admitted you into the country?
"Yea."
"So what time did you leave to come up here?"
"3am"
"So you drove up in the middle of the night...why don't you want to stay now?"
"Everything is closed."
And the guy just looked at us like we were crazy and told us to move on. He was hilarious. The look on his face was priceless...kind of like "WTF...you kids are crazy." Oh man he was great. Wish we could have had him going into the country...oh well.
So now its roughly 6am and we're headed back for home. Hopefully no more detours, and we can be back in Seattle for some breakfast around 8am....and then hopefully one of our roommates will wake up...see we're both gone and call us to see what's going on. (Now I get ahead of the timeline here...but neither of them called...which was too bad bc we were both hoping one of them would...would've been HI-larious. Oh man.) Still not too tired yet, and feel good about getting back home to sleep. We both have to pee but for whatever reason forget to stop off to take care of that...probably bc we hit a freaking snowstorm. I'm talking GI-NORMOUS flakes the size of dollar bills. Seriously...ok well not that big...but they were huge. Now the roads are covered in snow & probably ice...so getting home will now take longer bc we slow down to be safer. A lot of good this did.
So we're going along nice and smooth and up ahead I see a semi truck in front of us, but well enough ahead, in the right lane. In the left lane was another car...about 30-40 feet behind the truck...but in the other lane. As we approached the truck I tried to slow down slowly...so as not to hit the truck or spin out of control by skidding on the ice. Feelin' like I have it all under control when this stupid other car decides to change lanes behind the truck...with no blinker...and effectively cut us off (there was a still a good amount of distance between us but bc of the inclement weather conditions this was like cutting someone off on the freeway by a few inches)...so now I have a car a lot closer to me than the truck was and I can tell I'm not going to be able to stop in time w/o hitting the breaks too hard....so I try and change lanes as carefully as possible to continue slowing down and miss this car at the same time. I was able to miss the car...but in my attempt to change lanes the car started to skid. I did my best to steer into the skid and regain control before the car spun out of control. Nope. The road was so slick that was soon as I tried to attempt to right the car...the back end spun out to the left...then back to the right...and the whole car followed to the right and the front end started to come back around but at that point we were off to the left side of the road and had skidded to a halt in a ditch. A small ditch...thankfully. Somehow the car didn't stall and was still running. I turned it off and made sure Sierra was ok. She said she was fine but looked visibly shaken. Understandable.
***RELATED SIDE STORY***In December of 2006 I was driving with a friend over to Spokane to meet up with some old college friends. This was right after the big windstorm we had. So it was wet and cold out...and had been really windy the night before. Roads seemed fine. Nope. Wrong again. I went to change lanes just like any normal person would...and hit an icy patch or something that caused the car to start skidding. The genius that I am....I hit the brakes and this only makes things worse. We ended up doing about an 1100 degree rotation in the car...across all four lanes of I-90 and back. It all happened so fast but wow was it freaky. The car stalled out and we were angled towards the right. How did that happen...I was only changing lanes? Wow. Thankfully there was no absolutely no traffic (and it was only 8am so there very well could have been more traffic) and we were able to start back up and continue on our way. Still crazy to think about...three full rotations in my car and then some. Dang. So while this most recent "Canadian" spin out wasn't as "bad" it reminded me of this occasion and made me realize how much I now fiercely hate driving in snow or any kind of inclement weather.
Now did the guy who cut us off slow or stop after making us wipe out? NO. WHAT AN ASS. We were both livid. We were able to get back on the road and were looking for the next exit. Get off at a rest stop...and the guy (no wait it was a woman!) who cut us off also pulled into the rest stop. Paid us no attention at all. Figures. We get out, expecting the worst...and the car appears to be fine. Its dark and snowing...but there's no visible body damage...no dents...scrapes...scratches...nothing....nothing but a lot of mud all over the side of the car and stuck in the rims. Whew. Pee and come back and remove the lodged dirt with a stick. Ok. That was pretty awful but we're ok and we'll just take it real slow.
