Halloweens Past

This is Katie and me in our Trick or Treating heyday. I was Agent Scully from the X-Files and Katie was a teenage something or other.

This is the last year that my almost fiance would allow me to Trick or Treat, so we made it a good one.

This feels like a million years ago....

This was Friday night at our Jr. High Midnight Madness. That's Grace, one of our awesome catechists.

That's all the pics I have on this computer. Sorry, I didn't get a chance to scan more. Plus, my mom has all the good ones from when Anthony and I were little. Maybe I'll grab some of those for next year. As you can see, I love Halloween and dressing up. I miss the kid fun of it, but at least I get to celebrate through my job. We are going to a party tonight. I'm going as a sexy Fraulein. That one wasn't going to fly at Midnight Madness. Well, I better go before all the little ghouls and goblins get here. I can't wait to give out all our candy, especially since I keep eating it all!

Happy Halloween Everybody!

Full Disclosure

In the wonderful world of Youth Ministry you never really know what your gonna' get. For example, I have about 50 kids signed up for our Halloween party tomorrow, but I don't know if I'm really going to have 35 or 60. With time, I am learning to go with the flow with this stuff. In general, most of our kids are great and just a joy to work with, but for every 10 or 12 good kids there is one "wild card". They couldn't be more different, either. For instance, we have a young man who is truly a juvenile delinquent, a very emotionally troubled young woman who we have to coax into class every week and watch every second because she will leave if no one is watching and a handful of kids who seem to have no clue about social norms and appropriateness just to name a few. I won't lie and say that they aren't a challenge, but my job is to minister to all the kids not just the good ones.

Here's my issue: there is a young man in our Tuesday class who constantly misbehaves, makes inappropriate noises, can't focus and throws things at other students. Sounds fun, I know. What makes him different than the other students is that through observing him I believe he has some kind of mental disorder which is causing the misbehavior. However, no one said anything when he was regsitered in the class. Not that we would kick out kids with mental problems. On the contrary, we try our best to accomodate all students. A few years ago, two Downs girls that many of you know were a mainstay in the program and the other students included them in everything. Students with disabilities actually help the other kids develop compassion and caring for people who are different. My question is whether parents should be expected to disclose their child's issues or disabilities? Of course, some cases like Downs are pretty obvious. But, a perfect example of my not having a clue happened just last year. A young man came with us on retreat and behaved strangely and inappropriately most of the time. He couldn't focus. He barely participated at all. I spent half the retreat yelling at him before I was informed that he was mildly autistic. Then it all made sense, especially when I caught him mesmerized by an icicle outside. (That was a scary moment. All I could imagine was the stupid thing stabbing him in the eye! Thank God it didn't.) I couldn't help but be irritated that the parents sent their kid off with us never thinking to inform us of his special needs. I feel the same way about the young man on Tuesday night. Yesterday, I caught him running back and forth on the dark side of the Activity Center as if someone was chasing him, but no one was there at all. Who are his parents and where are they? If he does have a mental disability then we need to find appropriate ways to engage him in activities and discontinue the normal punishments and yelling. They don't work, but with a little information I could figure out what could work which would save a lot of grief for us and our catechists who have all been wondering about him. With my Psych background it would be easy, but I'm not sure that I should spend a lot of time worrying about it until I find out for sure what his issue is. Do I call his parents and risk offending them if he isn't actually disabled? Do I just hope it comes out some day down the road? I feel like I'm in a very awkward position. I really wish that parents felt it was their responsibilty to fully disclose any issues that we may need to be concerned about whether it be mental, emotional, physical or behavioral. It would sure help a lot.

BOO!

