Vegas Trip - Day 3

By day 3 our feet were killing us... Chris's knees were about to explode. We've seen everything we wanted to see, spent all the money we wanted to spend, drank all the alcohol our bodies can handle. lol.

Today we had breakfast with some friends who went to Vagas for 'the wedding' at the MGM Grand. They had a cool lion cage there where you can walk through when the exhibit is open. Then we walked down to the M&M world just down the street.

I was actually disappointed in the place, I really thought it would be a 'WORLD' of M&M's... I guess I expected more of an amusement park type of attraction there rather than just a store full of gadgets and random candies. We bought a few things for the kids while we were in the store though.

After that we walked down to the Hawaiian Marketplace and bought a few things. It's an outdoor vending floor where you can set up a kiosk and sell whatever. Most tourists are willing to pay $25 for a t-shirt you'll only wear to sleep. So this is where you'd provide the city of Las Vegas with their stash of cash. As I walked around to see what I can buy at this market, Chris found a walk-up bar where he bought a 50 oz hurricane of Pina Colata. Well I don't know if it was 50 oz but it sure looked like it!

And after that... things were just a bit of a blur really. lol. We went down to the Venetian and walked around the shops. Really wanted to do the gondela ride, but the line was like Disneyland long so we decided against it. Although it would probably be really romantic... but with all those people just looking at us riding in a plastic boat down a manmade river inside a casino under a fake sky... is kinda weird.

Vegas - Pros and Cons

The pros are obvious so I guess I'm just listing the cons...

1) There are panhandlers everywhere. I guess that's just a given in any big city. It just hits a little harder there since a lot of people come to Vegas with hopes of winning big or making it in the entertainment business.

2) One of those panhandlers was a young girl with a stroller and baby sleeping inside. This was like 11pm and she was out on the bridge asking for change. That image of the girl with her baby burned in my head and hit me right in the gut since at one point in my life I thought I'd be in her shoes when Reese was about 3-4 months old.

ok... pause... where's the kleenex

ok.... where was I

3) Those damn card snappers!! Those guys standing at every corner and every 10 feet as you're walking down the strip. I think they're snapping stripper cards at you to try to get you to take them. Chris wanted to take his room key and snap them in the face! lol.

4) I really missed the kids.

Vegas Trip - Day 2

Ok... let's see if I can remember it all. We did have a couple of those hurricane drinks walking down the strip going through different hotels. lol.

So after we got back from Hoover Dam, our bus took us all over town dropping off people at their respective hotels. But since we're staying at the end of the strip, we're the last to be dropped off. We got tired of going round and round with the bus and decided to get off at Ceasar's Palace.

We found Bobby Flay's restaurant the Mesa Grill inside Ceasars and ate there. There was a dress code but the food was reasonably priced. The restaurant itself wasn't as big and fancy as I thought it might have been. The food was excellent to say the least... very Bobby Flay style.

Of course we walked around the forum shops after we ate. Chris wanted to find where the poker rooms were at every hotel we stop at so we did that too. I couldn't resist granting him that little wish. After all, he didn't plan on playing at all while we're in Vegas. We really wanted to spend every minute together. He's such a good hubby.

After Ceasar's everything just kinda blended together. We walked into the Bellagio and took time walking around inside the hotel. Chris mentioned last week that he wanted to show me the glass ceiling in the hotel. I was thinking, how great can it be? It's just glass, right? When I saw it, I was blown away.

This piece of art work is called "Fiori de Como". These 2,000 blown glass flowers were individually hand made by Dale Chihuly. World famous glass sculptor who has his work displayed all over museums, schools, hotels, and exhibits everywhere. I am especially impressed by this because I love multi-colored art work like this. My bridal bouquet was made from individual seed beads of all different colors. This in a small scale would have been a perfect representation of our wedding.

We also visited the Bellagio's Conservatory Gardens. A small area inside the hotel where they have exhibits of the season's florals. It is absolutely brilliant and breathtaking. Right now the display is called "Spring Celebration"

From the Bellagio Conservatory website: To ensure the Conservatory & Botanical Gardens maintain magnificence 365 days a year, 140 expert horticulturists theatrically arrange gazebos, bridges, ponds, and water features uniquely for each season.


These adorable lady bug and snail are made from all roses and other botanicals.

These glass flowers are see throughout the garden. They are enormous, probably 6 to 8 feet diameter each.

