The Emotional Vampire - Part 2

In the last installment, my inexperience in how to cut the proverbial cord really served as a disservice to myself.  The signs were all there and my resolve had been momentarily strong - I shelled out like $300 bucks for an impromptu one way ticket home!  POW!

Alas!  The naiveté of youth invariably diminishes the warnings of danger and turns us into warriors with a cause.  Challenges to our egos must be met with fervent rebuttals!  Affronts to our sensibilities must be countered with courageous admissions of equal and opposite effrontery!  Hear me roar!!!!

I foolhardily dove headlong into the back-and-forth rally of explanations and examples to quantify and justify the multitude of negative and confusing feelings I had at that time.  Back then, it was important... no... NECESSARY to "be right."  I had to substantiate how ridiculous, absurd, and offensive the EV was being.  I had to prooooove that the EV was selfish, rude, and obnoxious.

In hindsight, it's because I wanted to make sure the EV and everyone else who heard the second-hand story would know the problem wasn't me.  Why?  Most of us care so much about how we are perceived by others that we go to great lengths to preserve our social image.  We don't want to be seen as people who just arbitrarily quit friendships without a litany of adequate reasons.  (Hellooooo, we're not MEAN, duh!)  We beat around the bush and load up on long lists of every little thing wrong with the other person ever and why they are unbearable to be around - just so we could never be thought of as a mean person, an unreasonable person, a bitch.

Sometimes... most times, actually... it is sufficient to simply admit it sucks being around a certain someone.  It doesn't feel good.  It's actively unpleasant.  The presence of this other person is not enjoyable.  Whether it's a relationship, friendship, or acquaintanceship - it's OK to just simply say to yourself: "It's not me. It's them."

Unfortunately, that was one lengthy life lesson that took quite a few years to learn.  Not just with this one Emotional Vampire but with the huge cast of equally as menacing characters who paraded through the past decade of my life.  The temptation to explain and retort was always irresistible.  The urge to "be right" was always just too strong.  *sigh*

It's understandable... annoying... but understandable.  I forgive you, younger me.

PART TWO

That same year I experienced a big milestone - engagement.  I waited and held off breaking the news until it could not
be avoided anymore... only because I knew the EV expected a position in my wedding, as was repeated to me over and over again "you better thank you in your wedding speech."  The regret that I felt then would only be augmented by time.  The following years saw many changes in the course of my life... and the EV's presence is permanently inserted into all those moments - the way you're reminded of a pebble's presence with each step that you take.  Clearly ingrained in all of those memories are the vivid images of the forced, sad smiles lurking within the celebrations of my successes.  The feeble smile of someone who outwardly professed to be happy for you, but inwardly was calculating the disappointments of their own life.

Outside of the wedding machine, each conversation became more painful to participate in.  There came a distinct moment when I arrived at the realization that the EV only wanted to hear about the bad/negative/unhappy things.  Drama was like food.  Distress and lamentation were the slippery cocktails that eased the bolus down the insidious passage.

As my wedding date approached, I decided to make a last ditch effort to give this thing a final whirl.  I laid out the fact that our interactions were limited to meeting for dinner and listening to endless recapping of ALL of the gossip concerning ALL of the other people in the EV's life.  Even stuff that was in nooooo way related to annnnnnything or annnnnnnnyone!  We were not building a meaningful connection based on any kind of new experiences, mutual hobbies, or even any common ground.  It was getting so hard to pretend to be interested in blah blah blah's crazy relationship or so and so's weight issues or etc. etc. etc.'s offenses.  Throughout these drab meals where I would tune out and tune back in with innocuous generic responses and nodding - I had a running dialogue inside my head that sounded something like: I DON'T CARE!!!!!!

And I was getting so sick of the EV asking me questions about my wedding for the sake of gathering vital information for some future, not-yet-existent wedding.  And the eager gleam in those greedy eyes as the endless probing into problems continued for hours on end - to taste all the delicious morsels of each pitiful detail of things gone wrong... The EV actually smiles unconsciously as utterances of "that's so crazy!" or "I can't believe it!" or whatever else that sounds sympathetic, escape with delight.

Anyway, we went on a trip and it fell completely apart.  Not only was the EV truly a bore to be with, it was quite apparent that we no longer had anything in common.  And worse, an already deficient personality had deteriorated even further by this time, warped by the bitterness of time, disappointment, and stagnation.  It was grotesque beyond reconciliation.  It was awful.  Still worse, things came to a blow and if we had not arrived in one car and it was impossible for me to remove myself from the situation - I would've left.  In the same evening, I was frustrated and angered beyond the point of no return and unleashed my fury... albeit the message was unclear because I could not say: "I wish I could time travel and remove you from my life before I ever met you."  Once again, as my therapist has told me, I wussed out.


