Las Vegas – Part 1

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

Well, I have finally got my act together enough to do a post about Vegas! Woot!

We flew out of Bellingham because, well, America is cheaper. The In-Laws do it all the time and it worked out quite nicely. Even though we were leaving on a long weekend we gave ourselves enough time to get to the airport and everything after that was a breeze. I would highly recommend flying out of Bellingham. The airport is so cute and cozy!

Elise is beyond addicted.

We stayed at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Resort. The rooms were huge, the vibe was great, and I would go back there in an instant.

We decided to check out PBR which was a Southern BBQ style place in our hotel. We read an article about it in the plane. Elise got the rack o ribs with a side of spaghetti o’s.

When I saw it on the menu I knew I had to do it. A bucket of Chicken and Waffles!

We wondered around the strip a bit after dinner, wondering in and out of hotels. We finally settled on Ballys, not really sure why, but they had cheap drinks and there were a bunch of Marines hanging out so we stopped to gamble for a bit. Unfortunately after our days adventures I was beat by 10pm and literally falling asleep in my chair. Sadly, Elise and I were in bed by 11 leaving the boys to fine their own adventure, which didn’t end up being too hard.

There were a ton of people getting married on Friday, seeing as how it was 11/11/11. Apparently some of the hotels were having special deals on weddings. I think we saw 12 brides in the matter of 2 hours. So naturally, when you see two good looking men walking around together, both wearing wedding bands, both with out significant others, you assume they are a gay couple who just go married, right? Well that is what 4 separate groups of people asked Chad and Ryan. Friggin priceless.

This was the view from our room. Paris was right next door, with the Bellagio and Caesars in the background. We could actually watch the water show at the Bellagio from our room at night. Pretty damn cool!

We had lunch at the most amazing sandwich shop – The Earl of Sandwich – which was also in our hotel. I got the Caprese sandwich. Nom nom nom!

After lunch we started to walk. The first hotel we visited was the MGM Grand. We kind of got lost and spent way to long wondering around inside of it.

These lazy guys didn’t move at all.

This is what you get when I take your picture.

This is what you get when Ryan does.

Vegas was packed that weekend all because of this.

One of the things I mentioned I wanted to do was to check out the shark reef at the Mandalay Bay. It was definitely a great experience!

New York New York

Elise was going to come with me on the roller coaster because the boys were panseys, then as we were at the counter to buy our tickets she backed out. LAME. I went by myself because, well, I had my heart set on it and I wasn’t about to back down from it just because I was going by myself. The G forces from the dips and upside down bit made me head feel like it was going to explode.

Saturday night was insane. We all had a hankering for steak but every place we went to was full. I don’t know why we never thought about making reservations. Finally after walking forever we ended up at Ballys (again). They had room for us at their Steak House except because we didn’t have a rewards card we couldn’t sit in the classy part of the restaurant. Umm..what the hell? The food was really good though. I ate so much I thought I was going to explode but it was so so good. The steak and all the fixing were excellent.

I didn’t want to spend another night at Ballys so we walked around a bit and had drinks at Caesars. All the classy bars were packed so we sat in what felt like a food court and people watched. We saw Jose Canseco for the 2nd time. This time he had a blond on his arm. After the food court experience we walked back to our hotel and had drinks at the Heart Bar. Again, I only lasted till about 12am before falling asleep in my chair. Even with all the visual stimulation that Vegas has to offer, there wasn’t enough to keep me away.

Chad and Ryan stayed up and had more adventures which we all heard about the next morning. This time it wasn’t as crazy as the first.

Part 2 to come tomorrow!

Missing: One Persons Sanity

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

I’m freaking out over the fact that I can’t find my yoga mat. I don’t lose things. I always know where all of my belongs are at any given moment so that fact that I have no idea where my yoga mat went is driving me crazy. It’s not the basement. It’s not in my room. It’s not in my car. Which means it could be in the storage locker, someone else’s car, or gone forever, none of which are acceptable answers because my yoga mat was in the pile of boxes that was to be transported to my Moms so that fact that it apparently wasn’t is making me INSANE.

AHHHH.

Shit is still everywhere and the second I think of something I need and I can’t remember where I packed it I start to panic, which is silly because everything is in one of two places, the basement or the storage locker. I made Chad double check the apartment again because I was that paranoid that I had forgotten something. Though, do you think that if I actually had and the new owners had found it they would have contacted our realtor to let us know? Who knows. Anyways, the apartment is empty and I should stop being a psychopath.

I’m not functioning well with all these boxes, and although I keep thinking I have so much time to sort through and organize them each night, the fact of the mater is that is FALSE and I end up hanging 3 pieces of clothing before Chad comes to the room and wants to go to bed and then all my work needs to stop.

Also, a double bed is not that comfortable when two people are crammed into it. But it’s OK, I’m not complaining.

I just really need to find my yoga mat.

Oh, good news is that I was able to get my moms camera out from the storage locker. I had asked that the two filing cabinets by Chad and my desks not be put into storage but I guess there was a miscommunication because one of them was and even though I watched it being placed in the storage locker I didn’t clue in to the fact that it wasn’t supposed to be there. That was until I got home and realized that Mom and Dad leave for Mexico on Saturday and their camera was in that filing cabinet. Shit. It was at the very back of the locker but I was pretty sure I could get to it. I’m small and can pretty much do anything so I knew I could do this. Chad was mister skeptical. Has he not learned that I am amazing yet? He moved one piece of furniture and I was able to climb and weasel my way to the back, single handily move a bunch of stuff and then got the camera and other electronics that we needed. I don’t know why people ever doubt me.

I don’t really want to go to yoga with out my yoga mat tonight but I don’t think I have a joyce.