After that Chris and I just made our way down the strip towards our hotel. We stop at random places to see shops and picked up souvenirs. Mostly checking out poker rooms though. If he can't play, he can at least enjoy the sound of people playing with their chips at the table. lol.

For dinner that night we walked into the Luxor to check it out. We didn't really find anything too spectacular there. Parts of the hotel was under construction so it wasn't really appealing to us to stay there. The inside infrastructure of the hotel I had never seen so I at least wanted to check that out.

Here are some random photos from our hotel and the walk down the strip. There were a ton of people with babies ... never a good idea to bring kids to Las Vegas. To us, it's an adult playground and where parents go to take some time off from home life. Having kids in Vegas is really hard to find things to do. Where can they go, really?

Vegas Trip - Hoover Dam

Chris and I made our way to Las Vegas this weekend and had a great time. Although we weren't part of the wedding of the century anymore - we still went anyway. It was a well needed trip for both of us and we cherished every moment we had together. This trip was even more special due to the fact that we live in different states right now.

So.... where do I start... at the beginning I guess.....

We met at the Las Vegas airport. Chris came from Phoenix and I came from SFO. It was like a little deja vu for us. Like a blind date or something... "Meet me at baggage claim carrosel #14"

We stayed at the Excalibur Hotel on the south end of the strip. We could see the Luxor and the New York New York from our room window on the 19th floor. Of course... the room was an upgrade from our 16th floor room that we never got into since the key wouldn't work... 3 times. We finally asked for a different room and they accommodated. The room was in the recently renovated part of the hotel. It came with a 42" flat panel tv, marble bathroom counter top, sleek chrome knobs, faux suade bedspread & headboard, walk-in shower (although showerhead was still crappy an low pressure) all and all it was a nice room.

Our room was on the 19th floor and at the end of the hall way, so it took 20 minutes to get down to the casino no matter what.

Ok so we got in really late Thursday night and by the time we checked in and got settled it was already 10pm. We didn't want to waste any time so we took off to have somewhat of a dinner. We just walked across the street to the NY and ate at first restaurant that looked decent. Some random Italian place on the bottom floor of the hotel. The server was obviously at the end of his shift plus the fact that he's probably been waiting tables all his life made him a little quick with us. He literally dropped our calamari on the table and started walking away before we blinked.

While we sat and ate our dinner it hit me ... I'm tired as hell. Chris wanted to go check out other things, but I really wanted to hit the hay. We had to get up to take the tour to Hoover in the morning anyway.

Friday morning we woke up really early... too damn early for being on vacation! 6:45am to be in the lobby for the tour bus to pick us up by 7:45.

So Hoover Dam is only about a half hour away from the strip, makes for a nice short bus ride.

We took the half day tour as supposed to their 8 hour tour with the visit to the chocolate factory since we only had a couple of days in Vegas, we didn't want to spend a whole day away from the strip, which was where we really wanted to be.

We paid $3 more to take the tour down to see the Hydroelectric generators inside the dam itself. It was very cool to see something that was built in the 1930's worked 365 days a year all this time. I appreciated it and was more impressed with it since my area of work relates to the inner workings of this structure. The generators for this dam is 700 times the size of anything we work on. What's even more amazing is that the 7 of 8 working units are super quiet. We walked into the chambers and you can hear the tour guide speak to the group without using an amplified system.

Then we went down one more floor to experience the tunnel and the diversion pipelines which takes the water from the lake through the generators and then out the other side to the river. You can feel the water thundering through the pipe as you stand there listening to the tour guide. It's also very cold under there... they said it was probably 500 feet down from the top of the dam or where the road was. Walking along the tunnel you can see water damage and where the leaks were. Pretty scary since all you can think of is having all that water in the lake come bursting through the walls while we're in the tunnel.

After the tour down stairs we went up to walk along the top of the dam. There are a bunch of monuments and things to see for historical values. It's an amazing engineering marvel to build such a massive structure for its time.

In the movie "Fools Rush In" there was a line on the road separating the state of Nevada and Arizona but apparently when we got there, it wasn't there! Although there was a plaque that designated the split so ... good enough for me! Chris and I walked into the state of Arizona and then we turned around. Now I can say that I was in AZ for 5 minutes!

This is Chris standing on the top of the dam facing Lake Mead. Look at that water line... it's receded over the past 10 years or so. A disturbing pattern with all reservoirs and dams around here really.

