Jen

It's a strange condition. . .

I’m back! At work, unfortunately, but back. Holy crap is it cold here! I didn’t miss that for one second.

It’s sad to see my Very Vegas Christmas end. I had plans to blog on Wednesday, but with blogger down, I was not able to post. There is so much to write about!

Christmas in Vegas is an interesting experience. Las Vegas itself is an interesting city. If you expect something about anything, it is completely opposite there. (Yes, vagueness is key with me.) For example, my parents took me to eat at the Cheesecake Factory in Caesar’s Palace Forum Shops, and to my astonishment, the stores were open with normal business hours. Another thing that Mjarc, The Pike and I found out is that you can have open alcohol on the strip. If you want to carry your beer from casino to casino (or in our case, an 18 pack of bud light), so be it.

Let's start on Tuesday: As I had mentioned earlier, I was forced to go to church on the night of Christmas day. I was NOT looking forward to it at all. I have to admit I was slightly curious when I found out that the church is right on the older part strip. It's a bit, well, lit up. Pretty much how I imagined it would look like. Ok, maybe it was a bit more tame. The priest didn't look like Elvis.

Like I said before, I usually find church a huge bore, but the priest was pretty funny.* To be a priest in Vegas though, I expected nothing less than a showman. I just think that it comes with the territory. He asked people to raise their hands if they were visiting Vegas: “Holy Smoker! You decided to come to Vegas for Christmas?"

Then after church, I went shopping. Everything was open, and it gave me a chance to free myself from the parents for a short while. I bought some very tacky items for the rest of ok+3, so you two better like ‘em.

Wednesday, I got some reading done for my big ass research paper that is due with in the coming weeks. I took my pooch for a walk, played on my K.A. color palm pilot that the p’s bought me for Christmas and basically hung around waiting to hear from Mjarc. I was so desperate to hang out with people my own age, it was almost disturbing.

Anyway, it is really pretty unnecessary for me to really go into our night on the strip, especially because Mjarc did it so well. So basically, I want to thank you and the Pike for such great night.**

I got home very late Thursday morning, giving me only 4 hours of sleep before having to get up and go to the airport. It was such a strange morning, because my mom woke me up crying because she shrunk two of my sweaters. Now, I was slightly upset about the sweaters, but even more so, because my mom a) wouldn’t let it go and b) she was just SO upset about it. It made no sense. Then she said it was because I was leaving and such and that she didn’t want me to leave mad at her. It was a sad morning, and yeah, I miss her.

I get to the airport and my flight is delayed by two hours. Mah Jong, I love you. That game is awesome. It was my only savior.

I finally get to my sisters by 8:45 pm. Pat calls me, and because I just can’t say no, I end up at Club Foot.

And that is the end of my Christmas, Vegas style.

*This does not mean I’ll be a regular attendee to church.
**I am so thankful I didn't get stopped for a random bag search at the airport. I'm not quite sure how I would explain the keychain.