Peter Gibbons Syndrome: My Dream of Doing Nothing: It's Been a While... I Know.

Hello all- if there is anyone out there after all!

I apologize for being so, so incredibly late on posting again. I realize all too well that it's been just over TWO MONTHS since I last wrote, and now there's an utterly ridiculous amount of thoughts, events, iPhone pictures, and ohmigod-no-she-didn'ts to post about! But should I just give up, knowing the sheer volume of it all? Nay!

First, the end of my tenure at my last job. It was a very nostalgic and sweet end, just like the beginning/end of The Notebook. (If you haven't seen it, forget it. You might as well just go take a short walk off a long pier/jump in a lake/enter-other-hackneyed-phrase-here. It's too late for you.)

Once that was out of the way, I could get down to brass tacks. Real business. Vacation. Ah. What's that? What is a vacation, you say? I know, my poor, fellow- clueless, corporate comrade. I didn't know, either, until I began to pack my bags. Once I "checked in" (via Facebook; is there any other way?) to the airport, it was the reality check I'd been waiting to cash for a LONG time.

Alex (boyfriend) and flew to Vegas fresh-faced and excited. Once we flew back four days later......

okay, we were still fresh-faced, but a little less excited to come home to the prospect of work (at a new job, for me), crappy weather, and our true reality.

But if the only alternative to not being nostalgic over trips is to never go on them, then no thank you, sir! I know I don't travel often by any stretch of the imagination, but I still need to be able to feel the freedom of a hotel room over 500 miles from my residence. I need to experience the buffet without thinking about how it will affect the fit of my pants. I need to reacquaint myself with the stomach-churning, stale atmosphere of an airplane cabin, as I cruise thousands of feet from land (safety) with hundreds of strangers and a chair that will....not.....get....comfortable. Argh! (I think for a time there, I slept with my legs folded up under me, and backwards.)

Without further ado, however- since I know how these things go- here come the photographic evidence of my trip, to prove I'm not an elaborate story-teller.

And, do you remember where we planned to go???

This... is the view from our room. If you can read the sign on the bottom left, you'll see where we stayed!

There are so many fun things to do in Vegas. Like go to terrible, "chintzy" gift shops! "If it's in stock...we have it!" Um... yes, isn't that how retail works?

And here's what you can buy at these stores! Lots and LOTS of crap! It's Craptacular!!

You can drink at the mall! I mean, you can drink EVERYWHERE! Awesome!!

Cigars! You can smoke them anywhere! Anywhere? Anywhere!

Of course, the grandiose NY NY was probably Alex's favorite. How can it not be? It's representative of his home state, and so COOL in design- inside and out!


The Encore. On our way to the Stratosphere from the main part of the Strip- too good of a photo op to go to waste.

View from the top of the Stratosphere. Bungee jump from this height? NOPE.

The view back down the Strip from the Stratosphere. If you squint, you can see Treasure Island- the little red one to the left of the gold Trump Tower. That mountain beyond is what we woke up to every morning.