Since it was too late to do anything else, I bore through the awkwardly conflicting feelings of keeping the EV in my wedding and continued.  The EV was unreliable - constantly making suggestions with no follow through.  The big moment was no longer mine to savor. The EV's own agenda was projected onto my big day.  Strong attempts were made to manipulate the entire schedule around the EV's weight loss in the months before and even on the morning of for a special hair appointment.  When I put my foot down and advised that if a hair dye job, cut, dry, and up-do styling cannot be accomplished by 10am sharp, then alternative arrangements will have to be made to ensure a timely arrival.

She. Blew. Up.
Nuclear style.
Emotional Vampire style.

ANGER - How dare I lay this on her after she made plans!  NARCISSISM - She must have the freshest dyed hair possible for zero possibilities of any gray hairs to make their way into the wedding photos!  GUILT - She's already done so much and took pains to accommodate my agenda, how could I take away this one single thing she needed?!  RIGHTEOUSNESS - Why did she even need to be there anyway?? The makeup artist can just start on the other girls! Why does she need to be there to watch me, the bride, get ready... she saaaaaid she'll make it in time for the pictures already, geez!   DRAMA - It's SO UNFAIR!  I'm going back on my word, changing my mind!!  FINE.  But it's SO UNFAIR.

The EV was spiritually hi-jacking my wedding and self-elevating to bride status.  It was insane.  The situation was so dire that I had to book an emergency session with my energy healer to cut the cord on her negative, draining attention and put up a shield.  I am not joking.  It was expensive.

stay tuned...

The Emotional Vampire - Part 1

Ever lived by the philosophy of never burning any bridges?  Stop living by it and simplify your life!

I began writing this real-life story about a month ago.  At that time, it seemed spiteful and maybe a tad
unsavory.  Upon the suggestion of a voice of reason, I decided not to post it.  Now that the feelings behind the reason to write the story have subsided... it feels very reasonable and cathartic to share the journey.  One of my demons has always been my inability to let go.

As time have passed, I've had plenty of practice letting go of small things and big things... and each instance would be difficult but it would always lead to a higher level of self discovery and personal growth.  I hope my reflective cautionary tale will serve to remind any of you reading that if there is someone in your life that you find incredibly boring, tiresome, draining, dramatic, irrational, repetitive, negative, calculating, judgmental, critical, entitled, and just generally a waste of time... get rid of them!  You'll be better off.

PART ONE

Today marks the successful end to an arduous and long process to remove a very unrelenting emotional vampire, aka EV, in my life.  As I came across evidence that this person has clearly moved on from the EV's fixation on 'us' - I was filled with relief and a personal sense of closure and triumph.

When I was in the worst leg of the journey in my early adult life - I came across this person and forged a bond out of a mutual affinity for complaining and ranting, ridiculous relationships, and an overall addiction to negative energy.  What I thought was a strong friendship turned out to be a ball and chain tethering me to the worst emotional history of my adult life.

During my attempts to lift myself from the pit of self-doubt and ambivalence by pursuing a career in acupuncture, the first signs of extreme incompatibility came rising out of the mire.  The EV came out in true form and lamented about abandonment and my lack of consideration.  How could you be so inconsiderate?  How could you be so selfish?  How could you clearly be such a bad friend when you were supposed to be a good one?  What about ME?!?!  Although I could not see it at the time, in retrospect, it is the first telling moment that the EV is a self-absorbed, victim-type emotional vampire.

In that same year, the first fall-out occurred.  After being force fed extreme guilt and obligation to go on a trip with mutual acquaintances - I embarked on the vacation while battling a relapse into a chronic condition I suffered mostly from ages 19 to 21.  I was diagnosed with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and it had been on-and-off in severity for a couple years back then.  I was really embarrassed about it because of the nature of the syndrome, obviously, and that there was no cure or even tried-and-true symptom management.  Despite voicing my concerns, I was basically forced into committing to the trip... even after explaining that alcohol and lavish meals were pretty much the WORST things for my condition.  And I had no money as a student in a masters program... but I had to go because I had promised I'd go!!!  It was a disaster in its own right without any additional health complications and I decided to end it then and there.  I booked an early flight and went home before it was over and decided it was time to ditch the awful friendship.

Back then, I did not have all the wisdom and fancy psycho-therapy to simply continue walking away and never look back.  We went back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth... until we just became "friends" again.  The irreversible damages of that incident carried through in my mind for about two years as I navigated through the difficulties of my failed first career path.  I decided to pursue a new career path... and the EVwas there to vapidly cheer me on.  Yay...

Last Day of Gemini

While there is still a few hours of the Gemini month left, I have decided that I must finally write about my 29th birthday.  On the Monday of May 20th,  I got to work and my cubicle was fully decked out in streamers and a banner with a basket of goodies and a birthday card.  Inside the card was a voucher for an item from the Zollar Store - I traded it in for a Zappos Llama hot/cold tumbler cup.  I use it daily, it's awesome.

