It never fails....

So I am still in Vegas for the rest of this week and had a minute in my lonely hotel room
and thought I would share a story. I was pretty sure that this trip was going to be an uneventful one for me, unlike the past 2, but of course it's me we're talking about!

I decided I was going to eat in the hotel restaurant for dinner tonight. Being alone, I decided to just sit at the counter instead of taking up a table. I sat down in the only available stool and there was an older guy (45-50) sitting next to me.
He proceeds to say hello and I say hello back and he asks me if I am here for business or pleasure. I tell him business and he introduces himself as Brian. I introduce myself and he asks where I am from. I tell him SLC and he says that he has a girlfriend from Magna and then begins backtracking about her not really being his girlfriend. At this point, I can tell the guy is a little intoxicated, but he seems nice enough. Next thing I know he is standing up next to me and says........
Excuse me? Still standing right next to me, he explains a guy in the bathroom sprayed him with cologne and he wants to know if it smells good on him. Um, no thanks. Luckily he took no for an answer and sat down.

I proceed (very fast) through my dinner and he is just talking and talking. First it's about why he put $100 on the Boston Celtics (because there arms were swinging in sync when they were walking, and that's a good sign), and how his birthday was yesterday and it is a great birthday to have (because John Wayne and Stevie Nicks were also born on that day). The best part (other than the smelling thing) was when he asked me if there were fish in Salt Lake. I said "well there are places to fish", and he says "no in Salt Lake", and I say "the great salt lake", and he says "yes". I tell him "no but that there are other lakes with fish". He then says, "why do women do that?" and I say "what?" and he says "answer questions that were never asked". I said "what do you mean" and he says "I simply asked about the Salt Lake and a simple yes or no was what I wanted, not that there were fish in other lakes". Then he starts in on his "girlfriend" and how she always does that and it drives him crazy. Ok dude, I am outta here. I was a little worried he would follow me, but he didn't.

Apparently moving to Vegas is going to give me a lot to blog about.

This is for Stephanie who wanted to see Trump tower, it is the view from my hotel window.

Here's Johnny!

I just got back from another trip to Vegas and I am exhausted! It is not easy working 2 jobs and flying back and forth and trying to look for a new apartment and pack up the old one and try to wrap up things in my life here! The date I officially need to be in Vegas permanently is June 16th. Needless to say, my blog may be lacking for awhile.

Things went better this trip and I was able to find my way around the streets a little better. I thought I had found some nice places and checked out their models and then found out that they were not that great, and not in a great area, so I basically have to start over. I have narrowed down what area I need to live in though, so that should help.

I did want to share an experience I had though on this last trip though. I stayed at the Palace Stations on my last trip, but it was completely booked this time so I had to find another place, that was cheap, as work is paying for it. The only place I could find that wasn't over $100 a night was this place:
The hotel was in a scary part of town, but it was fairly clean and seemed ok. My stay there was pretty uneventful until 4am. I was sleeping soundly when I was awakened by the sound of soft white noise and a light filling the room. I open my eyes and this is what I see:
Well now that's weird! So I turn off the TV and fall right back to sleep. This happened EVERY morning at EXACTLY 4am. I did not think much about it until I checked out of the hotel and then I started thinking. I know you can set a timer to turn OFF the TV if you fall asleep with it on, but I am almost positive there is no timer to turn ON the TV at a set time. Can anyone say Poltergeist? Can anyone say REDRUM!
Yes, this is an actual picture of the hallway outside of my room. Looks a little like 'The Shining' wouldn't you say? The funny thing is, it did not bother me one bit when it happened, I was more annoyed! I just turned off the TV each time and went back to sleep. I probably annoyed the ghost when I didn't get scared!

That was really the only strange thing that happened on this trip. I did run into Elvis which I thought was pretty funny, but I imagine that won't be the last time I run into Elvis in Vegas! My hotel also had a drive through wedding chapel attached to it, and I really couldn't believe the amount of people that got married there on a daily basis. Sooooo romantic!

Las Vegas

I am home from my 3 day trip from Vegas and for the most part things went well. I was able to get acquainted with the people I would be working with and everyone was very nice and seemed like they would be fine to work with. It looks like I will be moving around the end of June, or a little before that. In the meantime, I will be flying back and forth between here and Vegas on a weekly basis and splitting my time between the 2 jobs. I have a feeling I am not going to have a lot of free time!

Here is a little run down of the other aspects of my trip. I arrived at the airport and was able to find the shuttle to get my rental car with no problems. I got a great rental car (very fun to drive) and headed out to find my hotel.
I had printed off directions from mapquest but as I started driving I realized they sucked and I had no idea which direction I was facing. North, East, South and West were lost to me. I was pretty much lost and freaking out that I was going to get into an accident in the rental car. I decided to pull into a shady looking gas station on one end of the strip and ask for directions, and a very nice woman helped me. I followed her directions to the hotel and realized too late that my exit forked and I ended back on the freeway in the opposite direction. I did find a frontage road off the next exit though and managed to find the hotel after that.

