Sin City

It seems that I validated the phrase, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," since I disappointedly only took 18 pictures during my entire spring break. Most of them are barely visible because my night vision doesn't work on my camera and the three of which I am in I've declared unpublishable. Hopefully this post will provide some mental images of how my four-day vacay turned out.

I met up with G and Jenna at the Hilton off the Strip when I arrived Monday evening. Although it had a Star Trek themed casino and restaurant, is Barry Manilow's Las Vegas home (there's a 15-story Barry mural on the side of the hotel... his nose takes up one story), and was without running water for 14 hours, it ended up being a gem. The monorail was also attached to our hotel, which made it real easy to get to and from the strip for real cheap. The monorail rides were equipped with "fun facts" to make the ride more enjoyable. i.e. Did you know that if you rode each car, on every train, there and back you would be riding the monorail for 12 hours? You know, if you got off at your first stop you could use that 12 hours for fun! or Many of the hot nightclubs on the strip have monosyllabic names, like Tryst, Jet, etc. (Yeaa, we had to listen to this for six rides, but we still loved the monorail.)

I didn't buy anything in Vegas except a cab ride, a monorail pass, and food and drinks. Vegas is not a cheap place, and it's pretty hard to survive on a budget. Granted there are plenty of venues for cheap entertainment... the amazing fountain show at the Bellagio, joufit watching, the skanky pirate show at Treasure Island (not exactly PG... I was seriously expecting something along the lines of Disney), or even just walking through each of the hotels. But it is really hard to save money when a measly mixed drink is $11 or a bottle of Coors Light is $7. It is even hard to find a good deal on breakfast or lunch since we spent the days poolside and didn't want to leave the hotel. And by dinnertime we always felt like splurging a little, but eventually it all adds up. I wasn't exactly banking on winning big either to help fund my trip. I spent approximately 20 minutes playing nickel slots and was confused the entire time. It wasn't just pull the handle and cross your fingers. It was pick a line and then pick a number and then your cash is turned into credits. I kept asking Gina and Sara for help, but all I got was just press buttons, but I still didn't understand what constituted a win or a loss. I put in $5 and won about $2 but in my confusion just ended up spending it right away. If only there were nickel hands of Blackjack.

Wednesday night we finally felt like high rollers when Joel's dad got us a table and a few rounds of free drinks at Studio 54 at the MGM. We got in through the VIP line and got to sit behind the velvet ropes with our own personal cocktail waitress, who btw was not wearing any pants and had hair longer than her shirt/"dress." There were acrobat girls hanging from the ceiling doing splits and flips inside and out of these dangling stars in yellow fluorescent lingerie. Probably one of the craziest things ever. The club was fairly crowded, especially for a Wednesday night making it even harder to fend off creepers. We stayed out until 4am (which was pretty good for our central time body clocks) and were quite the rambunctious group on the cab ride home. Unfortunately our personal Las Vegas tour guide had a case of the 24-hour flu so the ladies were flying solo.

I took the red eye back and arrived into Chicago at 6am Friday morning. I took the bus back to Madison and wished immediately that I was back in the 77 degree weather. It was snowing pretty hard and I had to walk home from the Union coatless while dragging my roller suitcase in three inches of snow. Welcome back to reality... and so the countdown begins to summer.

8 and a half hours until I'm free

Goodbye winter coat. Hello sunglasses.

It is so nice outside right now and the last thing I want to be doing is sitting in Espresso finishing my take-home midterm.

I need retail therapy. I need Spring Break.

3 days until flip-flops; 8 hours and 15 minutes until a work-free week.

here comes the sun

I'm reaching the winter coat denial stage, which is when I refuse to believe that it's still winter weather outside. I was not thrilled to find snow on the ground this morning after a weekend sans boots. I also slipped on the ice today for the first time all year... right in front of Memorial Union at the crosswalk. Although I must say I took a fairly graceful fall, I gave an embarrassed wave to the cars that waited for me and rushed off to class, which I would've skipped after that incident if I didn't have an exam on Wednesday.

I suppose I will be able to survive the last weeks of winter because... today I finalized my spring break plans! This year I will be jetting off to LAS VEGAS with some of the roomies and friends. It's not the vacay I originally had in mind, but it can definitely compete with routine Fort Myers. I'm not too sure what to expect, but I am assuming there will be little to no sleep.

2 weeks and counting until 70 degree weather.