Cake, Pain, and Critters

Yesterday was such a wonderful day at work because my Lead & Supervisor treated me and a teammate to the Main Street Casino Station Buffet to celebrate our 100% WOW Call!  I'm very happy I got one in March because I got to include it in my Zappos resume for the specialty team I applied for.  I just did a written test for that position and I'm waiting to hear back on a possible interview... *fingers crossed*

And then later on my Lead surprised our team with this super delicious Tiramisu cake from a local bakery!!  A couple weeks ago, I started this running joke/rumor.  Every night our Lead gets ready to leave and he asks, "Anyone need anything before I leave?"  I always answer "Yes!" very seriously and then add.... "I need a tiramisu."  And then he's like "Yeah.... I'm going to go work on that."  So, the late-nighters started telling the earlier peeps that he gets us tiramisu at night, which made them jealous...  MUTINY!!!!  hee hee hee...  We were SO SURPRISED and didn't even believe him when he rolled up with a white cake box and told us he got us a tiramisu cake!!!  LOL

Today was another story.  I woke up super, duper, insanely, out-of-this world sore from the Body Pump class that I took at the Las Vegas Athletic Club with a friend yesterday.  There's like... *Oh yeah! I worked out HARD!* kind of sore... ... ... and then there's... *I want to get a doctor's note for a temporary wheelchair* kind of sore.

I'm pretty sure this could be considered a kind of minor injury. However, I'm pretty happy that my back doesn't hurt! Usually that is my weakest link... but I've been doing exercises to strengthen it, so they must be helping! My whole spinal column feels fine and I have no sciatica pain, so I'm not too worried. My quads, inner thighs, and glutes are screaming bloody murder though! :( It's ok, tomorrow is my weekend, I will rest.

On another note, as I was slowly waddling around my house today, I noticed a new Forrest habit.  He usually warms himself up in the patch of sunshine that comes through our upstairs window.  He'll just hang out in the loft and follow the rectangle of sunlight around.  He just *LOVES* sunbathing!  Today, he found a very narrow strip shining down to the bottom floor (I think it's a new patch of light created by the shift in the sun's afternoon location).  And he just curled up in the middle of it, desperately trying to catch the rays before they went away - so cute!

Afterwards, I waddled over to the fish tank and just stared at all my little critters for a while. The tall spiral shell in the front with the weird thing protruding out the left side is my nassarius snail - I call them all Snorkies (because of the snork - they use it to smell).  The one in the background is also a Snorkie... they troll the substrate (sand) of the tank for leftovers and algae and such.  They keep the substrate aerated to prevent growth of bad bacteria.  The big shell on the right is actually the back half of Big Claw III - he has blue and black legs... but I didn't catch him in the picture, oops.

Another thing I noticed is that we have a gigantic colony of copepods!  We first introduced copepods to the tank when we had a Scooter Blenny "Scooter"and my 6-Line Wrasse "Marcy Darcy" living in the tank.  They have since then unfortunately succumbed to either: Ick, Popeye, or Starvation.  Scooter needed a special diet of copepods but we didn't have enough to support him, so we think he may have starved to death (O.o SO SAD!!!!!)... and Marcy Darcy got this weird discoloration in her scales and then just died one day.  Anyway, the surviving copepods must've stayed in the sand and live rock crevices and reproduced.  I saw a whole bunch of them fighting for little food pellets at the bottom of the tank!  I'm thinking now I can get another fish whose diet is mainly composed of copepods.  So, we shall see.  The Summer of 2013 tank annihilation (we lost Bean *boy clown*, Marcy Darcy, and Scooter - as well as Kevin Tran the Starfish and all my little corals) really made me too sad to get any new fish... but we may start again soon.

Anyway, I have a new gardening project lined up for this weekend - expect an update soon!

When It Rains... It Pours

I've been so busy that I haven't really had a chance to blog. I'm in Week 13 of my Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages certificate program... I'm kind of running out of steam but I started out really strong so I'm riding on a strong 90%+ grade to the end.  I've lost track of time and just didn't have the *umph* to complete assignments a couple of times.  So, I won't be finishing with an A+ or anything... but I only need a passing grade of 70% to get my certificate. I still have 3 weeks to go and a final exam, so wish me luck!

My days have been so bizarre since I started my 2:45pm - 11:30pm work schedule.  I like the fact that I get to hang out with Will every day before I go to work.  We've been having so much fun and just have a smoother relationship overall because we can communicate efficiently (i.e. talking face-to-face), instead of texting over many hours due to opposite schedules and then waiting days in between to finally see each other.  We get to eat lunch together every day... we can run errands before I go to work... we walk the dogs... we do all sorts of things!  I'm sure the normal-scheduled couples are probably like... *duh*... but those are definitely newfound gems of treasured time for us.  I think 11:30pm might be a taaaaaaad too late, so I might try for like 10:30pm end time for my next shift bid. 