That was actually my third early gift.  My very first one?  Of course it would be from one of the people who have been celebrating it for a very, very long time!  Now, some people will not appreciate just exactly how cool this item is... The Kuhn Rikon Ultimate Can Opener with Auto Attach Feature!  It is a can opener, lid lifter, ring tab picker, jar opener, soda top opener, and bottle cap opener.  SERIOUSLY... it is like the freaking MacGyver of kitchen gadgets.  I've wanted this bad boy for a looooong time, ever since Jackie got hers last year, and now I have it!!!!  No container shall ever stand in my way again. muahahaha.

After work, Will dropped me off at the airport to fly back down to San Diego.  Why this splurge, you ask???  Well... they were the courtesy of Annie's beautiful generosity!  My second early gift!!  When I was last in San Diego, Jenny, Annie and myself were at Tea Station and just started spontaneously hatching these wild plans for me to visit on my birthday.  And without prompting, pomp, or circumstance - she busted out her Southwest rapid rewards and got me roundtrip tickets!  WOW!!

Annie picked me up from the airport and we headed to Mira Mesa to eat at one of my favorite restaurants - Buca Di Beppo!  Her cousin joined us for dinner and she was very sweet, funny, and witty.  Loved her!  Afterwards, we went to meet the 2nd love of my life - Leonardo DiCaprio.  We watched the The Great Gatsby as we promised we would when she last came to visit me.  Of course, as a follow-up to my Christmas present of 50 Shades of Gray - she got me this new cultural sensation, "Bared To You."  I haven't actually had the time to read this just yet, but I'm sure the steaminess will be equally as entertaining... and unbearable.  LOL.  Then we went to bed to get a good night's worth of beauty sleep for our big day ahead of us.

We woke up the next morning, picked up Jenny and headed down to The Hilton in the Gaslamp District of Downtown San Diego to begin our spa day.  We got a livingsocial deal for a massage, facial, and use of their pool/amenities.  The facilities were not as grand as the accommodations that I had become accustomed to in Las Vegas, but it was a good time!  Once we were done being fully pampered and sunning ourselves on the pool deck - we gathered our things and headed to our hotel - The Sofia.

We showered and got ready for our night out in the town.  I got a well-wishing Happy Birthday phone call from BFF Jackie!  She just wanted to wish me a grrreat time because she remembered me AND she had sent me yet another delightful treat!  It is a gift certificate for any mani/pedi service (and then some) at Luxy Nail Salon - a local nail salon near where I live in Las Vegas!  She is so thoughtful and cheered me up even more!

We ate at Rei Do Gado - a Brazilian BBQ restaurant.  It was a MUCH better experience than the one I watched in the movie Bridesmaids.  Hahahaha... it was sooooo delicious and fun, I would certainly go again.  They even sang to me along with another gentleman next to me who was also having a birthday - and the manager blew a bonafide bull's horn (or some other animal - it was like super long and twisted).  Good times!

Then we headed over to Extraordinary Desserts where we met up with another fantastic friend, Dawn!  She treated all of us to a delightful round of unparalleled desserts and tea.  We chatted and caught up for a while - not nearly long enough - and then she graciously dropped us off at Maloney's Tavern to begin our wild evening.  It was extremely quiet inside... but then again, it was a Tuesday Night. -____-  We moved along to the Tipsy Crow and found our way to Double Deuce... and closed down the place!  Then... in true wolf pack fashion, we got in a pedi-cab and continued to party!  We found ourselves in a questionable hookah bar and then finally called it an evening and returned to the hotel.

The next morning, Annie and I woke up totally hungover and Jenny was already gone for work!  What a champion!  She left me this super fantastic Corkatoo Wine Corkscrew and a birthday note!  Although, she probably could've started a motorcycle in that room and we would've slept through it. 

We drove down to Ocean Beach to have some of my favorite fish tacos in the entire world at South Beach Bar & Grill and then took a leisurely stroll down the pier and around the sandy beach.  I just really missed the ocean and wanted to be near it for a while.  Of course, we felt quite ill that entire time, haha, but we made it through and hung out at a Starbucks near the airport for the final leg of the morning/afternoon.

Alas, we parted once again and I survived the flight home - just barely.  For some reason, it is ALWAYS a bumpy ride.  Being hungover and prone to motion sickness do not mesh well at all.  *ugh*

At any rate, I got home ok and Will was there to pick me up.  What did he have waiting for me?  My birthday present!  I am notoriously good at guessing his presents for me, and of course I guessed it.  I shook the wrapped box a few times, jiggled it around, and then noticed the shape and held the box up to my face.  Sunglasses!!  They were the Christian Dior sunglasses that I fell in love with weeks ago during Annie's visit to Las Vegas.  I never even showed him a picture of it - and yet he managed to pick out the very same exact pair with the help of the salesperson in the store!  MAGIC!  We are sooooo in sync.  LOL

And the wondrous love of my friends do not stop there.  Soon after my return, I came home from work one day to find an Amazon package straight off my wishlist from Jennifer!  It is the Emberverse series by S.M. Stirling and trilogy... I am in the middle of the first book, Dies The Fire.  It was so super important for me to get these books during this summer because in November I will be going to the TusCon science fiction conference with Dawn and S.M. Stirling is one of the featured authors who will be speaking!  AWESOME!