After about 10 minutes I feel that something still isn't right so we pull off again. The front passenger tire is flat. Great. Get in the trunk and she has a full size spare. Good. Um...how do you get the jack out? Uh...uh....oh...you twist this and push and pull and its out. Took way too long and it made me feel really stupid. Put it down and get the car up. Start on the lug nuts with the lug wrench and see a cop pull up near where we were parked (in this little parking lot). We figure he'd come by to make sure we were ok. Nope. You gotta be kidding me...I mean yes we had it under control but still. I guess it was a-hole driver morning or something. Get all the lug nuts off except one...which is round. What? How the hell do you get a round lug nut off? I guess you need a special key. Shoot. This car is fairly new for her still...new enough that she's not had to deal with this before and isn't even sure if she has the key. At least its NOT SNOWING...oh wait it was. Thankfully tho she found the key and I was able to get the tire off. Get the new one one. And we're back in business. I'm dirty. Cold. Tired. Exhausted. She decides to drive.
Get back to Marysville (last city...thank God!) and it feels like its driving funny. Great. Get off bc there is a Schwab right off the freeway. Oh wait...they're closed on Sundays. Perfect. She decides its fine and it was just the ice/snow on the road that was causing it to feel funny. Get back on the freeway and make it back to my place. WOW! That didn't go anything like we planned. But we're back...and safe...and the car seems to be driving fine again. I go in and get ready to head to bed...but am going to stay up until she texts me to let me know she got home safely. While I'm waiting Dan wakes up and asks me why I'm up so early. HA! I tell him I haven't gone to sleep yet...WHAT!? Yea....I just got back. He looks confused. Back from where? Wait...I don't have a car and his keys were in his room which was locked. Oh wait...he remembers Sierra was here and had a car. His no longer confused and only slightly shocked I'm still awake...then I tell him all of this and the shock returns to his face. Not only did I go to Canada but we spun out on the freeway and got a flat tire. He thinks its one of the craziest stories he's ever heard..and I agree.
Little while later I get my text from Sierra. Home and safe. Good. Tho now I'm not tired bc I'm all jacked up again from telling my story to Dan. Great. Watch a little TV then finally fall asleep around 9:40am...and set my alarm for 12:30 so as not to sleep all day and not be able to sleep come night. Got up around 1:00 or so and that was that. Met my mom, sister, brother, aunt & g-ma (well my mom came and picked me up bc I still have no car) for birthday (sister & g-ma's) dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory. Delicious. Makes me even more tired.
Come back home and struggle to stay awake until now...10:43pm on Sunday evening. Some adventure. Its kind of funny, and exciting now bc we're both ok and as far as we know there's been no permanent damage to anything...except maybe our fondness of Canada (lol...that was never there tho)...still don't want to experience anything like that ever again.
Damn. This postponed the final Vegas entries...hopefully I can get to those tomorrow...if I can stay awake :)
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Who sings this song?
Massively out of context title for this entry, but allow me to explain so you too can experience the shear horror I endured last night....
Yesterday was my little sister's 21st birthday, and seeing as most of her friends aren't old enough to take her out, or are away at school in Spokane, we made it a family affair (and my roommate Dan joined the party too). Now a 21-run with your parents doesn't sound all too exciting, I know, but for an inexperienced drinker (how weird does that sound?...of course she has no experience at 21...then again many of you had plenty by the time you were 21 so maybe that's so weird anymore now is it :P) it was probably a good call. Parents foot the bill, you're in a safe environment (don't have to worry about people handing you evil birthday drinks) & you know you have a responsible driver to take you home. It turned out to be a lot of fun. Not typical 21-run fun (sorry for that rhyme...ugh), but a good time nonetheless.
