Monday, August 25, 2008

so we were totally gonna blog...(UPDATED)

*(updates in italics)*

But there wasn't any free wifi anywhere, and the services you could pay for were ass rape. Plus, we're cheap, who the hell pays for internet access on vacation?

So I'm at the airport right now with a delay of I don't know how long - Southwest.com said my flight was on time right before I left my mom's hotel (she's in town with my brother). She had a show to get to at 8, so I told her to go ahead and drop me off, I have my laptop and internet, so it's no biggie. I can catch up on my gossip and finish a blog about the triiiiiiiiiip.

Bonus night: Tres Amigos!!!

Binh, Gabe and I all got in on Thursday night for extra Vegas fun. My flight landed at around 10:30 and Binh got in at about 11 and Gabe drove in from Northern California (and almost immediately said, "shit, I could have grabbed Nikki on the way"). Anyhoo, you already knew that from the first STBE weekend post.

So we get to the hotel and check in at about midnight and asked Stacy, the front desk guy if there were any free upgrade specials for birthday girls. He then said he would see what he could do and put his fingers to work and put us in a deluxe room for no extra charge. We still can't figure out what was deluxe about it, but there was a clock and a fridge. We all said we should go out and get deucefaced and our first stop was the Fiiiitz. We befriended a bartender named Emerson at the Vue Bar (with a balcony over Fremont Street). We drank footballs of beer and he gave me birthday shots for free (well, technically, not free, he told me to put a buck in the video poker machine, but it was still much less than it woul dhave cost). We worked our way back down to the Plaza and by the time we got there it was after 4am. Binh and I decided we needed food, so we got some Mickey D's - who knew they served breakfast at 4 in the morning? It would be the first of a few bad food decisions we would make over the weekend.

We made our way up to the room and Binh couldn't find the room key. We didn't want to wake Gabe (he'd gone up about an hour before us...smart guy), so we sat in the hallway eating and laughing at ourselves. Binh was mid-bite in her sausage burrito when she fell asleep in the hall. I quickly found the room key, let myself in, and told Gabe we needed to get Binh inside. We got her in and put her on Gabe's bed first, then mine. She made a noise like she was gonna barf, so we managed to lead her into the bathroom where she was later found sleeping in the bathtub. In the morning when I went to shower, there was a little pool of regurgitated sausage burrito - I know, totally gross. Binh cleaned it up while she showered (such a multi-tasker), and we started our day at about 2...it's the Vegas way.




Friday...

When we finally rolled out of the hotel room (we stayed in bed watching the 'lympics and then Days of Our Lives) we were feeling pretty bad. Binh and I decided that eating some food would make us feel better, so we walked over to Main Street Station for a cheap, but decent buffet. On the way over, I kept thinking I was gonna vomit, and was dying for some Sprite. It totally helped, btw, after I finished half of my drink, I was on the mend. The food was pretty underwhelming, which was surprising, considering how fond we've become of Main Street's buffet over the years. Anyhoo, I totally lost track of where I was going with all that Sprite business. Our plan was to hit up an all you can drink special on the Strip ($10 for all the Miller High Life - vomitous- or well drinks you can handle from 2-4pm). More on how that went in the next paragraph.

We were feeling pretty bad all day long and hoped we hadn't ruined the rest of the trip for ourselves by going overboard on the bonus night, so we decided to soldier on. After the buffet and the life-saving Sprite, we decided that we should go to the strip, so we went to the Deuce stop and as we were about to buy Deuce tickets from the Deuce machine, some lady stopped us and said she had tickets for a buck cheaper. She then pointed to some dude pushing a trash can and said he could vouch for her, and also said she would wait at the Deuce stop with us to prove the tickets were good. Gabe and I looked at each other like, "this is totally a scam", but we still bought the tickets anyway, lured in by the promise of saving a buck. As soon as the lady had her $12 (and tried to tell us we shorted her until I told her that 3 x $4 was $12), she was nowhere to be found. Methinks she and the trash can guy smoked that $12 immediately. Anyhoo, as we were boarding the Deuce, Binh pointed out that everyone else's tickets had the Deuce logo on them and ours had some American flag bullshit. So I slide my ticket and some alarm goes off and the guy tells me he has to check out my ticket. It turns out, we have to pay 50 cents every time we board the Deuce - no savings at all! So we all get on, cursing the crackhead and trash can dude and make our way to the strip. It took over an hour to get to the 'bur, since we had planned to work our way back up the strip on the way back [about an hour into the Deuce ride, Binh was like, "oh man, I need some Sprite". We decided to get off at the Bellagio since the Deuce was taking so long and figured we could hit up the tram to the Monte Carlo and make our way to the 'bur on the many trams and moving sidewalks to save time and energy. Upon entering, we found out that the tram no longer runs (for those of you familiar with it, it's the tram with the lady talking about how "only one word and one word only can describe Bellagio...peeeeeeerrrrrrrrrfect!"), so we had to hoof it down the contruction-ridden strip to the home of KD Lang....er Lance Burton, Master Magician.] Since we didn't have actual Deuce passes, we only rode to the strip and back, not wanting to suffer the humiliation of actually paying more than a day pass costs (we still came out behind - a one-way trip is $2, an all day pass is $5 - we ended up paying $5 for two rides...LAME!). Gabe and I started drinking a bit down there, figuring a hair of the dog that bit us would serve us well, but Binh was a little more reluctant than us (I guess the Sprite didn't work for her). Gabe and I had a few beers at the Trop and Binh kind of stared at hers with a look of disgust. We got back in time to greet Carrie, Mike, and Adam in the lobby where they were checking in. Then we changed into our 80s Workout Video Extras outfits and got ready for a night out on the town (where Binh eventually got over her aversion to alcohol).

To be continued...

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Iiiiiiiiiiiin the City of Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!

You know what the first siiiiiiiiiin is? The airport bars are all closed! How am I supposed to get started whilst waiting for Biiiiiiiiinh's plane to arrive?

In other news, Gabe is rolling into Vegas as we speak and will be arriving to pick me and Binh up post-haste! Ooooooow!

STBE '08!!!

Oh, don't forget to say Happy Birthday to Mike!!!

Packed and ready to go!

And as always, even though I packed the bare minimum, my bag is bursting with wigs and 80s clothes.

I hope everyone's ready for the best trip to Vegas ever!!!

PS: Dressing like red hat ladies doesn't constitute cross dressing. No one will be mistaken for an actual cross dresser. We're dressing like old ladies, not drag queens.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

STBE '08 is less than a week away!!!

Hopefully, you all have your costumes ready!

Again, if you haven't checked the website or read the reminder, theme nights are: 80s Workout Video Extras, Butt Rock, and Red Hat Ladies. We will not be providing costumes, because Ginger hates packing a ton of extra luggage for everyone else! It is your responsibility to hit up the Thrift Shoppe (or its equivalent in your town - tm Binh) and put together an outfit to end all outfits!

See you all in a few days!

Right now, it's looking like Binh, Ginger, and Gabe will be in Vegas on Thursday night!!! Ow!

Thursday, August 7, 2008

TWO WEEKS!!!

...from the bonus night, that is. How time has flown!

An official notice will be going out later on today, but in the event that you're reading this blog, if you haven't declared yourself one way or the other, please do so as soon as possible. We need to know if we need to get an extra room, cancel a room, and how much each person's share will be.

As always, last minute revelers are welcome, preference for a spot in the hotel rooms will go to those who have replied in advance.