Of course, my parents gave me some Lucky Envelopes while I visited them last time.   And my mother-in-law sent me a very nice birthday card along with a check - which is very kind of her at this time because she has certainly been living on a very limited income these past several months.  I also received a birthday card from Cuong, who remembers year after year!

I was surprised by yet another Amazon package sent to my work.  BiYing sent me a very useful and fun gift - rock climbing shoes and harness!  There was no truly inspiring or flattering way to take actual photos of the item... so I have included an interpretive image of what I suppose hardcore rock climbers (including BiYing, someday) do with their fancy schmancy climbing gear.  OMG, craziness.... I think it's called cliff camping???  Why would anyone in their right mind do this?  I guess now that I have my own shoes and harness... this must be the next logical step.  I'll be sure to keep everyone posted.

Last, but certainly not least, was my Botkier Valentina crossbody purse.  Annie had ordered a fantastic Michael Kors purse for me from Zappos but left it up to me to exchange it for anything I liked.  I took the liberty of applying my own spiffy 40% employee discount and upgrading to a ridiculously fancy purse that I would otherwise have never gotten myself!  WOW!

 So, thank you everyone for all the happy, warm wishes and generous gifts... I celebrated yet another great year of life and adventure!!

A plus B equals... LOVE

There's nothing like a really strange, bizarre, hard-to-follow movie to inspire you to blog.  I rented Cosmopolis from Redbox... and I have nooooooo idea what on earth I'm watching.

Anyway, I want to say I don't know how I got this far behind on my posts, but I DO know.  The 5am - 2pm shift has really just affected me in ways I didn't know.  I feel awesome and invigorated in the morning at work and during lunch and stuff... but then when I get off at 2pm - it's 100 degrees outside and I'm happy to hide indoors, veg out in front of the TV, do some light cooking, and just kind of relax and/or get busy doing a million errands and chores.

So here's one of the many things in my backlog... Bi-Ying came and visited me in early May.  We had such an awesome time together!!  We have a really natural and relaxed closeness forged by the fires of college freshman dorming.  LOL, seriously though, once you've shared a 12' x 11' box together for a year - there's nothing you really don't know or can't share with that person.  It's funny because when I slept in waaaaaay late during her visit or showered in the middle of the day and left her sitting all alone playing Candy Crush on the couch, I didn't even feel bad.  Yes, that makes me a bad host... but I don't even really see her as a guest anymore. But in my defense, I did go to Lee's Discount Liquor when she DEMANDED that we get beer in order to watch Magic Mike at home - and then when she changed her mind after sobering up a little, I did make her hot tea.  Haha!

So, she came because she's on a vacation after finishing her last year of medical school.  She's worked so hard over the past like 6+ years towards this goal, and way more if you count college, so it was a vacation very well deserved.  She spent the majority of those years in Chicago while I stayed behind and trudged along in San Diego... we even had a term for our friendship: Prison Love.  It's like those couples where one of them is a convicted murderer/felon put away for 25 to Life... and their spouse wait patiently forever on the outside (minus the whole conjugal visit part, ewwww!).  Then, the instant she starts applying for programs to come back to Southern California - I moved to Las Vegas!!!

Another fun fact, is that we actually went on a very, very short trip together to Las Vegas like a month before I started at Zappos because she had an interview for a program at the UNLV Medical Center - but their program apparently sucks and she wants nothing to do with them.... whatever.... we could've reunited forever, but I guess that's not important to you.  I *don't* hold a grudge against her because now she is in one of her top choices and she can finally live with her fiance again, I GUESS.  *pshhhhhhhh*

I took a half-day off of work and accompanied Will to pick her up from the airport.  We got ready and headed over to the Golden Nugget Spa for a massage and facial living social deal.  Then we headed down to the H2O Tank where I finally went down the water slide through the shark tank!!!  Geez, I've only wanted to do it for like 4 years now... haha.  Embarrassing Story: when we were waiting for the mirror-doored elevator to arrive... I grew quite impatient.  I started hitting the button a lot and then in extreme rapid succession with BOTH HANDS *pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow pow* only to realize that the elevator was already there with the doors opened - the interior is filled with mirrors.... I was soooooooo embarrassed!!!!!!  Seriously.

