Monday, July 20, 2009

The First Half Was Amazing

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

Well, as the title will foretell, the first half of the trip to Vegas was super awesome delicious...while the second half kinda sucked...but it could've been a lot worse. Let's see, where to start?

Friday, I watched some movies. While in Utah, it was "Vertigo" starring Jimmy Stewart & Kim Novak...and I think that I really like Hitchcock movies. It's the story of a detective (Stewart) that's afraid of heights and resigns from the San Francisco police after a traumatic experience. Then an old classmate of his contacts him as a private detective to trail his wife and find out the meaning behind her mysterious behavior. Well, what follows is a tale of murder, intrigue, betrayal, Love, Passion, ghosts, obsession, revenge from beyond the grave and a whole lot of other dark, twisted and awesome stuff...you know, without all the gore and stuff that you see nowadays. I would highly recommend it. Genuinely creepy throughout...and a great nailbiter if you're into that stuff...which I am in this case. Go rent it today.

Later on, I hung out with my dad for a few hours and we watched one of Lilie's favorite movies, "Ratatouille" which I'm sure you all have already been forced to see at least once being within 50 feet of children in the past year. It's a cute little story about a rat who wants to be a great chef...and the busboy who's his little puppet. Just go check it out. It's Disney & you know that you'll love it. Don't even try to deny it. Still say that French food is overrated...but Lilie did promise to make me some ratatouille to prove me wrong. We shall see.

That evening, I finally flew over to Vegas, Bubbles & Harpie picked me up at the airport and we went straight to the Strip to get some jello shots and watch "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" starring Megan Fox and...who the hell cares? Now, when I watched the first one, it surprised me how good it was given the material to work with...and Michael Bay directing (and knew that Megan Fox was going to be HUGE). This one though, pretty much lost me. Now, for an action flick, yeah it has a lot of nice CGI robots kicking some ass and all...but don't even try to comprehend the story because there's so many loopholes and nonsensical character development that it just becomes really cheesy, metaphorical and seems...about 45 minutes too long for some reason. Then again, that may have been the few slow-motion shots of Megan Fox running...which seemed to go on for a while...but I doubt it was 45 minutes. Towards the end, I basically leaned over to Bubbles and said, "Are you sh*tting me?" She agreed...but hey, it was just a little too cheesy for my taste. That's all. I'm sure my brother still thinks it's the greatest movie ever made...but I would strongly disagree. I'd say...not even the best that I watched on Friday. One last thought...

Saturday, Bubbles & I went to a weekend work get-together at one of her boss' cribs (very very nice) and we had a nice selection of food & beverages including pineapple mojitos and mango sangria...and there was Guitar Hero World Tour...so a good time was had. Afterwards, we went to get my present for Bubbles, a wonderful little lamp that meets her needs ten times better than the one she was currently using - adjustable (dimmer), esthetically pleasing, and best of all...free and no assembly required (to/by her). I also got to see Keanna & Barbie...and Keanna was SUPER excited to see me, her Cookie. Because it was Bubbles' birthday, I didn't get to spend a lot of time hanging out with Keanna...but she got me a present...and you'll get to see it later.

That night, we went to Fremont Street and some of the bars in that area. First up with Hogs & Heffers, which is basically like a biker bar...with with girls in leather bikinis dancing on the bar ala Coyote Ugly...and it was a lot of fun (but the drinks were HELLA expensive). After that, we went to the Griffin, which was a little more low key (even darker than the biker bar but more contemporary per se) and we had a few drinks there too (I cut myself off early being the designated driver). Then we went to PT's and had a good time there until about 3 AM then headed for home. I had made sure that nobody drank TOO much to not enjoy their Sunday...but apparently there were other plans in store.