As you can see, Andy and I survived the haunted houses- barely. Actually, we had a really fun time but only ended up going through four out of the five haunted houses we paid for. The reason for this was that the line was too long for the last one and we were sufficiently freaked out after the fourth tour. Now, going into it we knew that it was just a bunch of kids dressed freaky jumping out at us. Although, before we went through one of them the carnie briefed us by saying that the actors won't touch us,if we don't touch them. That made me nervous, so I countered with a timid "Am I going to want to touch them for some reason?" I guess some stupid kid went through with his girlfriend and tried to show-off by punching one of the actors in the eye. What a jerk. Of course, as I was going through I knew that half the kids had to be in Junior High because most of them were shorter than me and I'm pretty short! So here I am screaming and jumping every time a twelve year old comes near me! (That sounds about right. lol!) Andy didn't seem too terribly nervous until the last one. That one freaked us both out. He kept slowly side-stepping around corners (of course, I made him go in front of me!) and we both worked hard to anticipate every opening that someone could jump out from. Like that helped! I still screamed away(Andy did too). I would never make it in a high stress job in the FBI or police department. The nerves alone would kill me by 30! So, we finally emerge from one trailer with our stomachs in our throats to find a dark maze with all these Jr High ghouls coming at us. I kept telling them to go away which only made them more eager to follow us. Sigh. I ended up so disoriented in trying to find my way out that Andy and one of the ghouls had to show me where to go. Then I was thankful for our little stalker. We thought we were out of the woods, but no; there was still a trailer ahead. We were totally ready to go and I kept saying, "I really don't want to go in there. I really don't want to go in there." I have decided that I really hate strobe lights. Half of the hallways were lit with them, but this last trailer had a completely dark hallway which didn't make either of us very happy especially when this huge guy jumped out in front of Andy and all he could say was "You're a giant!" It was hilarious. After that, we ran into a monster who wasn't ready for us. He was busy looking out a crack in the wall, so Andy tapped him on the shoulder. That was pretty funny, too. We were almost done, but still had to endure one more spook which we both screamed like crazy over and ran out the door and all the way to the parking lot to go home. Some other highlights were my choice words at a kid dressed as Jason who kept following me around ("Get away from me. Get the @*%# away from me!!!"), my running dialogue of "Stay the hell away from me. Don't jump out at me. Don't follow me. Leave me alone." (I'm sure the actors were laughing at me. I was pretty freaked out.), the stupid kid who crept up behind me in line and made me jump more than anything else and the evil clown in a wheelchair that neither Andy or I could look at due to an intense fear of clowns. Of course, Lisa had to point out the fallacy in our fear of the disabled clown: "How fast can a clown in a wheelchair really go? That's not very scary." Ok, so she's right, but that didn't really matter at the time! All in all, we had a really fun time, but I think we did get it out of our system for a while. Lisa and Don are breathing a collective sigh of relief. So, thanks Andy for being my haunted house date.

Here's something really scary... While I was sitting here writing this, I heard a big crash outside. We didn't have a clue what it could be or if it had anything to do with our house. So, we went outside and found that someone had crashed into our neighbor's truck parked across the street from our house. I know that I am not the most gifted driver at times, but how in the world do you run into a parked car?! All we could figure was that the driver was speeding around the bend of our street (which is not uncommon, unfortunately.) and wasn't paying attention. Geeze.

Humbled

This morning Don and I attended the Music Ministry Retreat at church. It was a very nice experience that hopefully will continue to grow. It was definitely over-due. We didn't really do or hear anything that we haven't before, so if that's what people were expecting they probably would be disappointed. However, it was nice to hear it from a different voice. The only parts that I didn't particularly enjoy were when some of the participants dominated the conversations with stories and anecdotes that were simply way too long. Sure, details are nice to an extent, but I'd much rather have someone get to the point and let me ask questions to fill in the missing pieces.

A lot of the retreat ended up focusing on what a receptive and wonderful community we minister to. The participants kind of steered it this way, and I kept thinking, "Who in the world are these people singing to?!". Because, any given Sunday, I don't feel particularly supported by the community or even my peers. Yet, they went on and on about these miracle stories of church songs turning people around and how blessed they all are to be a part of the groups they are in with such wonderful respective leadership. Needless to say, no one from our group was there, and even if there had been, I'm not sure there would have been much love to share. Even the retreat leader went on and on about the very first Mass she attended and how it was the music that cemented her choice to become a parishoner. She went a step further to say that it was really one song, Be Not Afraid, sung by one person. She said that she felt the singer's heart and prayer through that song and in the midst of hundreds of people believed that it was sung just for her. So, right then she decided that this was the parish for her.