Then we wrapped up, ate a nice dinner, and went to the Mirage to watch the Cirque de Soleil - Beatles LOVE show!!  It was every ounce worth the anticipation - great even watching it again after about 6 years later.  BiYing and I made plans to watch it in 2009.... so yeah, it was about time.  After the show, we had a flight of white wine at my favorite wine digs - Onda - and since she was totally wasted after that tiny bit of alcohol... we went home.

The following day we went indoor rock climbing at the Nevada Rock Climbing Center and afterwards had a really awesome light lunch at a local raw, organic cafe... so healthy!  For dinner, we met up with our friend Cindy and had ourselves a 4-course dinner with wine pairing at Garfield's Restaurant... another deal, of course!  I really wish they would've posted their menu for the evening ahead of time because there would've been nooooo way I would've bought the deal if I had known they were going to serve Salmon TARTAR, ew gross!!!!  I tried to be elegant, fancy, and gracious... but I ate like 3 mouthfuls of it and that was it.... so I traded it for BiYing's wine, haha.

We finished our extravagant meal and then got our beer and went home to watch Magic Mike.  The dancing was good... but yeah, so glad I waited for the rental.  LoL.  But it was pretty priceless hearing BiYing giggle "Release the Tatum!!!" many times throughout the night.

We woke up for her final day and, of course, headed over to Zappos.  We ate a small brunch in the Bistro and did a complete guided tour... yes, I toured my place of work yet again - but I love it every time!  Then we rounded out our afternoon by a Downton Abbey-esque Victorian High Tea at   English's Quintessentially British.  For $20.00 each, we had unlimited pots of tea to our hearts content as well as three tiers of:

 Savory

Smoked Salmon & Dill Crème Fraiche

Parsley Dressed Freshly Boiled Egg

Minted Shaved Cucumber Mousse

Cheddar Cheese & Branston Pickle

Fresh Scones

Cranberry & Plain Scone

with Housemade Strawberry Jam & Whipped Cream

Sweets

A selection of house made Petite Fours, Macarons & Pastries

Everything was freshly made and unlimited... we must have been there for like 2 hours.  Finally, we headed out for a small errand at Michael's where she helped me brainstorm for an art project.  Then, it was time to say farewell....... *tears*

I took her back to the airport and we must have hugged a million times before I finally let her go inside.  I missed her so much for so many years, it was hard to say goodbye again.

Oh, and we saw a gigantic rainbow before she left... in fact, we saw DOUBLE RAINBOWS!!!  We just couldn't get a good picture.  It was pretty epic.

This weekend is her graduation ceremony and I am SO PROUD of her!!!!  I hope she enjoyed her vacation and made the best of her entire time off because it'll be time to roar those engines again as she heads into her residency program.  I hope we will always be great friends and that she never forgets me when she becomes a super important, world-renowned, big time doctor who gives lectures and throngs of medical students will rush to her for advice, explanations, and autographs afterwards!!!  It has been written... =)

Settling in quite nicely...

It's been about 3.5 months since I've started my new job and after some small hardships such as an intense New Hire Training regimen, a hectic Incubation period, and an insane shift to work at 5am... I have to say that I am fully enjoying myself.

I am on this wonderful team of 10 and we call ourselves the Playful Pandaz.  We decorated our corner as a bamboo forest (shown incomplete in this picture... there are WAY more pandaz and the back wall is fully covered in green now).  I was assigned the role of Team Co-Captain and there are a few responsibilities.  At our weekly Zuddles - team meeting - I'm in charge of announcing the team members who received E-Props (great customer reviews) and SNAPS... I forgot what the acronym stands for, oops... where the team members say positive things about each other, no matter how big or small.  I'm also tasked with jotting down Zuddle Notes and then sending them out in an e-mail, which also gets posted on our team WiKipage.

My co-workers seem to like me as well.  During our "high school" themed week, yeah - the whole company participated, I was voted: Best Smile AND Most Huggable.  I was the only one who won two categories, I felt so honored!  heeheehee

Next, I'm also on the official Customer Loyalty Team - P.E.C. Club.  And that's for the entire call center, woot!  PEC stands for Personal Emotional Connection... which is what Zappos is all about.  Each day, we receive some time to make personal cards for our customers who we felt we had excellent and exceptional conversations with.  I will usually print out little pictures to glue on the cards, but once in a while I'll actually draw something with markers.  This one is of hot air balloons because a really awesome French lady from Albuquerque told me all about the wonderful annual Hot Air Balloon Festival in her town... it sounded lovely.  She told me to find her in the yellow pages if I ever go out there and we can attend the festival together... SO SWEET!

Anyway, the PEC Club dreams up ideas of how to encourage all the team members to want to connect with their customers, make more dazzling cards, and to make it worth their while.  One of the super cool tasks I have on that front is reading ALL the customer comment who fill out a survey, call in, or email in a compliment for the team member they spoke with.  I highlight the Top Ten team members of the week, summarize a couple of the most amazing reviews, and create a unique slide to capture everyone's attention - since these highlights will all be featured on the big flat screen TVs we have on our walls that displays our AWESOMENESS.

