I don’t think I’ve done that much here since I first visited!!  I am EXHAUSTED!  How can parents do that?  They’re the older ones!  If anyone wants to know about anything below… let me know.  This is all the stuff we crammed in this past week… I’m sure i forgot something lol.  Most of the pictures from this week are here: Mom, Meet Vegas.  I split out some of the sets like Red Rock and Hoover Dam; links below.

I’m glad mom came out though.  I had a great time and it was good to spend 1-on-1 time with her again.  :)

Sunday:

Eiffel Tower Experience (Paris)

Terrace Point Cafe (Wynn)

Defending the Caveman (Golden Nugget)

Monday:

Shopping!

Marriage Can Be Murder (Canyon Club @ 4 Queens)

Fremont Street Experience

Spring Conservatory (Bellagio) [Pictures]

Bellagio Fountains

Tuesday:

Top of the World (Stratosphere)

Wednesday:

Rentail Pickup

Penn & Teller (Rio)

Thursday:

The Price is Right (Bally’s)

Le Revé (Wynn)

Friday:

Hoover Dam [Pictures]

Olives (Bellagio)

Saturday:

Red Rock Canyon [Pictures]

If you go to Google today, you’ll see that they’ve “turned out the lights” - so to speak. They’ve changed out their standard white background for black to raise awareness for Earth Hour, “an international event that asks households and businesses to turn off their lights…for one hour on the evening of 29 March at 8 pm local time until 9 pm to promote electricity conservation and thus lower carbon emissions.” While watching the video posted on their website, I started to wonder if Las Vegas was going to participate. But then I realized that they more than likely wouldn’t considering MGM lost $1 million a minute when their power went out earlier this year… so take that, times 60, times 24 (not counting non-LV Blvd Casinos), and you wind up with $1,440,000,000 “lost” income. That’s assuming that they’re all at about 90% capacity, etc etc etc. But still… on a Saturday Night, in Las Vegas… I’m sure there’s more than that being that there is 10 or so casinos on Fremont Street as well as Red Rock, and the Station Casinos. But who knows, maybe they’ll surprise us and show they care about the Earth… nah.

Update: Just saw Las Vegas was not on the list of cities involved… shocking.

I wake this morning to see a video forwarded to me by my mother which is titled “Best Casino Ad Ever”. I had to post it and share. My mom gets kudos for this one. LOL!

I hate moving.  The packing.  The unpacking.  The feeling like you forgot something… and the rummaging through all those miscellaneous boxes that you started to throw together because organizing them all was taking too much time.  My 3rd move wasn’t all that bad… just across town.  I’m renting a room from a friend of a friend off Tropicana and Durango… it’s on the West side of town… complete opposite of where I was before with Mandy.  It’s bittersweet in it’s entirety… I already miss Mandy - even though I was missing her when I lived there since neither one of us were ever home when the other was.  We’ll probably see more of each other now than we did when lived in the same house!  The big downside being that I have to start paying rent again.  I’m anxious about living with someone new… someplace new… but… I’m excited too.

All in all it’s a great thing.  More incentive, I think, to get those goals accomplished which will get me to where I want to be.  :)

After waking me up by calling both the house line and my cell phone, I see that my mom had left me a voicemail (and later found two e-mails).  I decided to start getting ready and after showering I checked my voicemail, where she told me to call her back ASAP.  So I dial her cell and the conversation goes like this:

*Ring Ring* Mom picks up…

Mom:  You’re too late.
Me: Too late for what?
Mom: I already bought it.
Me: Bought what?
Mom: The ticket.
Me: The ticket for what?
Mom: A flight.
Me: A flight where?
Mom: There.
Me: There where?
Mom: To Vegas.
Me: Vegas?  Where are you staying?
Mom: With you.
Me: With me?!  For how long?
Mom: A Week.
Me: A week!?!?

After the shock of last minute notice, I figured that it’ll be great to see mom.  Definitely miss her and it’ll be nice to spend some mother-son time on vacation.  Already have a list of things to do while she’s out here.  Mom’s never been to Vegas… can you believe it?  I think a Chippendale’s show is in order.  :)

I’m almost there!  When I moved to Las Vegas, I weighed 125 lbs.  Yes.  125 pounds.  Since August, I’ve gained 13 lbs and am up to 138 lbs.  My goal: 150 lbs… and I seem to be at a standstill… I’ve passed the halfway mark, but can’t seem to gain anymore.  I feel as though I’m at a point where I’m just maintaining everything, and/or making everything more defined.  And on top of everything, my abs are bigger than my chest!  HA!  Oh well… I’m sure it’ll all even out.  :) 

