Elvis Got Something Right

I have attempted to write a few posts within the last 2 months, but have yet to finish writing them. Most of them being a whole bunch of my gibberish that only I may understand, but maybe I'll get around to adding to them and making sense of them so they can be posted. Until then, I have decided that I needed to write a post about my baller ass vacation I just went on about two weeks ago. I've been on some pretty exciting adventures around the world, but this one was pretty much awesome. I love New York, but going back to Vegas and Cali made me not want to come back. I was praying that my flight back got canceled and there wouldn't be anymore flights back to NYC from Vegas EVER.
Ever since my first visit to Vegas when I was on the new stores team, I've been fascinated with the place. Vegas is like my obsession, my addiction, I can't get enough of it. It's my heroin. I just love walking the strip, seeing the bright flashing lights everywhere, walking from casino to casino, hearing the chips click together, the people clapping and high fiving because they just won it big, the dinging of the slots. Even the smoky air and the Spanish people handing out hooker cards doesn't really bother me.

This year was my 3rd visit to Sin City. It seems as though every year I go it gets better and better. The first year, I was there for 2 weeks and had to work most of the time, but still went out every single night. I think we went to every single casino in Vegas. We didn't really go to any of the clubs or very many bars, but that was okay. I wanted to explore every inch of Vegas, and I wouldn't have been able to do that cramped up in a crowded club. That trip I made unforgettable friends from my team, learned how to play Blackjack from the best teacher and started my first hand with my boss's money, went on a sideways elevator ride at the Luxor, encountered my first In N Out burger, was almost tricked to going to a strip club for the first time, watched the Bellagio water show, walked the streets of Old Vegas, went atop the Stratosphere, along with many other unforgettable, unmentionable memories.

My 2nd trip was even more baller than the first. This time I didn't have to worry about working. This time was all play. I went with two others from the New Stores Team, BreeAnna and Sarah. We put our Hilton points together and stayed at what we called "The Barry Hotel", which was way nicer than what the team had put us in the year before. Each night we spent there got better and better. Each morning, or really afternoon, we thought how could we top the night before. But somehow we managed. The first night was pretty chill, we just walked around and explored the strip.

Our 2nd night, we went to the Thunder from Down Under show. We were in shock. We couldn't keep our mouths closed. That year, Sarah got to go on stage, not for a lap dance though like we thought. After the show, we went to the night club LAX. The first second we walked in, the bouncer said they needed models in VIP so we were escorted to a table with professional poker players. One of the guys, which was also on the show Survivor, took a liking to BreeAnna.

The next night, the poker player took us to dinner at the Bellagio where we watched the water show from our table at the restaurant. After dinner, I had a craving for some Blackjack. We ended up at a $500 limit table. Of course I did not gamble my money at this table. $25 is the highest I go! After loosing $4,000 of someone else's money, we went to a really awesome nightclub at the Wynn where we had our own table. Some other team members met up with us. After leaving the club, we decided to play Blackjack again. I began to play with the poker player's chips again, but after I kept getting in trouble for touching my chips after the flip (I hate when my chips are crooked and not facing me), the chips were taken away from me. After poker player's friend won it big on one hand, we received a comped room. The room was baller. It had a built in bar with any kind of alcohol, sparkly red couches, a massage table, and my favorite part, an awesome view of Vegas. We ended up watching Kong Fu Panda while we waited for room service. After waiting 2 hours, it was worth it. The servers unwrapped plate after plate of our breakfast. $500 worth of food. After eating lobster for breakfast and watching the sunrise over Vegas, I knew I was in love with this city.

My 3rd trip to Vegas was with Sarah. We were a little hesitant about going because we knew we probably wouldn't be able to compete with last year's trip. I still don't know if we really did beat last year's trip, but it was a good tie if we didn't. The first night, we arrived late but we knew we had to live it up. We couldn't just hang out in our castle(we stayed at the Excalibur). We ended up at Mandalay Bay to see where our night might take us. We started off at a bar in the middle of the casino. It seemed like a pretty dead night, but it was a Sunday at 1 in the morning. A few minutes later, we caught the eyes of a couple of guys. We ended up playing Blackjack with them, where I lost my first and only $100 of the trip. As we were playing, I noticed they were wearing rings on their left hands. Awesome, hit on by married men. They were cool guys to hang out with and we had some very interesting conversations, but I'm no homewrecker. Remind me if I ever get married to never let my husband go to Vegas without me! We took a cab back to our hotel where I decided to run around like a bat with my black cape and proceed to do a line dance while waiting for the buffet breakfast. We ate our breakfast in our night out gear while everyone around us looked freshly showered and ready to conquer their day. After being up for over 24 hours, we decided to call it a night, or day rather.

3 hours later, we were ready to go again. We spent the rest of the day shopping and wandering around the strip. That night we decided since we had so much fun last year and they performed in our hotel, we'd go to see the Thunder from Down Under again. This year definitely blew me away. This year I got pulled up on stage for a dance. Come to find out later, I was actually requested by the guy David that danced with me. After the show, just like last year, we went to have our picture taken with the Thunder. This year was a little different though. We were told we were the cutest girls at the show and they asked us to meet them for drinks at the bar outside. We hung out with the hot Aussies the whole night. I ran around the castle with crystal eyed, hilarious, hot, Aussie/French David. When I say we ran around the castle, we really did. I don't know why it is that after I have a few drinks, I think I can out run anyone. We had a foot race down the hallway. Let's just say I almost beat him. I think I even tried tackling him a few times. He's also a semi-pro football player.