It was a really special moment for me to get on this team because I had to apply for it by submitting a great idea and my last 3 quality check scores.  I really, humbly, take super huge joy in always trying my best to deliver 100% WOW to all my customers because... that is where I feel my strength lies, and I enjoy it!  So, when I was accepted, it felt amazing!  It's called a club, but it's like a small task force for a big job.  In fact, during our upcoming Z-Mixer event, we're rolling out an old program that we're reviving and hardcore re-branding.  It's kinda a big deal... and I'm kinda part of it.  *YEAH, BABY!!!!*

I've also been to work on time every day and earned an extra vacation hour that I can use anytime I want and will never get denied.  Sweet!  I've really connected with my Lead and she is really great and believes in me!  In fact, she thinks I'm very dedicated and recommended that I look into this one position outside of the call center (secret to be revealed later...).  Even though I cannot apply for that position until August, she is going to set me up a shadow session so I can see what they do and decide for myself if I'd like to apply for it.  That is so unbelievable - after my horrible experiences with the County, I just feel so overwhelmed with happiness to be recognized as a decent worker and a nice person... and have someone looking out for my best interest.

Long story short, I'm very happy and still believe this life changing choice was, indeed, the right one!

I made this for the top secret program we're rolling out... and my friend Rocky looked at it and said "Who ARE you???"

Apparently, he was impressed. Haha

I never knew I had such artistry in me, Zappos is bringing it out of me!

The Hangover

For the longest time I thought that the movie was a bit (a lot) farfetched because as much fun and tomfoolery a few friends may be able to have in the crazy City of Sin... it's probably not really doable to squeeze all those activities into one day/night.  Annie came into town and we totally disproved that theory.

I think the best way to approach this explanation is by creating a chronological itinerary of the 1.75 days we spent together...

MONDAY, 4/15/2013
4:45pm - I picked her up from the McCarran Airport and headed straight to The Mirage Hotel & Casino.  We went to a lovely wine tasting lounge / restaurant called Onda Ristorante and redeemed our Travelzoo deal for a white wine flight and appetizer each.  We ended up getting completely free full glass of wine to go with our flight because the server was just pretty awesome.  We had Fried Calamari and a Caprese Salad.  *yum*

7:00pm or 8:00ish - Once we were finished, we decided to just ramble around and see what fun we could find.  We took a tram from the Mirage to Treasure Island.  We got one of those Vegas icon yard long icy drinks - but honestly, it tasted so crappy we threw it away after a short while.  We then somehow found ourselves in the Wynn.  We tried to get a picture taken inside the beautiful lit up forest - but these very awkward foreign tourists had the hardest time operating my phone's camera.  Like, the lady kept tapping the screen SUPER HARD to take the picture, so no matter what she did the picture was blurry because she literally just tapped so hard the phone would flop forward and back up while it took the picture.  Anyway, we then found ourselves inside of a Chanel store and I literally had to (gently) smack a wallet out of her hands.  We also went to Dior and almost, almost, almost bought matching sunglasses.  Holy cow, never enter designer shops tipsy.

9:30pm - Afterwards, of course we had to visit my favorite dessert spot ever - Jean Philippe at the Aria.  I think she had the Tiramisu and I had this big raspberry / rose macaron that my friend Jackie introduced to me from her trip in France... I believe it is called an Ispahan.  It's pretty much like a little bit of heaven inside your mouth.  *drool* We stayed and chatted for a while until finally our eyelids were closing by themselves and we knew we had a very long day tomorrow so we decided to call it a night.


TUESDAY, 4/16/2013

7:00am - We woke up and I made breakfast sandwiches for breakfast at my apartment.  Then we got ready to head out for our spa morning.

9:00am - We arrived at The Palms to get Swedish massages at Drift Spa with, once again, Travelzoo vouchers.  We each enjoyed a 50 minute massage and then went to their women's spa area and heated up in the sauna.  Then we showered and got all dried up and ready to move on with our day in a nice, relaxed state.

12:00 noon - What is Vegas without a buffet?  The Wicked Spoon  at The Cosmopolitan is easily my favorite buffet - not only is the variety phenomenal but really everything tastes amazing.  Haha, of course the picture is of desserts, but I promise the food is incredible even without photographic proof.  Once we were extremely stuffed we headed out on the road for the drive up to my future home (yes, I drag everyone who visits me to the construction site because I think it's so super special to watch my home get built - sorry visitors!)

2:00pm-ish - I showed her the slab of foundation or maybe at that time it was still just dirt with some trenches.  We also walked through some of the model homes next to the sales office.  The sales agent actually let us into one of the homes in my floorplan that was in the middle of being finished - so she saw an almost finished home exactly like what I'll be living in some months from now.