So it’s the big 2008 now.  I still find myself writing/typing 2007 and having to correct it… probably take ’til at least mid-end February before I’ve finally realized what year it is.  In any case… Mandy and I have begun to keep track of goals.  Meaning, writing them down, and once every other month, sitting down and reviewing them.  Making sure they’re attainable goals and that they are specific enough.  Not just, “pay off credit cards” but more so , pay off “$xx.xx” by some date.  I finally paid off the Capital One Card… only to rack it right back up again.  So that card has been cut up.  Literally.   When I saw the next statement, I was so aggravated with myself that I had let myself do that.  And practically nothing on the statement was worth it.  Just paid it off again - thanks to the extra funds - but I needed to do something to prevent myself from using it. Now I just have to start in on the big one. 

But yea, goals.  I’m rather proud of myself with the things I’ve accomplished since moving here.  I’ve become so focused on what I want in life… and taking steps to make sure I get it.  The first step of that was getting my finances in check.  I’m not spending every last cent on clothes or coffee (sorry Starbucks, but I gotta cut somewhere); and I’m actually putting away a decent start to a savings.  Let’s hope that the car doesn’t break down and end up eating that… but if it did, I would still be happy that I had been smart to save the money.  That’s what it’s there for, right? The other was health and gym.  For my height, I should be around 145-150, and thankfully, I’ve been doing something right because I’m halfway there.  Just gotta keep up the momentum. 

OK, first off… you can totally tell we were drinking all through the first game because the second game we all took a dive. LOL!  Chris and I switched places on the second game - so I had to make sure it was known that I didn’t cross the foul line 3 times in that game.  I wasn’t that drunk! LOL!  Oh, and Amy totally bowled for Jeff and did better on his frames than her own.  LOVE IT!  We need to make this a common occurrence.  I forgot how much I love bowling!  :)

Yep - I did… totally went to the Spice Girls concert when they were here the other week. Just wish I could have seen David and Posh together. I heard they got an in room couple massage during their stay. :) Jason on the other hand was about to go ballistic on some chick in an ugly horizontal striped shirt who practically attacked him when we were dancing. Should have gone out and gotten a cop that was stationed there, but I didn’t think of it until after we’d left. In any case, they left about 3/4 of the way in to the concert. Just because she’s too fat and lazy to stand up to see, doesn’t mean she has to ruin other people’s time. She’s lucky we weren’t drunk[er]. LOL! Click the pic to see the set!

After walking 7 blocks to the nearest Metro stop in the rain (man, I hate DC weather), I stand on the platform waiting 10 more minutes for the next green line train and think to myself: I am so glad I packed up and moved.. Don’t get me wrong… I love DC and of course I have friends and family here… but my life is 100 times better in Las Vegas than it ever was, and probably ever could be, here. The real friends I have here are few and far between. The rest are just ‘filler’. In Vegas, I have met and made more real friends in the 5 months that I have lived there, than the 24 years in DC. Maybe its the “newness” of everything… The opportunity to start over and take a fresh approach on life. After Friday night at Town, I realized that I didn’t really have much to miss. Boys who don’t really care about you… Friends who don’t invite you for brunch, or DH nights. I go out practically every night in Vegas. Whether it be to a friend’s house, the movies, restaurant, or to a club… I am always surrounded by genuine people. Some may not think so much about Vegas… But my friends, the people I care about, are real. We all have our pretencious moments, but the people I have gotten to know are quality people whom I am very thankful for. I know more than ever now that this move was the right thing to do.

Sometimes there are clippets here and there that I feel like sharing, but don’t have a whole lot to really say about and almost feel as though it would be a waste of a blog entry to just link to something and give it a one-liner. So I think I may start a little thing going that I’ll categorize as “Seen On”. Usually while reading Towleroad, or VividBlurry, or various other blogs, I’ll see an article/posting that I enjoy and want to comment on, or just share. Similar to Towleroad fashion, I’m going to gather up several of these links, and post them in a single entry with whatever comments I may have. I’ll also be noting where I saw the post if on another blog.  Always nice to credit your sources! :)

• iPhones can now fly commercial aircraft. (towleroad)

• Las Vegas’ Gay Community is somewhat different than that of DC. While DC has a very active Gay Community, here in Las Vegas, it’s just starting to grow.

• Just stare at him long enough, and you’ll start drooling too!

• Dude, you’re getting a taco! (towleroad)