I checked into the hotel and as I am entering my room, I see a maid laying on my bed, watching TV. What the?
She jumps up and says "your room is just fine" and leaves. Ok, weird, and her perfume smelled! I probably would have turned her in, but I am sure she is overworked and underpaid, so give her a break! At this point it is almost 10 pm and there is no way I am going find somewhere to eat, so I run down to the gift shop and buy a bottle of water (which I proceeded to down before I bought it as I was DYING of thirst) and ate the cheese crackers I got for a snack on the plane. I am exhausted and decide to just go to bed. I think I had just fallen asleep when I hear someone trying to open their room with their key card and it is not working. They are repeatedly putting it in and pulling it out and talking about how it is not working when I realize they are trying to get in MY room. I finally get out of bed and open the door to 2 older men (they may have been having a lover's tryst) and let them know that they were given the wrong room. Sure enough they assigned us the same room, but luckily their key didn't work. They apologized and left and I went to sleep.
I wake up the next morning and leave about 45 minutes early, just to ensure I make it to work on time and of course, proceed to get lost. Thankfully I did leave early because I finally found the place right on time. Again, it is all due to me not knowing which way is South. Luckily the rest of the trip was uneventful, but I was starting to question my decision that first night and morning. The weather was awesome though (other than the wind) and I was able to go outside, at night, without a jacket, for the first time in months! My only other concern is all of the reports I have been seeing on apartment review websites about the scorpions. Apparently that is a bit of problem. As I was in the LV airport, I saw this lovely sculpture......
Is this a bad omen?

Tagged

Jamie tagged me and thankfully gave me something to blog so here goes:

Five X Five

1 - Five places that I go to over and over:

Work

Target
Barnes and Noble
Tanning Salon (tee-hee)

Albertsons

2 - Five people who e-mail me (regularly):

Joy

Sara

Celeste
My Granny

Brian

3 - Five favorite places to eat:

Barbacoa

Olive Garden

Gandolfo's

Red Lobster

KFC (secret, disgusting love)

4 - Five places I would rather be right now:

Mexico

Hawaii

Getting a massage

In bed

Shopping

5 - Five TV shows I watch all the time:

Anything on Food Network

The Office

America's Next Top Model
Gray's Anatomy

Anderson Cooper

There you have it. As a follow up to my previous post, I am flying to Las Vegas on Sunday for a couple days to check things out. It looks like this thing is going to happen (unless I just hate it on this visit). It has been moving a little too fast for me and I am a little overwhelmed. I am trying to breathe my way through it though and just take it a step at a time. Does anyone want to live in my apartment during July with Celeste until the lease is up? I will give you a good deal!

Opportunity

I have recently found out that I may have an opportunity to further my career, therefore my resume, therefore a possible better chance of getting into grad school. My work has another call center and they are thinking about putting in a new director to run this call center. I would be in charge of this center and the employees that work there. This would also include a substantial pay raise for me, which in turn could lead to me being able to have that fabulous dinner party I have been talking about. They would also work with me if I got into grad school, which in turn could lead to a foot in the door when I become a therapist.

Sounds great huh? There are only 2 things that are making me stop and think about accepting this position.
The 1st is that it's in Las Vegas. The 2nd is that I would have to be moving within 1-2 months. I have approximately a week to decide what I want to do about this and it is making me sick to my stomach. Anyone who knows me, knows that my guts do not handle things like this well, especially when I have to make such a quick decision. 75% of me wants to go so bad, and the other 25% of me is full of fear. I have always been the type of person that tells others to not be afraid to live life and go where the road takes you, but it is a different story when it comes to myself.

I have been trying to go over the pro's and con's and have come up with a few things. Pro's include great opportunity for me, a GREAT pay raise, a chance to try something new in life, and of course the fact that I will never worry about being cold again (Oh yeah!). Con's include leaving my family (whom I love so much!) and missing out on seeing my precious niece and nephew grow up (which breaks my heart!). Rebuttal to this is that it is really only 5-6 hours away by car, which is really not that far, but I may be putting in a lot more hours as well, which doesn't leave a lot of free time for travel. Cost of living is only a 4% increase and my raise will MORE than make up for that. So I have a really big decision to make and I would appreciate any and all input that you may have. Of course you would all have a place to stay if you were ever to go to Vegas for whatever reason!

New foods

I LOVE the Food Network and anytime I have the T.V. on for background noise, it is on this channel. As I type this, I am listening to Giada make Portabello burgers on Ciabatta bread...Mmmmm! Along with her, my other favorites include Guy, Paula (anyone who cooks with THAT much butter, is worth watching!), Iron Chef America, and anything that has the amateur cooks on it. I have always wanted to find a recipe that would win the grand prize at a cook-off! I love to cook and I have realized lately that I am getting bored with what I am cooking. I tend to cook a lot of the same things for myself, mainly because it is what I can afford. I watch these amazing cooks and I dream of the day that people will come from miles around to taste my gourmet food at my fabulous dinner parties!

I always have the same excuse about why I am not having these dinner parties, that people will talk about for weeks to come, and that is $. The things I want to make are not cheap! I want my dinner parties to be spectacular affairs with awesome tablescapes! So instead of always making excuses, I have decided I am going to pick an ingredient each week or so and cook something with it.

My first ingredient was Mascarpone Cheese. I have always wanted to cook with Mascarpone cheese, but it is typically $7 for 8oz. Giada is always putting this apparently nutty, creamy cheese in everything from desserts to pastas. I decided to go with a dessert and make a Lemon Cheesecake that included the Mascarpone (of course), cream cheese, sour cream, and of course lots of lemon.



Yummmmmeeeeeee! It turned out so delicious! I don't think it had anything to do with the Mascarpone though. I am not sure it is really something that is all that "spectacular".

I tasted it plain and was really not that impressed. I think it was the lemon that made it so good, and I really love lemon! So, I can now say that I have tried it and I don't really have a need to again, especially for the cost of it! I have not decided what my next ingredient will be, but after I make something, I will let you know how it turned out. I am thinking either Mustard greens or Polenta.