3:30pm - We made a quick coffee run and then headed over to Pacific Archery to learn how to shoot like Katniss.  The instructor was a little bit of a Chatty Cathy and totally 'misdiagnosed' Annie of her right-left-eyedness... as in he told her that her dominant eye was Right? but it was really Left (switch them if that's wrong) and it was totally the opposite of what it should be for a left-handed person.  So, she was shooting with the wrong eye and in the wrong hand - she kept hitting the inside of her arm with the bowstring on the reverb and it totally messed her arm all up!!  She looked like a crazy heroin junkie by the end of our lesson.  I walked away without a scratch and felt confident if I were in a post-apocalyptic death match, I could totally hit some people / zombies in the head.

5:30pm - We get back to my apartment and started to get dressed & made up for our big night out!  Some primping and fussing over our outfits and then we drove off to the Excalibur.

7:30pm - Hundreds of miles away from San Diego and where do we end up for a quick bite?  Buca de Beppo... lol.  Of course, we didn't have enough time, or appetite, to get our usual Frutti De Mar - so we settled for a Spinach Dip & Garlic Bread along with our first 2 cocktails of the evening.  While we waited for our refreshments, I stopped by will call to pick up our tickets...

9:00pm - We are seated and ready to go at... Thunder From Down Under!!  LOL, yes we totally went and it was totally awesome!  The show is really fun - I mean, honestly, they're total hotties but it was really entertaining even if they didn't seductively undress continuously.  There was this totally inappropriate grandma in the audience who was pulled up onto the stage and she grabbed the dancer's buttcheeks, caressed them, and then planted a kiss on one!!  What the heck?!!  The dancer was like really shocked - and so were all of us!  I guess... age makes women bolder?  Of course, the entertainment value was highly increased by the fact that we had another cocktail and a total of 6 jello shots between the two of us.

10:30pm - The show ended and Annie bravely approached the booth that Gene Simmons from KISS was sitting at with his lovely wife and their posse.  I don't know why they were there... but people were going bananas!  There was a crowd around their table to try and get autographs.  Turns out Annie is a gigantic fan of their reality show: Gene Simmons Family Jewels and the real star of the show is Gene's wife, Shannon.  Here is proof of their clandestine meeting - and she got Gene Simmons to autograph her Thunder from Down Under ticket.  *hurray*

11:00pm - We were a little tipsy, a little tired... and decided to go to the bar and get 2 waters and see what we wanted to do from there.  Here is the tipping point.  The bartender convinced us to take another jello shot - and we were like... what?! go home?! we're in Vegas, let's party!  First thought to pop in my head, let's take the tram to Mandalay Bay - I love it there!  (Mandy Bay & I are a bad romance... we have history *sigh*)  Of course, the tram is closed by that time so we geniuses decided to walk there, duh!  We step outside and started to walk... it seemed like the farther we walked, the farther it seemed to be.

11:30pm - 11:45ish - We cut through the Luxor.  On our way to the escalators to take the bridge, some guys were throwing things to each other up to the ledge where the rooms are.  I made a comment and then one of the guys tried to get cute and booty-bumped me when I walked past him - of course, I run gracelessly into a trashcan and get a little peeved.  On our way up... I said very loudly, for some reason, "Annie, he's WHITE!"  They all turn around to look at us - embarrassing.  Somehow, whenever I'm drunk, I sound very racist.  By the time we get to the Eyecandy Sound Lounge, we are in possession of matching whale socks.  Yeah, we just randomly went into a socks shop and got some whale socks.  Awesome.  We've also opened an oyster at one of those carts and got twin pearls!  GOOD THING DIOR WAS CLOSED... we probably would've bought those pricey sunglasses, no second thoughts.

12:30am - After one drink, we decided Eyecandy was totally whack because it was like 70's, 80's, 90's night and the music was not good and the people dancing were strange.  There was also a weird thing going on with this man sitting next to us - he seemed to be picking up this overly flirtatious woman who approached him.  Time to bounce!  I had the brilliant idea of going to my faaaavorite drunken stomping ground - the I-Bar at the Rio!

1:00am - We show up at the I-Bar and have another delicious drink but by this time we decided drinking was not enough... we must dance!  So, we got passes to the Voodoo Lounge and headed upstairs.  However, when we got there the doors were closed and no one was home.  *awwwww*

1:45am - We met this weird German dude in front of the closed club and he followed us back to the bar and made small talk.  Turns out it was just past the last call and we couldn't get anymore drinks... so, of course weird German dude invited us up to his room to drink red wine.  He was very specific.  We politely declined his invitation and he left.  Creeper.