Many of you know that I have spent a lot of time recently questioning why we do what we do. Does any of it matter to anyone? When I see the the front row filled with slouching teenagers who I know masquerade very differently on-line or the throngs of people who come in late and leave early or smile my way through a Psalm that only a handful of people sing along with it really causes me to lose heart and faith in the ministry that I have given so much of my life and love to. I have a tendency to dwell on the negative. I spend more time worrying about the two people in the group who just can't seem to get on-board or the back row of giggling trouble-makers than anything else. The unfortunate thing is that years of feeling this way have clouded my perception of the truth. I don't think that anything we do is any more than white noise or simply background music for a social hour. Does anyone really pay attention enough to realize that 8 times out of 10 the music we have chosen complements the readings of the day? Shoot, most musicians don't even seem to get it! I could go on and on with my disgruntled feelings... So, our quitting the 5:00 group is probably a really good idea, although it didn't become real until today. Today was the first time that we really felt the finality and sadness of our decision. Up 'till now, we've been counting down the days. Today, I wanted to stop the clock.

So, what does the preceeding paragraph have to do with today's retreat? A few good points were made today in that no one ever said that we would be appreciated or compensated for what we do and that we all need to remember to play/sing for God first, the people second and ourselves third. Well, I have spent so much time feeling ineffectual, worthless and dispensable that I have completely forgotten that there are people out there who "get it". Referring back to the music minister who sang Be Not Afraid, it had to have been Debbie or Gina or Cathy; one of those old-timers that seem to have everyone from "Hello". How floored was I when it was revealed that that person was me. I could hardly believe that I had actually touched someone so deeply through my song. Here I am obsessing over everything that people don't like or all the things that go wrong when something has gone very right. I know it's not all about me; it was a Holy Spirit moment that I obviously didn't control. I was so humbled at that moment. I guess we really don't know how God works through us and our song but that He does. I hope that I never forget or question that again.

Trade-in

We do it to our cars and right about now I'd like to do it to my body. I am so tired of always having something wrong with me. I don't want to take anymore drugs or have to worry about Cranberry juice and pills, Vitamin B, water, cotton underwear and hypo-allergenic lotions just to mention a few. I'd like to be normal for just once. Of course, at 4:30 this morning my body had other plans. Apparently my latest UTI did not go away as I had hoped. Sigh. I was so excited Monday, because it was the first day in about two months that I wasn't on some prescription med. It looked like I was finally out of the woods. I should have known better. I know that in the grand scheme of life these aren't really big deal problems. They are annoying at best and painfully uncomfortable at worst. What has me down today is that my entire life has been one doctor visit and prescription after another for a whole host of ailments. The older I get, the less patient I am with this stuff. I don't want to take antibiotics anymore. I've always hated taking them due to the resistance factor: the more often I take them, the less effective they are in small doses. I wonder if this is what has happened to me with my recent issue. I can't imagine using drugs recreationally. I don't even want to take them when I need them! Maybe the drugs weren't strong enough to knock it out completely. So, here I am three weeks later feeling worse than I did before. It doesn't make sense: I have been doing everything I'm supposed to do, and I have been eating healthier than any other time in my life. I've always said that my body has a mind of it's own! Plus, the bank is irritated with me because I called out. As if I'd be getting a whole lot of work done between running back and forth to the bathroom. Of course, they don't see it that way. It's not like I'm getting paid to stay home. Oh, well. There are people there who would come in to work during a heart-attack if they could. Bank martyrs- what a worthy cause.

I know that this is just a whine fest, so thanks for indulging me. Maybe I'll get all the physical problems out of my system now so that when I'm old I've used them all up. I do think I'm going to have arthritis in my knees, though. If that's it, it won't be so bad.

Passive Agressive

It started out small. Just a scratch. But, she picked at it and picked at it. Infection spread. This isn't right. I'm right. They're wrong. They did me wrong. What about me? They're going to pay. Fingers point outward never in. Soon, the world revolves around the gaping wound. Anyone who could have helped has long since been demeaned and discarded. She cut them down to feel tall. Her misery is their fault. Now, her pain is her purpose. She snakes and she slithers, stalking her prey. A smile on her face and a knife in her hand never knowing that she is killing her chance for all that she's wanted.

Say what you mean and mean what you say; life's too short to live it this way.