So, long story trying to be shorter, about 4 AM, Bubbles is complaining about her stomach hurting...but not the usual drunk stuff...and basically for the next ten hours or so, she isn't doing good. Trying to go to sleep but having to get up every thirty minutes or so to pray to the porcelain god...and of course, I'm playing the role of nurse making sure that she has a wet washcloth, ice water and the fan blowing when she's feeling too hot...or covering her in blankets when she's cold...and trying to make her feel better...but obviously after a while it was just beyond my control...so then we went to the ER. Now, for those of you who don't know, the hospital is just about my least favorite place in the world. Not a lot of good memories (other than going to see Vinny for the first time) and it just wears on me. There's a reason that I wasn't a doctor...and it wasn't the memorization of body parts & functions. It was everything else.

How does it wear on me? Well, picture that you've been up for about 30 hours straight at this point...and the last ten or so watching somebody that you care about in horrible pain and there's really nothing that you can do for her...and you feel like it's your fault because you were the one who enabled her to drink...even if you were keeping an eye on her...and of course, the ER is full of similar stories. Whether it's the guy who passed out from dehydration in the 120 degree weather (later found to have certain herbs in his bloodstream) or an elderly man from the VA who hit his head and has no idea where he is or what's going on and has to be restrained because he keeps hitting himself on the bump on his head...and keeps crying out, "Please help me! Please help me! Where am I?" and no matter how many times you answer him or try to keep him focused, it continues...for hours. Meanwhile, I'm there trying to keep an upbeat attitude and making sure that my friend knows that I'm there for her...and everything's going to be okay...and try to put her at ease with some human contact, a gentle brush here, a reassuring word there, yet trying not to be funny because laughing makes everything hurt incredibly. Then they do the blood work, ultrasounds, cat scans, everything trying to find out what her ailment is. It just wasn't the greatest place to be for anybody...but I had to be strong and hope that it helped her somehow in the pain that she was in...and I did it. I held out. What really helped was that I could gradually see the color going back into her cheeks and I even caught a glance of a smile here and there when I rubbed her back...so it was all worth it. Besides, the only reason that I mention how I feel...is because it's my blog. In the grand scheme, it doesn't matter how I feel...because it's all about her feeling better. Enough of my ranting on that...

Well, after about five hours, they found out what they think was wrong and gave her some prescriptions to help with the pain and nausea...and she's doing much better. Obviously, we spent the night at home watching "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" marathons after that...so no wild sendoff for $teve or anything...but that's historically how it works out anyway. No bother. I was exhausted anyway. However, through the night I was still a little worried, especially when I would start to doze off and then hear a cough down the hall and would rush to see if she was okay. Basically, to put me at ease, I slept at the foot of her bed right next to her dog Brutus. How sad is that? Anyway, it helped put both of us at ease...and though it wasn't the greatest slumber of my life, I caught a few resting moments here and there.

This morning, we woke up around 7:15 and headed for the airport...but didn't get there until 7:55 AM. No bother, my plane doesn't leave for 45 minutes....so it should be fine...or so I thought. "Sir, did you know that your flight leaves in about 15 minutes?" "What? I thought it was 8:40." "Nope, it's 8:20. If you think you can make it in that time though, I'll put a rush on this bag." "How's security?" Shrugs shoulders, "Are you a good runner?" "Like O.J. in those Hertz commercials as long as Homeland doesn't tackle me." "You should be fine then." Then what followed was about everything that could go wrong in such a scenario. Families blocking entire hallways, moving walkway construction, old people dropping pockets of change in the security line, no trays to put my pocket stuff in...or my shoes that are painful to take off (by the way, I pulled a muscle in my lower back Saturday night while helping an inebriated woman and not bending at the knees) and just about everything else...but I was jogging like a champ (a stinky champ...but a champ nonetheless) and made it just in time for them to let me on the plane. As luck would have it...the only seat left on the full flight...was on the front row with plenty of leg room. How's that for Karma giving me a high five?

Then I flew home, took a shower, and basically started typing out this thing. Now I'm probably going to go take a nap or something, since you're all caught up. Also, please say a little prayer for Bubbles and Barbie, who was sick this morning when we were leaving...so it very well may have not been the drinking at all that led to the ER visit...as originally suspected. Maybe I was a good watchdog. Who knows? So yeah, please send them well wishes in your thoughts...and send out a few to all the people that you care about too. They deserve it. Have a great day everybody!!!

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