2:00am - Were we ready to stop?  Of course not!!  This is Vegas - I used the power of google and we arrived at The Mirage (full 360 from our first stop straight out of the airport!) to party at 1-OAK... which I have since learned stands for 1 Of A Kind.  We encountered this distressed blond girl in the restroom who fed us this weird story about meeting a guy on the internet and he is waiting for her outside the restroom and we needed to pretend to be her friends and ask her to go inside the club so she didn't have to go up to his room with him.  We were like.... uhhhh.... ok.  Then she kept offering her drink to us.  We were like no but she was pushy about it.  My Dateline NBC with Chris Hansen alarms started ringing in my head.  I pretended to take sips and started to get super wary.  We still did that awkward pretend-to-be-her-friend skit... and then as we started walking away - he handed her a fistful of cash!  OMG... we were marked for human trafficking!  We all went inside the club and I told Annie to RUN!!  We ran in the opposite direction of the way she was heading and got to the bar.

image from urbanspoon - not us!

3:15am - We had danced to our little hearts' content and discovered we were SUPER HUNGRY.  We struck out to the lobby and followed the signs to Carnegie Delicatessan for some late, late night grub.  The club sandwich we got was gigantic but it wasn't very good... and that's terrible considering our condition after an entire night of drunken debauchery.  How can anything NOT taste amazing?  I remember not being impressed by the Carnegie a few years back when I ate their for dinner too... so, boo - never going back there again.

4:30am - We are back at home... ready to go to bed after an exhausting 22 hour day.  If it was a workday - I would've been leaving my house for work at that time... and that was the last conscious thought I had as my head hit the pillow.  *Zzzzzzz*

WEDNESDAY, 4/17/2013
9:30am - We woke up just a few short hours later and ate a very light breakfast... we weren't in the best of shape.  LOL, but we toughed it out and she got all packed up and we threw her luggage in the car.

11:00am - Annie came to Zappos with me and participated in a 60-minute tour even in our shabby state.  She was an excellent sport and was only sightly annoyed when this one girl kept asking very irrelevant questions about other businesses, like over and over and over again.  *grrrrr*

1:30pm - All good things must come to an end... and I dropped her off at the airport and had to say a sad goodbye.

This visit was so insanely epic!  Even though it took like a whole week for me to recover and reset my circadian rhythm / electrolytes... it was well worth it!

I had such a blast... miss you so much all the time!!! <3

Friendly Visit

Last week, my wonderful friend Dawn and her hubby Bart was out and about visiting family in Arizona and made a very sharp turn to visit Las Vegas and me... yay!  I joined up with them at the Las Vegas Hotel (used the be the Hilton) and then I took them to Downtown Las Vegas to check out my future stomping ground.  I am slightly familiar with the area from the scavenger hunt that I did as part of my New Hire Training.

We stopped by The Beat coffeehouse and got some beverages before heading upstairs to the Emergency Arts studio.  The vibe is really down to earth and relaxed, just a place where artists gather to show off their work and the coffeehouse routinely hosts local musical talent on various nights of the week.  It's pretty awesome to see this place just because it's kind of out of place adjacent to the extremely flashy, showy Fremont Street attractions.

Next, we savored a very delicious dinner at Le Thai - the Zappos endorsed (unofficially) Thai restaurant of Las Vegas.  Our CEO loves, loves, loves this place and has been known to eat there more than once a day at times.  The dishes are aromatic and pungent and the prices are reasonable for a good amount of food.  Tell me that isn't like the best combination ever?  I have a feeling that once we move our headquarters to Downtown, I am going to frequent this "hole-in-the-wall" gem more than I really should.  Anyone coming out... expect to eat here once just to see for yourself!  =)

We wrapped up at the restaurant and then they graciously agreed to go on a drive to see my as-yet-to-be-built new home.  It was really awesome that they were interested in seeing my future home because it was literally just a dirt lot.  I think the day I brought them, the construction team had just broken ground that day.  I don't think there had even been any trenching yet... soooooo.... just a bunch of dirt surrounded by some retaining walls.  They expected to see some of those stony peaks I mentioned in one of my last blog posts but, unfortunately, the route I took did not bring us past that way - maybe next time!  *hint hint, please come again*

I had to drop them off back at the hotel to go home and sleep because I had to go to work at 5am the next morning.  While I was at work, they went hiking around Red Rock Canyon... it's a beautiful place with some nice trails and overlooks.  We had radio silence for a little bit because there is no Wi-Fi, or really any sort of reception, out there in fabulous nature... but luckily we were able to coordinate a rendezvous at The Yard House inside the Red Rock Casino Resort.  Will and I met up with Dawn and Bart and even though the food was only moderately good... it was super wonderful to catch up with some awesome familiar faces!

While it has been so great to meet new people and make new friends out here in Las Vegas, I certainly miss my friends back in California!!  Not just in San Diego... but the ENTIRE state of California... hehehe.  Now that Will and I are getting nicely settled, hopefully we can finally start visiting our good friends soon.  I miss all of you...!

Thank you for coming out and visiting, Dawn & Bart!  Your bright cheerful faces made me so happy!  I hope to see you again before before TusCon in November!