Giggles

I'm sure that we have all had that mortifying moment when you erupt into uncontrollable giggles at the very worst time. Without fail this used to happen to my brother and me during our family bedtime prayers. We'd all stand in a circle holding hands, recite the Hail Mary, the Our Father and take turns adding our personal litany of petitions at the end. Anytime that Anthony and I had to hold hands it was just too much for us. All we had to do was look at the other out of the corner of our eye and the shaking would start. My dad would get so mad at us! We just couldn't control ourselves. Sometimes, we even got my mom going. I'd like to think that I have outgrown this giggling weakness, but this weekend I discovered that I have not. Don and I had finished our set at Saturday's Cabaret Night, so we decided to visit with some friends and family who were attending. I ended up sitting next to my friend, Mark, which I should have known was a bad idea, because we are notorious for getting each other in trouble and embarrassing Don in public. Don was actually across the room, so we just embarrassed each other. So, Mark and I ended up sitting next to each other during a few sets which included one very difficult one to sit through. This particular singer started out ok, but very soon we all discovered that each song should have been dropped 2 steps at least. Unfortunately, the memorable thing about the set was the painful screeching that we were all forced to endure. Of course, Mark and I could not have been sitting in the back; oh, no, we were right in the line of fire, and the person performing kept looking at us the whole time! I did my very best to be an adult and gracious fellow performer. I plastered a very pleasant smile on my face as I clenched my hands in my lap and kicked Mark under the table. We would have made it through if during a particularly screechy note Mark had not been drinking and spit it out! Then, we lost it. It could not have been better comedic timing if he had planned it. I couldn't even look at him. My abs and hands hurt so bad from trying so hard not to laugh. I hope no one was watching us, because we really were trying to be polite. Oh, well.

As always, there are tons of things going on for us. Some are the same ol', same ol'. But, these are the things I'm really starting to look forward to: Haunted Houses! Andy and I have never been, so we're going to check them out this weekend. Pretty fun. We'll get it out our system and probably never have to go back. Holiday stuff: I love all the Holiday preparations. I'm working on a village house right now and will start my ornaments after that. Wow! The Auction: I'm really ready to start working on our Standards set again, so this will be a great thing to get us back into that area. Christmas stuff: I can't wait to go to the Magical Forest and all the Christmas parties and such. Midnight Mass: For the last few years, I have not wanted to do Midnight Mass, but I went along with it. I'm actually excited about it this year, though. I hope it goes well. January 8th: Our last 5:00 Sunday Mass. January 12th: Anniversary #4! Yippee! End of January in New York: Yes, I know it's gonna' be cold... I am so looking forward to our first "real" vacation since our Honeymoon. It is long overdue. We haven't planned anything yet, but hopefully we will get some things booked in the next week or two. We've had a lot of good advice, so it's starting to seem more do-able now. So, it looks like we have a lot coming together to help usher us into a new chapter in life.

In the general vein of much needed change and the imminent close of 2005: the year that sucks, I want to send out some prayers, good wishes/vibes etc. Please keep these people in your thoughts and prayers: Jessica and her mom; Laura, Doreen and "the Boy"; Debbie and Dottie, Antonio and Jane and my sister-in-law, Lisa, who has learned the unfortunately familar lesson regarding My Space and the power of interpretation. I guess there really isn't a safe place to express one's views/life without coming under personal attack. Sorry, you had to deal with that.

Now, I'm off to work up my WW Monday dinner. Tonight's menu: Tequila and Jalapeno Chicken and a garden salad. Yum! (Plus, I get to try out my George Foreman grill for the first time. Double the fun!)

Quandary

Like some of you who shall remain nameless (lol), I am also an on-line snoop. I admit that I have checked out just about everyone on the County Assessor's web page and the White Pages. Let me tell you what a wealth of info that is! Leave it to the County to publish all kinds of information that people go to great pains to keep private. You really can find out just about anything you'd want to know about people. It's just a puzzle that you have to put the pieces together. Here is my quandary: I think I found a few of my friends that I have lost contact with over the years. Of course, I'm thinking way ahead to Christmas and wondering if I should add them to my card list on the off chance that I have actually located them? Or, is there a reason why we're not in each other's lives anymore? Nothing ended badly at all. We just drifted apart. People move, get married; I guess that's just what happens. But, I think of them and all the great times we had together often. Maybe we aren't even the same people anymore. Has too much time passed? I think that one of my friends is at least seperated from her husband. She sends forwarded emails from time to time, but no personal notes. Recently, she sent out a new email address with the request to keep in touch. How would I start that conversation: "Hey, I was snooping around on the County website and have some questions about what I saw."? Probably, not a good idea, although I am soooo curious. You can look up marriage licenses (Yup, Brit and her oops wedding are on there.) but not divorce decrees. But, then again, there is a reason why we keep our dirty laundry private and that should be respected. Would you want to receive a card or email from someone you hadn't heard from in a while, or would it just be really weird? I think that I would be happy, but I usually don't see things the way everyone else does.