Even though I love my new schedule because of the benefits, I don't think I've transitioned too gracefully.  For example, just this past week I thought it was Wednesday pretty much the ENTIRE day until about 6pm... when I finally figured it out it was, in fact, Thursday!  I had missed my 12pm deadline for my homework assignment and told all my customers the wrong delivery date (Friday when it should've been Monday). 

Luckily, it didn't affect my quality check for this month... I got another 100% WOW call!  I am soooooo happy about this because I feel it helps me look like a super strong candidate for the specialty team I just applied for.  I'm also happy because my Lead, Supervisor, and Manager all take me out to lunch whenever I get a WOW call.  So far, I've been to Hash House, Serendipity 3, Nacho Daddy... and I'm waiting to see where I'm going next week for March's WOW call.  *Eeeeeee*

Even with all the awesomeness happening, my brain was really started to get a little crazy.  I also blame the monsoon season weather - the stormy weather really sends my sinuses into a tailspin and that kind of messes up my mental powers.  The skies have cleared up a bit and it's getting warmer again, so maybe that will be the end of that weirdness.

My dad's health has also been a topic of intense scrutiny these past couple of months.  It's been difficult to try to be a translator between him and his doctor, but its my familial duty and a priority - even before work.  It sucks and I wish it wasn't happening - but I have to be there for him and have my wits about me.  So, it's been a huge load of unexpected stress but it will be fine.

On a brighter note, I'm really happy with my sessions with the personal trainer.  She has a regimen set up for me to follow and it's challenging but adjustable to my needs at the same time.  She was really understanding about the limitations that my scoliosis places on my activity level - so she made sure there's nothing high impact and added weight machines that strengthen my back muscles.  My determination to get in better shape is motivated by the need to get my PCOS under control, once and for all.  The endocrinologist said that if my hormone levels look good in 3 months, then I can experiment with stopping my medications.  PCOS put me on a hormonal, emotional, and physical rollercoaster - and I'm ready to get off.

Lastly, in the middle of all this chaos... I've discovered a new little passion.  I was thinking about this really awesome pesto that I made like a year ago.  It was pretty basic: olive oil, garlic, walnuts, spinach, and basil.  It was delicious!  And then I thought about how disproportionately expensive fresh basil is compared to all the other ingredients.  I had this brilliant thought!  Why don't I just GROW MY OWN BASIL?!  Will and I took a trip to Home Depot - I bought a little pot, organic soil, gardening gloves, a small garden trowel, and a packet of organic basil seeds!  I should see in about 8-10 days if there will be any little sprouts... ^____^

P.S. - Will really wanted to buy this lucky bamboo... mostly because his zodiac sign is a sheep.  It's working, he's won the last 3 times he played poker! YAY

Do you spy a little Bodhi in this picture?

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... =)

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!

Feeling like a hermit crab...

As some of you may know, Will and I are in the process of purchasing a new home over here in Las Vegas.  The loan approval process is always extremely tedious and even the slightest delay or lack of information can send the entire thing into a bottomless pit of underwriters.

This is what I wrote to them...

I called your customer service phone center to request a Pay Off Letter for my home loan process. It is a very common letter and well known by virtually every single financial institution - except CitiBank, apparently. After requesting twice and having the customer service representative misunderstand my intentions, she finally put me on hold to ask someone else what to do. She stated that CitiBank does not offer Pay Off Letters and that I should print out my statement 2 weeks later. As a financial institution, you should understand that Time is of the Essence when it comes to the home mortgage loan approval process. I was able to obtain Pay Off Letters with absolutely zero difficulty or hesitation from Wells Fargo, Discover, and ACS Student Loans. Once I stated this fact to the representative, she consulted with someone who then said I would be receiving a Pay Off Letter shortly.

The call experience was only mildly unpleasant. I was only compelled to write this letter due to the fact that this is the "Pay Off Letter" that I received:  "Dear ALVINA Y ANDRZEJEWSKI: We're confirming that during the past 12 months, your account has been current and not in default under the terms of the Card Agreement."

If you are reading this complaint letter... I hope that you can tell the difference between what I REQUESTED and what I RECEIVED. So, here is my response.

Dear CitiBank: You failed. Thanks for nothing. I officially despise your financial institution for your ineptitude and complete disregard of my needs. I will make sure to tell everyone my experience. Even though that will hardly make a difference, it will still give me greater satisfaction than dealing with your customer service department.