Death from Above

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

Last night I fulfilled something I never thought I would be able to. I finally got to see Death from Above 1979 LIVE.

I think it was my brother who introduced me to the band back in University and I was hooked on their dance punk noise rock instantaneously. Every song on You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine was amazing, with my favorite being Black History Month. Actually, I think that is probably everyones favorite song.

It was at the height of my music obsession when I discovered them and I was so in love with these two elephant nosed guys that I even went out and bought their album on Vinyl, just because, which was something I forgot I had done until I moved back into my old room this weekend and found it. How poignant.

When these guys broke up, I thought my dream of seeing them live was over, that was, until little Miss Music, Alicia, messaged me that they were ending their 2011 Reunion Tour in Vancouver and wanted to know if I wanted to go. Um HELLS YES.

When my Mom asked what concert I was going to last night and I said Death from Above, she asked ‘Is that those guys with elephant noses?’, yes Mom, exactly. See, even she’s with it.

The concert was so high energy, so loud, so amazing. I told Chad that is was kind of like what I imagine a Slayer concert would be like, but with punk rock dance music and less metal heads.

I fulfilled my tradition of buying a T-shirt from every concert I’ve ever been to (aside from the Backstreet Boys and Celine Dion because I was a child then, and would never be caught dead wearing those T-shirts). Knowing my luck, I was a little worried about what sizes would be left, since they usually sell out of the small sizes first. Well last night all they had left was XS and XL. Score for me!

It was such an amazing experience, I am so glad I went despite how tired I was from our insane weekend. It was well worth it.

I would have taken pictures but my little camera is stuck in a set of drawers squished in the back of the storage locker (that in itself is another story). To see pictures check out Rick Chungs review here.

Thank you, Alicia and Adam, for inviting me to a night I will never forget!

Moving On Up

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

There was no one to sit in Chads chair in the back of the moving van this year. But it worked out well because there was way more stuff to move out of the apartment then there was into the apartment so Pat wouldn’t have fit anyways.

It’s all over. The move was a success thanks to team awesome. Dario and Ryan are such good planners; they packed the moving van and storage locker like professionals. I don’t even know how they got everything to fit. Gina and Elise were also excellent help holding elevator doors and moving boxes.

It took longer than I had anticipated, but then moving always does. We had two loads to drop off, one to my Moms and one to the storage locker. We were finished by about 4, which wasn’t too bad. You can tell we had out grown the space based on how much stuff we had crammed into every knock and cranny. And to think, a lot of stuff was already in my Uncles basement, plus Chad had already moved 3 or 4 small loads of boxes over the past 2 weeks. We wouldn’t have fit everything had we not started moving things early.

Sunday morning Chad and I went back to move all the stuff from the deck, empty the fridge, and clean everything up. That again took longer expected.

My parent’s basement looks like it’s exploded with all our stuff. I was able to go through a few boxes last night and put away half of our clothes, but there is still so much to do. I forgot how much of my stuff was left in my bedroom and the basement when I moved out, and I know that Mom is going to expect me to take it all when we find a house, so I think my plan of action is to start going through it this weekend, when I’m home alone, and just start chucking it all. Most of it is inside joke stuff from high school which I no longer remember and therefore is useless to me. I’m sure I will keep some stuff, but my goal is to fit it all in one box.

All the payments go through today and the keys get handed over on Wednesday. Chad is going to make one more trip tonight to the BBQ and Drums, which we totally forgot about, other then that, we are officially out of there.

I don’t know how I feel about the whole situation. I don’t know if I miss the apartment itself or just the idea of Chadand I having a space that was ours. I guess on one hand, that apartment always felt like a project to me, a transitional home that we renovated to appeal to the masses. But at the same time, it was the only place I had ever lived outside of my parent’s home, and it was also the first place I ever lived with Chad. I guess the goal is to look forward where Chad and I get to find our first home together.

So it’s done. The little apartment that could is no longer ours. The photos and memories we will always have. I will miss it, but bigger and better things are on the horizon.

No Rest for the Wicked

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

You know you are stressed when you keep waking up in the middle of the night sweating.

The problem with slowly packing over the course of a month is that you are constantly living in boxes. There are things everything, half packed, taking up more room then if they were just put away. It makes it feel like you have been packing FOREVER.

It’s one thing to pack an entire apartment, move into your new house and then unpack it all. It’s another thing to partially pack everything, trying to think about what you might need over the next few months, what you should leave out, what you should put away. We have boxes in 3 different locations in 3 different cities. At this point I don’t even remember whats in my Uncle basement.

As much as I have tried to keep it organize, this is the most unorganized pack job of my life. Ever week I pack things I no longer need, so instead of kitchen stuff being with the kitchen stuff, and bedroom stuff with the bedroom stuff, it’s kind of all over the place. Not to mention the giant pile of clothes on the floor from Vegas. I am feeling beyond over whelmed.

In terms of finding a place we like, we have found 2 homes in two very different neighbourhoods that we loved, but of course, in the process of contacting the Realtor to book a viewing, the houses recieved accepted offers on them and our showings were canceled. Both houses, right before we got to see them. Ugh. Not to mention the fact that we have been extremely busy and have had to re-work our schedules just to make time to see these places only to not see them at all. I guess with the stress of everything else, I’m just getting frustrated very easily.

Vegas was good though. The perfect escape. I’m trying to convince Chad to book another trip sometime next year. We kind of blew our budget out of the water, but as far as I’m concerned, we deserved it. We needed the break, we needed the fun.

Hopefully after this weekend things will start to settle down. Work for Chad won’t be so insane, and we won’t have to worry about packing and moving any more. Until them I am going to lose my mind.