Holy Windstorm, Batman!

One thing I learned this weekend: you can't count on the weather to cooperate (not even in beautiful Las Vegas). And if you do bet on good weather, make sure to have a contingency plan. You may be asking yourself where these thoughts have come from, and you're in luck, because I'm about to tell you! We attended a wedding at the Lake Mead Marina on Saturday night. On paper, it sounded really nice: a mild October dusk overlooking picturesque Lake Mead. Sigh. We enjoyed a leisurely drive from one mountain range to another.

Over the Spaghetti Bowl and through the barrio to a Lake Mead wedding we go...

The wedding was actually a Jewish ceremony, which was very interesting. I'd never been to one before, so it was educational. I really liked how eloquent the nuptial prayers were. The wording was a lot more beautiful than the Catholic counterpart, although I love Catholic weddings. It just seemed more intimate but not in a spectator "us" and "them" kind of way. It was very nice. The breeze started up during the ceremony, so we were pretty excited to take shelter in the reception tent. It was shelter for a while. I'll illustrate my point in song:

(Think Wizard of Oz)
What happened was just this:
The wind began to switch- the tent to pitch
and suddenly the wall flaps started to unhitch...

And O, what happened then was rich.
The tent began to pitch. The buffet table took a slitch.
Full wine glasses crashed onto the floor as we waited for those who'd been hitched, which was not a happy situation for this girl who had an itch...
which began to twitch and almost made her more than a stitch
of what could be a Wicked Witch.

Hold your applause, please. Fortunately, the wind did die down after it had destroyed the hair we had painstakingly perfected at home and force-fed us literal "sand"wiches. Everything I ate after that had just a hint of earthiness that did not please the palate. Oh, well. I think the bride and groom had a good time. They seemed very happy. I don't know them very well, but Don has been in bands with them seperately at different times, so it was cool to say that we were there for both of them.

Ok, here's the vent (other than the wind): Why are female vocalists so self-important? Please try to stifle your laughter or the urge to utter the phrase, "Well, isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?!". If I have ever behaved this way (recently) please shoot me: the end of the reception became open mic/band night because a third of the guests were "band" people, which was cool. Don even got up with his former bandmates to do a Beatles tune. That was great. No one was showing off; They were just having fun like old times. Enter the gaggle of female vocalists: Other than the bride, there were at least three super diva, mostly middle aged women vying for the big reception spotlight (big, flippin' deal! Anyway...) They all over-sang everything. I'm not sure that they knew how to do anything but belt. It actually pained me from time to time to think of how much their singing had to be hurting them. They weren't bad singers... they were just so over-the-top with ornamentation and unnecessary hand gestures. One of the best moments was when one woman made the band her personal karaoke vehicle and did an impromptu key change during Black Velvet and visably tried to make it look like the band's fault that they weren't together. They weren't a crappy band; she was a crappy vocalist for trying to use them as a scapegoat, and we all saw right through her. Other women took their turns screaming their way through Classic Rock tunes, and I was struck by the thought of how laughable they all were. It's funny how instrumentalists are so easily "cool" while female vocalists so easily slip into a caricature that isn't anywhere near cool. In their quest for the lime-light, they kinda' cheapened it. Do "non-musical" people eat this stuff up? I don't know. I wasn't impressed. Their vocals were all right, but their attitudes ruined it for me (not to mention the fact the no one seems to know anything about dynamics and nuance anymore, but that's a topic for another day...). No, I was not jealous that it wasn't me and no one was begging me to sing. I didn't really care. There's a time and a place and this sure wasn't it, although Don did prod me a little to do a song with him to show them up (we didn't). It was actually nice to be anonymous for a change. It isn't very often that I'm the face that no one knows. I wouldn't want that all the time, but for one night it was refreshing.

Des and Dobby Sickness Update: We both went to our respective doctors today, and we are both suffering from extreme allergic reactions to something in the air. I'm suffering from hives (Joy!) and Dobby just has a really sad looking, itchy rash. My doctor thinks it's weed pollen for me, and the vet didn't speculate much further from grass pollen for Dobby. We both got a supply of Prednisone to help curb our itching, and we are to re-evaluate in a week. Dobby sure is my dog! He has allergies like me and now we're both taking 'roids! So, if we look more buff next time you see us, that's why (not really). lol. He's my perfect little hairy child. I guess God didn't really want me to have a cat, either!