We found someone nice to take a picture of us on the top of the dam. Proof that I was actually there too!!

This picture was taken from the top of the dam on the other side of the street. Standing on the ledge looking down was quite scary, good thing we didn't have vertigo!

Bailey Talk

Enjoy! Turn up the sound, the end is the best part!

Paper Dolls

I remember being 9 or 10 years old and by myself with my parents. Bored to tears because we lived in Thailand where we had no TV during the day time (local channels come on at 4pm and there's no such thing as cable, only satellite TV and we didn't have that at our house). During the time off from school, I guess that would be 'summer' here, I would sit at home and draw, paint, sew, by myself.

One of my favorite things to do during those years was making paper dolls and creating paper clothes for them. I guess that's where I got the idea that I wanted to design clothes for a living at such a young age. I would read my mom's fashion magazines and mimic the clothes the models would wear and make them my own styles. My paper dolls were one dementional and that just wasn't as fun. So I asked my mom if she would teach me how to sew, she kept telling me yes she will but she never did. My aunt, mom's sister, who was only 10 years older than me offered to teach me how to hand stitch since that's all she knew how to do. I made tiny little clothes for my handmade doll that looked exactly like me.... long black hair.. pale skin (compared to all the Thai kids I went to school with). I made her clothes that I wanted to wear when I grew up.

My mom never really paid attention to what I was doing except that I made a mess in my room. I was so proud of my work, every piece or creation I made I showed my dad. He was proud of me too. Although I don't know if my dad could relate to my ideas, but he went with it. He even bought me a basket to put all my stuff into so I don't have it all over my room and he wouldn't have to listen to her complain about my messyness.

One day I came home from a neighbor's house to discover that my basket was gone. My mom and my aunt decided to give it away. I cried for days probably even weeks. Heck, it still hurts when I think about it. My dad was so mad at my mom and her sister for doing that. Although to this day I still don't believe that they 'gave it away'. More like threw it away.

I never looked at my mom or my aunt the same again. I don't know what their intensions were or what they were trying to do... was it a joke? Was it to let me know they didn't like my room messy? Was it jealousy?

My dad told me to just start over and he'll get me another doll to make clothes for. I told him no because I don't want the same thing to happen again. Eventhough he said it wouldn't, he's not home with me all day to deal with the daily things that go on in the house with my mom and her crazy family. My dad speaks English... my mom and I are the only 2 people in the house who can communicate with him... even my mom had a hard time.

Needless to say, my mom and I don't really have a good relationship. We have a relationship, but one that's not really a close mother-daughter bond. Never have and it's too late now.

I made a promise to myself that my daughter and I will have the relationship that my mom and I didn't have. I want her to actually come to me when she needs me. I couldn't do that with my mom, she would instantly deny my needs or judge me. I learned from it, I grew from it, I don't dwell on it. I think my mom is suffering the loss of times with me now.

So... when I was at Barnes & Noble yesterday and saw a magazine dedicated to paperdolls next to the scrapbooking section of the newstand. All of the above was what ran through my head and I felt the need to write it down.

Bridezilla

READ FROM THE BOTTOM.

For those of you who already know the saga. I'm sure this is nothing new. I just want to have a record of what was said and how I am feeling right now about the whole thing. This isn't the first incident of her selfishness. This is just what put me over the edge.

The straw? ... was when she told me not to use my kids as an excuse. That's it, she's cut off. Never again will I ever be friends with someone so self absorbed.

I was so blind. And now I see.
____________________________


Fine - my address 2464 S Bascom Avenue #4 Campbell, CA 95008
On Fri, Apr 4, 2008 at 11:06 AM, Kanika Clavejo <kglend@yahoo.com> wrote:
Lisa,

I knew you would flip out like this. So here's where I am. I didn't 'lie' to you like you're accusing me of doing. At the time I told you I would take care of it, I thought that I could. I have always been able to do things like this simultaneously. Now, not so much.

My kids are everything to me, when you have your own, you will understand how difficult life gets.

Yes, I know my wedding was a big deal to me, But I did not put pressure on you as you are (were) to me.

I can't deal with you anymore so we'll just cut it off right here. I will send you your half of the dress $. Have fun at your wedding and life in general.
- Kanika

P.S. Please stop trash talking me to our mutual friends, it does come back to me and Chris.
----- Original Message ----From: Lisa Dryden <renegadepeach@gmail.com>
To: Kanika Clavejo <kglend@yahoo.com>Sent: Friday, April 4, 2008 9:21:38 AMSubject: Re: Girls night?
I know you're having issues. If you remember when YOU got married everything everywhere was about your wedding!