As you might have guessed... I did not receive a response.  Oh well, it doesn't even matter because we totally got our loan approved anyway. *woot woot*  It's not completely finalized yet because the builders just applied for a City Permit to build the home - it's a dirt lot right now.  After the builder gets the nod from the City, then construction will begin and then I think 30 days out we can lock the rate and everything.

We should be able to get the keys to our new beautiful home in the Northwest mountains area of Las Vegas in late June/July.  The neighborhood is called Providence (http://www.providencelv.com).  It's a really nice master planned community with parks & playgrounds, a promenade, trails, big/small dog parks, and an elementary school.  We visited just about every single home builder in the entire Las Vegas basin and looked specifically at 4 neighborhood areas.  I literally felt like Goldilocks... this one's too big, this one's too small, this one's too expensive... too shabby, too many rooms, too few rooms, too confusing layout, too many hallways, too many random closets (ya, that happens here), too far off the freeway, too close to the busy road, etc.  After a lot of extremely careful consideration, we chose this one because of several factors.

Firstly, the geographical location of this neighborhood sits at a much higher elevation than the rest of Las Vegas (really, you go some small stony peaks to get there) so it is actually about 10 degrees cooler there in the summertime compared to the temperature on the Strip.  It's 25 minutes away from the Strip - we did the actual drive to the Caesar's Palace parking structure.  Next, it really was the only floor plan that caught our eye and we could see ourselves living in.  It's 2 stories with 4 bedrooms... more than enough space for us to ever grow into but we added a loft option because it was just a better usage of space - and that brought the total square footage to approximately 2300 sq.ft.  To quote the most annoying book that I began reading as an obligation and now I've ordered the next two in the series... palatial.  (ugh! buy a thesaurus!)  Also, it had a bigger lot size than most of the other models we've seen - which is important because we want an adequately sized driveway AND an adequately sized backyard.  Lastly, it was the most bang for our buck in terms of the features and upgrades that come inside the home.  For instance, the Gourmet Kitchen package is standard... so I'm going to have double wall ovens!!  *Eeeeeeeee*

So, the excitement is certainly beginning but there's still a few months ahead of us before we can move in.  In the meantime, Will and I are leasing a 2-bedroom apartment for four months.  We're going to live at the Camden Fairways apartments... and honestly, it's fancy!  OMG, even the apartments are spacious and impressive out here.  It's over 1000+ sq.ft... that's like unheard of in San Diego without breaking the bank!  So, this will be our luxurious temporary home until we move into our super awesome dream home.  And the best part is that this apartment complex allows up to 2 dogs per unit... so my babies will be coming in 2 weeks!  YAY!!

Whole Foods and a Sanctuary

Right after Christmas I started doing Pilates on the Reformer (machine illustrated in silhouette) regularly about 2-3 times a week.  It totally strengthened my entire body, especially my core.  I stood taller with greater posture and I felt so much stronger each day.  Anyway, I lost the momentum during the big move and I didn't want to fall back into my old lethargic ways.

I started looking right away for Pilates studios in LV but I didn't see any that I either liked or could afford... so then I searched for my 2nd favorite mind/body practice - Yoga.  I found BAREFOOT SANCTUARY online and decided to give them a try since they offered a first time student special pass for $40 - unlimited classes for one month.  Last night, I attended the Beginner Yoga & Meditation class to get back in the swing of things and the small studio was a very tranquil space and the class did the trick by straightening me out from my computer desk slouch (that's the sacrifice of writing these highly thoughtful and entertaining posts, duh).

It's located inside the biggest Whole Foods I've ever been to in my entire life.  This place is decked out!  It has a Pho Station (Vietnamese noodles) as one of their Hot Food Bars and their usual deli station is expanded to an entire side of the enormous market and offers a fresh Juice Bar, Asian Cuisine, Italian Station, and picnic tables by the seafood section... like you're going to buy a a whole fish and then enjoy some fresh Sashimi on the spot??  Hmmmm

At the end of the Yoga/Meditation class we each drew a card from a deck that contained our Animal Spirit Totems.  I was the Sausage Fruit Tree.  I am NOT making this up.  It's apparently a card of passion and creativity... so, hopefully I can embrace those two qualities and excel in my new job on Monday, yay!