Strange Days Indeed

Earlier this week, I thought that my itching problem had finally gone away. My legs were almost back to normal and I had stopped taking most of my drugs. Then last night happened... I went out with the bank crowd and when I got home I felt like someone had thrown me in a barrel of itching powder. My entire body itched uncontrollably: my back, my head, my belly, my neck, my legs... I think the only body parts that didn't itch were my hands and feet! To make it all worse, everywhere that I scratched became huge ugly welts. I think something is definitely wrong! I took a shower, slathered myself with lotion and knocked myself out with Benadryl. I felt better when I woke up this morning, but all the itching has come back. It takes every ounce of restraint I possess not scratch all my skin off. Unfortunately, I really don't know what to do. If I go to the doctor, they'll just tell me to do everything that I already have been doing. I already saw two doctors about my legs, and they didn't have too much to offer. Nothing seems to help, so I guess I'm doomed to an undetermined period of excrutiating itch. That sucks. I'm not alone, though. Poor Dobby, my dog, has a red rash on his belly that he keeps scratching and biting. I'm taking him to the Vet on Monday to check it out and update his shots. I'll get shots that day, too, so we'll be miserable together. He is my dog after all, so why should it surprise me that he's probably allergic to something too?! lol. Actually, we are wondering if he got into something in the backyard that is irritating both of us. Don is going to give him a bath and see if that helps at all. Plus, he stinks. Both dogs do. I was going to bathe Dobby myself, but Don had a really good point that if there is something about him that is creating this problem for me, it probably isn't smart to be in that much contact with him. Good thinking. Hopefully soon both of us will feel a lot better.

Maybe you heard that this week the Jewel died. I never thought I would see the day when FM104.3 KJUL no longer existed on the airwaves. It's been around as long as I can remember. I'm not embarresed to say that I actually liked the Jewel. For those who never got that far up the dial, the Jewel played mostly Standards and 50s/60s music. It was the one station that thrived on Sinatra and Barry Manilow (Yeah, I like Weekend in New England, so there!) and gave us hope that a Standards act could actually work. Of course, the residents of Sun City are in shock. I had many conversations with Seniors at the bank about how much they loved the Jewel. At the time, that was the only station that we played, and honestly I did get really burned out on hearing the same songs two or more times a day! If I hear Blue on Blue one more time... Burn-out aside, I am really sad to see the Jewel replaced by another Country station. I have no bad feelings toward Country, shoot that was my life for many years, but I do love the Standards and believe that there is still a place for them on the radio. There's a reason why we still like Unforgettable, At Last and Fly Me to the Moon. Songs just aren't written that well anymore. We need to celebrate the good old classics that were more about emotion than marketing. Unfortunately, Marketing is trying to send them to an early grave. (The demographic that listens to "new" Country buys more than the demographic that listens to Standards.) Goodbye, KJUL. I hope your music finds a good and happy home somewhere else.

Autumn Arriving

Today is the first day that feels more Fall than Summer, and I am so happy. 90 degree temps can go away for a while. Here are the things that I love about Autumn (even in Las Vegas): brisk air. cool evenings. Standard Time. leaves falling. caramel apples. pumpkins. 3/4 length sleeves. light jackets. boots. Chai Tea. Spiced Cider. Halloween. Thanksgiving. family gatherings. hay rides (I've never been on one, but I am assuming that I would like it.). festivals. darker colors. crock-pot meals. soups. light blankets. feeling cozy. nesting.

This has nothing to do with Autumn, but I thought that it was important to share. If any of you use Ebay and are signed up for PayPal, be very careful about opening emails that are supposedly from PayPal. I just received one, and thankfully Don warned me about this or I might have taken it seriously. Scammers are sending very official looking emails with a supposed link to PayPal's sight in order to gain credit card and bank info from normal PayPal users. You can't even tell that it's a bogus sight. When I logged in I purposefully used a bogus password. If it was really PayPal it shouldn't have accepted it, but this sight did accept my bogus password and directed me to a screen asking for my credit and bank account info to verify my PayPal account. Pretty sneaky. The other clue that this was a scam was that none of the logins were over secured connections. You probably already know this, but whenever you are logging into a sight that you have given sensitive info to, make sure that you see https not just http in the address. There's a lot of dishonesty out there. I guess the key is to be smart and stay alert.