The main thing about having some sort of bachelorette thing is that you kept on saying that you've got it going which was a total lie. If you would have just told me that you couldn't or haven't done anything it would have been totally cool!! Don't worry about it Lolita is already working on the evite. We figured it all out yesterday when she was shocked that nothing was being done.

Stop using your kids as an excuse. I understand that its hard. Thats why whenever I've asked for help with something I've tried to let you pick the time and I've been more than flexible. I even paid for 1/2 your dress. . . the shower was $150 with the cheese, the wine, the fondue, the chocolate fondue. Usually brides don't pay for the shower at all. I was being nice and understanding and trying to help out but then I realized that we were paying for about 80% of the whole thing and it would have been better to just save the money and buy what we needed instead of feeding the whole crew.

I just wish you would have been more up front. You knew back in January when we talked that this was a chance of happening. I wish then you would have just said that you couldn't do everything that a normal bridesmaid would. I would have been ok with it. Instead I end up feeling guilty all of the time for even talking about my wedding. Damn right I'm going to focus on me and my wedding. Every single bride does. Including you!!! It's a good thing. All brides are supposed to!

I feel bad that you're having to deal with Chris being away. I've told you that all of the time so I don't know why you say I'm not sympathetic. If the wedding really is too much of a big deal then feel free to use that weekend for you and Chris as well. I really don't want to put you out. I mean have you even picked up your dress yet? You realize its in 3 weeks right?

I'm just tired of trying to go out of my way to be understanding and nice and then accused of not being so.
On Fri, Apr 4, 2008 at 12:07 AM, Kanika Clavejo <kglend@yahoo.com> wrote:
Lisa,

I know that I told you a while ago that I would plan something for your bachelorette. Unfortunately, since then, my life has taken a sharp left turn. You are aware of this, yet you do not choose to acknowledge or empathize with my situation. I don't expect you to understand what it's like to be a single mom of two kids with two different schedules and my husband not being here to help.

Right now, my focus is on our family's new direction in life - literally. In a couple of months' time our family will be on the move to Arizona. Again, you know this. I am personally having a hard time with this. I can't explain to you exactly how, but it's taken everything that I have inside of me to accept that we're leaving my 'home'. Chris and I have had fights about it. Never have I talked to anyone about our personal battles because it's not anyone's concerns but ours. We chose to do this, so we are suffering the brief depression of not being together.

Needless to say, you feel like I don't care about you and your wedding anymore. That's not the case. I feel like I've reached my limit in life at the moment. Everything that wasn't a big deal before.... now it is to me. I have been redirecting my focus to me and my kids 100% when it used to be that I could do 10 things at once.

I talked to Chris about this already and I was in tears. Not sure why, but right now, obviously I can't handle any pressure... big or small. Chris can't be here to comfort me on a whim... that in itself... overwhelms.

Again, I don't expect you to understand how I feel at this moment. I don't expect anyone to. But I need you to do me a favor ... stop and think about something other than yourself and your wedding every once in a while. You will see what's going on around you. For example, one - read the paragraphs above again. And two - money isn't everything. If you stress less about money and how much of it you don't have and that you actually need, you might see a brighter side of life.

By the way, I know you spent $100 on the food for your shower. I am going to take the high road and not say how much time and money I spent on your shower.. but it was well over $100. No one knows this, because I have not once complained about it. This might come as a shock, but money is tight for us as well. Complaining about it isn't going to make it grow on trees.

I know that something is being planned for your bachelorette. My weekends are being spent with my husband now. So have fun and I will see you in Vegas. - Kanika
----- Original Message ----From: Lisa Dryden <renegadepeach@gmail.com>To: Lolita Tabatura <ltabujara@hotmail.com>; Kanika Clavejo <kglend@yahoo.com>Sent: Wednesday, April 2, 2008 5:39:18 PMSubject: Girls night?
Hey,

So I guess I thought that someone was planning something for a bachelorette night or something right? I haven't been told a date at all . . . my calendar is getting crazy full. Should I just assume that we're not doing a girls night out anymore since its 4/2 already and nothing has been planned?

I only have a couple of free days at all between now and the wedding so I guess its probably best anyways right? :(