(...yes I'm getting to my point about the title relating to this post...hold on)
So all this family drinking (except yours truly who is still holding strong to the year of sobriety challenge) took place at Chopstix, on lower Queen Anne. It's a dueling piano bar, and while the crowd wasn't very big, it was a decent sized crowd for a Wednesday. If you have never been to a bar like this, I recommend it. Go with a few friends. Enjoy. There are two pianos facing each other, and they play songs based on audience requests. Typically you go put your request on the piano with $1 or more, and the more $$$ you put with your request the higher probability it will get played. The other good part of the smaller crowd last night was all our requests were being played. Sooooooooooooo (here comes the aforementioned promise of relating to the blog) my roommate requested "Hey Jude," which was a great selection. Lots of fun to sing along with, while two guys are playing away on the pianos. After about a minute into the song or so, my sister leans towards me and asks, "who sings this song?" I swear I'm not lying. Honestly. She really said that. She did go on to say she'd heard the song, and knew the tune, but for whatever unthinkable reason had no idea who made it famous.
Now I realize we all have different tastes in music, but everyone has heard of The Beatles. Even my sister has...she just didn't know one of their more popular songs I guess. So after I got up off the floor (the shear shock of her question sent me flying across the room, out of my chair and onto the floor...(ok well that's all a lie, but if I had been in a movie, that's how it would've happened)) I asked her with a stunned faced, "are you serious?" She was. OMG. I fell over again (but not really). I said it was by the single most famous band of all time....and she still had nothing. Not a clue. Not one iota (ioda? i-yoda? i-pod? what?) about who I was talking about. When I finally told her it was sung by The Beatles, all she could muster was an, "oh...ok." D'oh!
So...as per standard, worldwide....no, entire universe encompassing (ok so I know universal works here, but I felt it didn't quite deliver the magnitude of the situation...so deal) regulations, I disowned her as my sister. And per The Office unofficial rules of life to abide by (yes I made that up, but this does come from The Office so go with it), I also shunned my sister...with appropriate hand motion to denote the shunning.
Wow. I'm still a little upset by all this...and now even more so bc I just had to recount the event. Silly little former sister of mine (:P).
Other than that massive fiasco, I enjoyed the evening. Spent almost 4.5 hours there (whoa!), but after the music started the time just flew by. Some other highlights of the night were one of the piano players coming over to take a picture of himself with my mom with our camera...only the flash takes REALLY long so he ended up taking a picture of her chest. THAT was hilarious (sorry mom but that was really funny). That same guy also decided to give an "instant request" to our table, meaning whatever we said...he would play. So of course my dad shouts out....what else?...."Superstition" by Stevie Wonder. LOVE IT. Great song, but made even better by the fact that someone asked for a song, any song, and my dad came up with that. So awesome. I also enjoyed the part where my mom asked me if I wanted to go on a blind date....wait, what?
(definitely need a new paragraph for this)...Yep. My mom is trying to hook me up on a blind date. Well so I thought. Turns out she's already put it in motion....and asking me was just to confirm that I would actually go on a date she promised to this woman. Geez mom. No pressure. Or anything. Or. What? **side note: punctuation. is. fun. when. you. use. it. inwhateverwayyoufeellike. yea.**So my sister &/or mother have been seeing this massage therapist for their ailing bodies and for some reason...I still don't know how or why this ever came to be (perhaps I'm complaining for no reason bc I am actually excited to go on this blind date) but apparently my mom has told her about me, and she has agreed to go out with me on a blind date. Sadly the first thing out of my mouth was "is she cute?" I'm so shallow....I'm ashamed of myself...well at least I didn't ask if she was "hot" or something...cute is ok yea? eh...ok. Well my mom said yes, and my sister agreed (sorry mom...but with things like this...I'm going to trust Sarah's opinion of cute a little more than your's...um...yes I'm talking directly to my mother even tho she's @ her house and I am @ mine...I know she reads. So this works. And its my blog so I can do what I like...weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!....case in point).