Weekend Wrap Up

We just finished Don's big birthday weekend, and boy was it packed! Friday we had dinner with my parents which was nice. Anytime we get good chips and salsa it's great! After that we headed to a bar called BJ's. No, not the place in Summerlin. You've all probably passed it many times and didn't even know it. It's on Tropicana behind the MGM next to the gas station on the corner of Koval. This place has been in existence for around 40 years, and none of us even knew that it was there! The reason we ended up there was because the Second City guys had heard that all the wait staff wears lingerie and Fridays are Sexy School Girl nights. Need I say more? We walked into the place and it wasn't a dive but it sure wasn't the polished bar glam just up the road. The refreshing thing about it was how friendly everyone was and that at 10:00 on a Friday night there were plenty of places for us to hang out. One of the waitresses actually met us at the door and introduced herself. What a difference from the usually snotty waitresses and bartenders at the trendy Strip bars. Of course, the girls knew that they were being oggled at, but they didn't have the "yeah right; I'm so much better than you" attitude that we have gotten so used to when we venture out. Our cocktail waitress actually took pictures with us as if she were our oldest friend. This must be what old Vegas hospitality was like. The drinks were moderately priced and they comped Don's drinks all night because it was his birthday. What Strip bar would have done that?! I'd have to say that BJ's is one of the best kept secrets in town. Every now and then we stumble upon these cool little holes in the wall.

We didn't really know who was going to meet up with us that night. We figured that the usual Second City suspects would make it, but Don was very surprised when just about everyone in both casts showed up and stayed. Anthony even joined us at Midnight. It is so nice to see Don so respected and enjoyed by them. I'm really happy that they are part of our life. You'd think that as "theater people" there would be a lot of ego and drama. Of course, there is business drama, but they all really view themselves as a team and are so down-to-earth. They are good people.

Needless to say, Friday was a very late night! We slept most of Saturday away until we had to get ready for dinner with Don's fam. It was nice to catch up with everyone, since we've barely seen each other recently due to all of our hectic schedules. (It's not just us anymore, ha!) Doreen's b-day is next! What are we doing?

Saturday night, Don got his b-day present from me which was tickets to Avenue Q. I had listened to the soundtrack a few times, but was not into it as much as Don. OMG! It was hilarious! Seeing the show put a lot of the songs into better context for me, so now I'm finding that I have become a fan. You haven't lived until you've seen full puppet nudity live. lol! I really enjoyed the Bad Idea Bears, too. They cracked me up! "Why don't you order a Long Island Iced Tea?" I would definitely go and see it again. We ended up seeing the cast that didn't have John Tartaglia in it, although I called ahead and the board outside the theater said that he was supposed to play Princeton/Rod. They must have made a last minute cast switch without letting the hotel know. It would have been nice to see the originator of the role, but the other cast was really good, and Kate Monster was stronger than the girl on the CD. After the show, we ran into Sharon, Taree and the rest of the Liberty High Performing Arts Department. It sounded like they had last minute tickets, so we had no idea that we were all going to the same show.

I'm going to depart from the narrative for a second: I really don't care for the Wynn at all. The people employed there that we came into contact with were total jerks and even a majority of the patrons were rude. I'm so sick of walking down aisles and having people bowl me over! Am I so small that no one sees me?! Do they think, "Hey, I'm bigger than you! Get out of my way!"? This is happening to me more and more frequently. I guess people are just rude. It's all back to my selfishness argument. It's all me, me, me, me, me. Last night we had an interesting conversation about the difference between decadence and hedonism. Based on my last two weekends, I would say that the Bellagio is decadent but that the Wynn is hedonistic. It seems that they couldn't decide if they wanted to be the Palms or Bellagio, so they tried to meld the two. The atmosphere was much more Palms than Bellagio. I see Bellagio as a more elegant property while the Palms and now the Wynn are arrogant properties. How could they not be when the owners' names are plastered all over them? You'd have to be pretty full of yourself to put your name on the sign, (Yes, the Palms does refer to it's owners on the outdoor sign.) and it shows.

We closed out the festival with more sleeping in, Mass and dinner at Debbie's. Debbie and I tried new domestic things just for Don. Debbie made meatballs from scratch, and I made a very yummy Weight Watchers Key Lime Pie for dessert (the meatballs were yummy, too.). 3 points a slice and you wouldn't even know it!

So, that was the birthday. I hope he had a good time. I know that I did. Next up, Doreen!