I also spoke to one of the other students at the end of my first class and she is actually the caretaker of the large reptiles at the Shark Reef in the Mandalay Bay!  Yeah, she feeds the crocodile and komodo dragon in the exhibits by the front entrance of the aquarium.  Meeting her was like meeting a celebrity (for me) the coolest thing that's ever happened to me at Yoga!  Woohoo... LOL

So my first night in the room was a little rough because I wasn't used to sleeping with all these electronic gadgets all around me... so each time I woke up I had to turn something off to keep the lights from keeping me up.  Next, I got rid of the rickety bed frame that kept waking me up in the first place... something's gone loose in it and I'm not handy enough to go all DIY, so I removed it and put my box spring on the floor.  Problem solved.  New problem: I totally forgot that the wood grain gnarls in a way that seems to make this creepy insectoid face... like a possessed praying mantis demon creature, riiiiiiight???

Now I just have to ignore the fact that it will be watching me in my sleep.  No problem at all!  I got my butt handed to me in Expressive Yoga tonight, so I think it's time to call it a night to get ready for my 5:30am wake up call & practice run to Zappos office tomorrow morning.  Sweet dreams time!  =)

Pillow Talk

I want to remind all my avid readers (all 5 of you) to please, please, please make sure to check your electronics/appliances before leaving the store.  I purchased a Cool/Warm Mist Ultrasonic Humidifier from Bed Bath & Beyond in San Diego.  I didn't look inside - even after I got home - and kept it in the trunk of my car and made the move with it.  When I finally opened the packaged, it had been used with these hard water stains crusted all over it and the instruction booklet was ripped in half!  Really... who does that?  Anyway, we went the Bed Bath & Beyond nearest to where I'm staying but they didn't have it in stock, so then we drove about 15 miles out of the way to get a brand new one.  Was it worth it?  I'm not sure yet, I'll make sure to report on the benefits of a humidifier once I have some empirical data.

I tried to stall dropping Will off at the airport for as long as I could, but making him miss his flight really wouldn't have helped out any in the long run.  Afterwards, I went to the nearby Vons and bought some snacks and light groceries.  I also bought this little guy - it's a succulent called a Panda Plant!  It's cute and small and fuzzy... since I don't have either of my little furry babies around to keep me company, I decided to buy a fuzzy plant because petting it provides a more rewarding experience than just regular leaves.

Then I unpacked most of my clothes and did enough ironing to last me a lifetime but my shirts will all be wrinkle-free! At some point in my organizing/ironing... I realized that my Temper-Pedic pillow was missing!!!  Those of you who have ever traveled with me or witnessed me travel know that I cannot spend a single night without my pillow.  My chiropractor recommended it for me 5 years ago and we have never parted since.  I get aches and pains in my neck, shoulders, and back due to my scoliosis and the pillow is one of the things that help me upkeep my infrastructure.

At 1:30pm, I called the front desk of the Worldmark by Wyndham on Tropicana to let them know I had left my precious pillow behind.  The manager told me that she would check on it and call me within the hour.  Ok, great... *iron, iron, iron*

Then 4:30pm rolls around and she still hadn't called me so I decided to just drive on over and see about this situation.  I get there and announced myself and what I needed... the manager's like "Oh, it's you! The room hasn't been changed over yet...! Here, we'll make you another key and you can go get it."  I smiled and said "Thank you," but secretly super despised them for making me go look myself after THREE HOURS of doing nothing.  Awesome customer service.  I went back to the room and it's in complete disarray... all the bedding is on the floor and all the drawers were pulled out.  I guess it had been halfway cleaned when someone abandoned it.  So, I called the front desk and reported what I found - NO PILLOW!!  They asked me to come back up and the manager runs around for a while to look in their Lost & Found and like talk to some workers... she came back with a dumpy lumpy pillow inside a plastic bag and tried to give it to me!  Ugh!!!!

I left because the manager said there was no way to locate it tonight since all the cleaning workers had left for the day.  She had given me her information and asked me to call back in the morning.  I'm furious because I'm thinking someone stole my pillow - I mean, it's not super valuable but it was $99 when I bought it and it's Temper-Pedic and suuuuuuper comfortable.  People are known to take less notable things.

To assuage my intensely angry feelings, I decided to find my favorite place to eat in the whole world - Souplantation.  It's called Sweet Tomatoes out here but it was perfectly identical to the one in Rancho Bernardo that I used to eat at with my coworker buddies Audrey & Lauren (except that they still provide "premium toppings"... that ended in SD months ago - classy).  Along the drive, I put my headset on and filed a complaint with their customer service department.  And then voila! before I even reached the restaurant they called me (I didn't answer) and then they called Will who relayed the message to me that they had magically found my pillow and was ready for me to pick up!

LESSON: Never take no for an answer when something is important to you!  Just because they don't care about my pillow or my quality of life... doesn't mean I should be made to feel the same.  And look at all of my pillow's happy friends rejoice!!