So I got her number from my mom, but haven't called her yet. This was last night, Wednesday night, and after a stressful day at work yesterday, and what promised to be almost as stressful today....I knew I wouldn't feel up to going out tonight: Thursday. Jueves. SPANISH! And this weekend is already full for me. So I may call her later this weekend to try and set something up during the week...or for next weekend. Apparently she likes Thai. And I do too. So dinner is already set...just have to decide on a place. Beyond this I know very little more about her. She is 28. Around 5'4" (OMG! So we were talking about being tall and I said I wished I were 6'2" instead of 6'0" and my sister didn't see what the big deal was...I told her that for guys being tall is money...the difference is all the difference...and I feel like 6'2" would be ideal...then my mom said she would make me seem taller bc she is so much shorter than I am...my sister was confused how another person was going to make me taller and said something to the effect of "she can't make Matthew taller"...and everyone smiled and laughed at how that could be taken out of context...or even in context...to be dirty...it was hilarious....kudos to my sister for that gem) and her last name is something like Nishamura but I guess she is of Hawaiian decent (I had a friend growing up who was from the Philippines...not Hawaii...but if she looks anything like that...then WOW...bc she was attractive...hmm....Hawaii is not the Philippines...and I think there's one more 'p' in that country's name (yep I was short a 'p' but thankfully this thing has a wicked good spell checker)...oh well on both accounts)). So she's a little older....a little little...with an exotic heritage...she likes thai....now you can see why I'm so psyched for the date :D So whenever that happens I will be sure to blog about that (well...what I can anyway :P) bc it should be fun...and it will be the first blind date I've ever been on...and the first "Date" I've been on in awhile...then again I haven't been on many of those either....to explain: date v. Date.
date: what you take your girlfriend out in the middle of the week or for no particular reason other than she's your girlfriend and you want to go out and do something fun with her...also when friends meet up for "coffee dates...lunch dates...and the like" but when its clear its just a friendly meeting that has now colloquially been dubbed a "date."
Date: when you take your girlfriend out for a very specific reason or celebration, when two people exchange numbers and meet up at a later date to "go out on a Date," when someone outside the two Datees, or even one or both of them, agrees to meet up blindly to go on a "blind Date."
See the difference? This is my opinion on the matter, and I've taken plenty of crap for it, and I don't always explain it well enough to make sense to others, but it makes sense to me. Not trying to sound "snooty" or arrogant or harsh or stubborn or haughty or or or or or (ok sorry I'm done) anything like that. I just don't have a problem strongly stating my opinion...with a lot of things.
And speaking of dating...I've never been a "Dater" by my own definition...but I think I'm ready to try and give Dating a real shot. I've had four girlfriends and I never really "Dated" any of them beforehand...tho kinda sorta with the most recent one...but we met almost six years prior and sort of knew each other...so I'm not sure. And I haven't talked to her since we broke up. I didn't expect us to be best friends right away or anything, but I figured after awhile we'd start talking and hopefully remain friends. I said I wanted to. I still do. I really feel we're better suited as friends...which sucks now bc we had to date before I realized that...so feelings were hurt which is never what I want....but it happens....and its unfortunate. So its been over two months now and I haven't heard from her. I bought her a card a week or two ago to send her. Just a nice little, hope you're having a good day kind of card...but I don't know what to write in it...if anything more than what the card says. I wish things like this weren't so difficult....hopefully it will work out somehow....if not then I guess that's the way its meant to be.
Ok well this was supposed to be about my fun night with my sister on her 21st birthday and it turned a little more emotionally deep than I thought it would....meh. I can't help what's on my mind....its got a mind of its own. HA!
Stay tuned for (hopefully soon before I forget) the exciting, and final installments (days 2 & 3) of my trip to Vegas.
(definitely need a new paragraph for this)...Yep. My mom is trying to hook me up on a blind date. Well so I thought. Turns out she's already put it in motion....and asking me was just to confirm that I would actually go on a date she promised to this woman. Geez mom. No pressure. Or anything. Or. What? **side note: punctuation. is. fun. when. you. use. it. inwhateverwayyoufeellike. yea.**So my sister &/or mother have been seeing this massage therapist for their ailing bodies and for some reason...I still don't know how or why this ever came to be (perhaps I'm complaining for no reason bc I am actually excited to go on this blind date) but apparently my mom has told her about me, and she has agreed to go out with me on a blind date. Sadly the first thing out of my mouth was "is she cute?" I'm so shallow....I'm ashamed of myself...well at least I didn't ask if she was "hot" or something...cute is ok yea? eh...ok. Well my mom said yes, and my sister agreed (sorry mom...but with things like this...I'm going to trust Sarah's opinion of cute a little more than your's...um...yes I'm talking directly to my mother even tho she's @ her house and I am @ mine...I know she reads. So this works. And its my blog so I can do what I like...weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!....case in point).