It was another night that I saw the sun before I got any sleep. That Katy Perry song "Waking Up in Vegas" is such a lie. I felt like I never really woke up in Vegas because I never really went to sleep in Vegas. The song should say, "that's what you get for not sleeping in Vegas". I would have definitely sang that song in the Vegas airport and on my flight back to NYC. Anyway, so it was another morning in Vegas with a grand total of 5 hours of sleep the entire trip. It was time for some relaxation in Cali. I was sad to part with my Thunder. I wanted to pack him up in my suitcase and take him back to NY so he could talk to me in Aussie and French and I could observe him like he was a statue in my apartment. As Sarah would sing, "Stella fell in love with a stripper".

I decided to write about our Cali/Anaheim/Mexico part of a trip in another post since this post is getting rather lengthy and all things Vegas. After our relaxing part of the trip, which we definitely needed or I probably would have died, we drove back to Vegas for one last bang. This stay we decided to go back to "The Barry Hotel", only to find Barry was not there anymore! The Hilton used to have a huge picture of Barry Manilow hanging on the top, but it was missing! This made us sad. Since we hadn't laid in the sun our entire vacation, we started our last day laying by the pool. Then we went souvenir shopping and ate at the Peppermill. That night we ended up going back to the Luxor to go to LAX. We got distracted by a promoter that took us to Cathouse. We ended up hanging out with some Vegas locals for a while. We finally made our way to LAX. We got in free, of course, and walked right in. We danced for about 30 seconds until the bouncers in VIP came up to us, told us we danced like rock stars, stamped our hands with a smiley face, and brought us up to VIP. There, we hung out with some Austrians, who I could barely understand, and a really cool songwriter/music producer that was celebrating his birthday.

By the end of the night, it was time for Sarah to catch her flight. In order to get our free U.S. air flights, we had to take different ones. Her flight was at 6:45am. I went back to the Barry, slept for 2 hours, and woke up to Chinese animae on my TV. Still drunk, I ended up staggering downstairs and into a taxi. At the airport my night of fun, lack of sleep, and popped bottles from VIP hit me like a ton of bricks. I somehow managed my way through security with my stomach contents still inside my body. Once I got to the gate, now that was a different story. I've been on many many flights before, but I knew this one would be the most rough flight I've ever taken. Not only was I going through a hangover while being awake, but I had been awake for almost 24 hours before I got all of 2 hours of sleep, I was without my winter coat for when I got back to NYC because I had somehow managed to lose it, and sad to leave Vegas yet again. If I hadn't been so exhausted and felt like drowning myself in a toilet bowl, I probably would have shed a few tears.

When I arrived back to NYC, I stood outside the airport for 30 minutes, without my coat, waiting for the shuttle to my car. I had avoided yet another huge snow storm but snow was everywhere. I finally arrived back at my apartment only to slip on the ice and fall on my ass. I just sat there thinking, why the hell did I leave Vegas again? It was like New York's way of saying, "Welcome back Stella!"

So, in conclusion of my Vegas adventures, I have decided that Sarah and I (and BreeAnna when she can make it!) are pretty much Vegas socialites. We should have our own reality show, "Sarah and Stella Take Vegas". Next Vegas trip, we are going to have a huge black guy with sunglasses and a black t-shirt follow us around. The paparazzi will be all over us!

My Mind...My Worst Enemy

Why is it that when I get my mind on something, I can't clear my head no matter what I do? Is it just me, or does everyone constantly have something on their minds? It's like I think so much about something, I become overwhelmed and obsessed with whatever I'm thinking about. Sometimes I'll be driving, and my thoughts fill my brain to the point where I'll forget I'm driving. It's like I'm on cruise control. At times I'll be at work floor supervising and my thoughts will elude my head and I will just smile and laugh out loud at what I'm thinking about. Customers sometimes give me weird looks when that happens.

It seems the older I get, the worse my mind gets about constantly thinking. In the past whenever my thoughts would begin to overload my brain, I would just go for a run, listen to music, watch a movie, keep myself busy at work, or have a few drinks. Now when I run, I think even more. Music inspires my thoughts. The movie is on and I'm watching the colors on the screen move, but I have no idea what's going on. Work is sometimes a distraction, but sometimes it makes it worse when someone says something or I see something that makes me think of a memory and makes my thoughts come back. Drinking will numb the thoughts for a little bit, but usually by the end of the night my thoughts will just overflow my brain and will make me say or do something stupid. The only thing that can really distract me from my thoughts is another thought.

What am I constantly thinking about? A multiple of things, but usually I obsess over a thought for a while until I get distracted by another thought and move on to obsessing over that thought. I usually think about what could be, should be, would be, the what ifs and the reality. Usually it's about a person, a guy, until another one comes along for me to think about. Or a place I wish I was, especially when I'm at work and don't want to be there. Or my new storyline for the book I'm going to one day write, but have yet to get around to doing so. BTW I've had about 50 different storylines which I have yet to get out of my mind and into words.

I obsess about these thoughts to the point that I pull my hair, cup my arms over my head to try and stop listening to myself, scream or even try to talk them out of my head. Usually the only time I can have a 100% clear mind is when I'm sleeping. But even when I'm sleeping I have dreams about my thoughts or have dreams that make me wake up with different thoughts and then I spend the rest of the day obsessing about those thoughts.

I don't know if this endless Stella babble makes sense to anyone else, but this is how my brain works. It never stops. And the more I think, the more I bite my nails. And I've noticed biting my nails has gotten worse. If I keep thinking the way I do, I'm not going to have fingers pretty soon!