So I got her number from my mom, but haven't called her yet. This was last night, Wednesday night, and after a stressful day at work yesterday, and what promised to be almost as stressful today....I knew I wouldn't feel up to going out tonight: Thursday. Jueves. SPANISH! And this weekend is already full for me. So I may call her later this weekend to try and set something up during the week...or for next weekend. Apparently she likes Thai. And I do too. So dinner is already set...just have to decide on a place. Beyond this I know very little more about her. She is 28. Around 5'4" (OMG! So we were talking about being tall and I said I wished I were 6'2" instead of 6'0" and my sister didn't see what the big deal was...I told her that for guys being tall is money...the difference is all the difference...and I feel like 6'2" would be ideal...then my mom said she would make me seem taller bc she is so much shorter than I am...my sister was confused how another person was going to make me taller and said something to the effect of "she can't make Matthew taller"...and everyone smiled and laughed at how that could be taken out of context...or even in context...to be dirty...it was hilarious....kudos to my sister for that gem) and her last name is something like Nishamura but I guess she is of Hawaiian decent (I had a friend growing up who was from the Philippines...not Hawaii...but if she looks anything like that...then WOW...bc she was attractive...hmm....Hawaii is not the Philippines...and I think there's one more 'p' in that country's name (yep I was short a 'p' but thankfully this thing has a wicked good spell checker)...oh well on both accounts)). So she's a little older....a little little...with an exotic heritage...she likes thai....now you can see why I'm so psyched for the date :D So whenever that happens I will be sure to blog about that (well...what I can anyway :P) bc it should be fun...and it will be the first blind date I've ever been on...and the first "Date" I've been on in awhile...then again I haven't been on many of those either....to explain: date v. Date.
date: what you take your girlfriend out in the middle of the week or for no particular reason other than she's your girlfriend and you want to go out and do something fun with her...also when friends meet up for "coffee dates...lunch dates...and the like" but when its clear its just a friendly meeting that has now colloquially been dubbed a "date."
Date: when you take your girlfriend out for a very specific reason or celebration, when two people exchange numbers and meet up at a later date to "go out on a Date," when someone outside the two Datees, or even one or both of them, agrees to meet up blindly to go on a "blind Date."
See the difference? This is my opinion on the matter, and I've taken plenty of crap for it, and I don't always explain it well enough to make sense to others, but it makes sense to me. Not trying to sound "snooty" or arrogant or harsh or stubborn or haughty or or or or or (ok sorry I'm done) anything like that. I just don't have a problem strongly stating my opinion...with a lot of things.
And speaking of dating...I've never been a "Dater" by my own definition...but I think I'm ready to try and give Dating a real shot. I've had four girlfriends and I never really "Dated" any of them beforehand...tho kinda sorta with the most recent one...but we met almost six years prior and sort of knew each other...so I'm not sure. And I haven't talked to her since we broke up. I didn't expect us to be best friends right away or anything, but I figured after awhile we'd start talking and hopefully remain friends. I said I wanted to. I still do. I really feel we're better suited as friends...which sucks now bc we had to date before I realized that...so feelings were hurt which is never what I want....but it happens....and its unfortunate. So its been over two months now and I haven't heard from her. I bought her a card a week or two ago to send her. Just a nice little, hope you're having a good day kind of card...but I don't know what to write in it...if anything more than what the card says. I wish things like this weren't so difficult....hopefully it will work out somehow....if not then I guess that's the way its meant to be.
Ok well this was supposed to be about my fun night with my sister on her 21st birthday and it turned a little more emotionally deep than I thought it would....meh. I can't help what's on my mind....its got a mind of its own. HA!
Stay tuned for (hopefully soon before I forget) the exciting, and final installments (days 2 & 3) of my trip to Vegas.
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