and... cue contingency plan

Life has recently taken a nosedive.

I've gotta come up with a new plan for my life since the last one is officially in the crapper.

And this time, it's completely my fault.

Las Vegas

I realized I haven't really mentioned anything about my recent trip... Not because nothing happened but because I've been too busy playing catchup since getting back to get around to it!!

I drove down to Niagara on the Lake to meet Ange and leave her car at her dad's work. From there we took my car across the border (Ange might have flirted with the border guard a little bit) and then to our hotel for the night. It wasn't anything to write home about, but it was a place to park the car and sleep a little bit before heading out in the morning.

We went to Cracker Barrel for dinner (apparently it's THE place to eat in the US - it reminded me of the Crossroads in Elmira, which is all mennonite cooking).

It took forever to get to sleep on the Thursday night, and we were up again at 3:30am. Got ourselves dressed and ready to go and took the shuttle to the airport. I was incredibly impressed with the friendliness of all the security people at the airport.

Finally got on the plane (we were there at 5am and the flight didn't leave til 6:30... way too early) and then flew to Detroit. Stupid me forgot my headphones in my car and thus couldn't listen to music. Flew out of Detroit and arrived in Las Vegas at about 10:30am.

Got ourselves through the airport and outside into the nice warm air. Got a shuttle to our hotel and then went to find something to eat. We managed to be find some food and check in fairly early... and then off to the pool we went.

Spent a lot of the day laying poolside soaking up the (hot) Las Vegas sun. Drank some beers and then went for a walk over to New York, New York for dinner... on the way over there I managed to have a door swing back and hit me in the leg and cause me to bleed. For an epicly long time. *sigh*

After our naps we decided to go for a walk up the strip. Walked as far as Caesar's Palace and Ange found Serendipity - an ice cream place that's somehow connected to her favourite movie. Ate again...got this huge sandwich that I only managed to finish half of. Took the rest home and packed it in the garbage can under lots of ice.

I'm sure we did other things- mostly drinking beers here or there, I think... but eventually went to bed and got up the next morning.

Ate breakfast and checked our emails (there was free wifi in the food court) and then went out to the pool. Continued to burn ourselves to a crisp. Spent probably another 4 hours outside again. Went inside, changed and got ready to go for lunch at Burger Bar, which was between Luxor and Mandalay Bay. Walked over there, sat down and ordered... and then Ange's sweet tea somehow spilled all over her lap. She was drenched head to toe... so after lunch we had to walk back to the hotel room (3 hotels over!) and get her changed. Headed back out to the outlet mall south of the strip to do some shopping. I bought some strappy wedge sandals so that I could dress up.
Our bad luck of the day didn't end there though - while we were at the mall I managed to lose my cell phone. I didn't realize until I was back in the cab to go to the hotel. We drove around the block and back into the mall. I ran to the bench I'd been sitting on and looked for my phone - it wasn't there. I checked with the Nike store, not there... went to information to see if anyone had turned it in, but they hadn't seen anything. They told me to call the next day and they'd check to see if anything had been turned in.

Went back to the hotel, had another nap and then got all dressed up to go out for drinks at Mix, a club at theHOTEL, which is part of Mandalay bay. It's on the 64th floor of the place and overlooks the whole strip - pretty amazing view.

It was another late night by the time we got home...

Sunday morning was again spent poolside, but since it wasn't as sunny we didnt' stay out that long. Decided to walk up the strip further and see the stuff we hadn't managed to see before. Made it all the way up to the Wynn before we were exhausted. Ate a big lunch at a cowboy themed place at Treasure Island (mmm pulled pork sandwich) and then took the bus back to the hotel. On the bus Ange and I got into a massive giggle fit about the woman behind us smacking away on her gum and then the guy ahead of us who's XL sticker was still on the back of his shirt.

When we got back to the hotel we decided to waste some money in the slot machines. Once it got dark went for another quick walk to get some pictures of Vegas at night with my SLR.

Also, I called the outlet mall to see if anyone had found my phone - and they had!! I was amazed. They said I could come get it, but I figured I'd wait til Monday morning before catching our flight to get it... spare ourselves having to take a cab 2x.

Got dolled up again, this time wearing our "What Happens In Vegas" shirts that we'd made. We grabbed a bite to eat at the food court and headed out to MGM to try to get into Studio 54... which we couldn't. There was a private function going on. So, we headed over to New York New York and went to Rok Vegas, which wasn't a rock club... had a great time. We got a tonne of people to sign our shirts and made friends with some guys from Scotland who were there for a guy's bachelor party.

After a few incidents we headed over to this cool little piano bar also at New York New York. Stayed there for a while and then went back to our hotel to gamble a bit. I spent a grand total of $5. Hahah whoot!

Monday morning arrived and we got ourselves ready to go home :(
Checked out and took a cab to the mall to get my phone. After a bit of miscommunication it was determined that yes, my phone was there. I got it back and we headed towards the airport. However, on the way we realized we'd forgotten our passports in the hotel!! So back to the hotel instead and Ange ran to get them... she returned not too long later and informed me that because my name was on the room I had to go... so I ran up there and conveniently the maid was cleaning our room at the time. I got our passports and ran back down... back in a cab we got and to the airport. ... with just enough time to check in.

The flights were thankfully uneventful. We had to connect through Atlanta, which was kinda out of the way, but got back to Buffalo around 11pm.

I dropped Ange off at her dad's work and we parted ways.... and I drove back to London... got home around 2:30 or 3:00am... and immediately crashed.

Such a great trip. I'd love to do it again, but with more money to spend. It's not a cheap place to go, and you can't really spend more than 4 days there without getting overwhelmed (or needing a liver detox) but I think it was definitely worth it!!

Latest and Greatest Plan

I was sitting around today thinking about how am I going to work in the EU after I'm 30 if I can't get a working holiday visa - and then it hit me! I can get dual citizenship to Ireland and get a passport! Hurray!!

So I've been doing my research - if I've got a grandparent who was born in Ireland I can apply for citizenship. I have to provide a birth certificate, a marriage certificate and a death certificate. Not totally certain what to do after that, but I'm thinking I'll start the process soon.

Yay!!!

March Round Up

I've got to stop writing blogs about how I haven't written in ages... so I'll just recap March and maybe think of something exciting to say about April.

My Birthday - summed up in one word: AWESOME. I had a fabulous birthday. I got to see all my favourite people.. well, not ALL, but at least the ones who are in Ontario, and had a great time out at the bar. Tak was home from BC for the weekend and so he made it down to London for the party and brought apple fritters from St. Jacobs. Adrian and Ren came from Toronto and Brad, Andy and Huff came down from Waterloo. Even my brother and Lindsey made it. Pictures from Facebook:

My birthday, part 2 - Dave totally sucked at getting me a birthday present... but I got over it.

IUD - After more deliberation, I decided I'd go ahead with the lovely "knock me out and stick'er in" procedure. It won't be until April 30th, but I think it'll be great when it finally gets done.

Running - at the start of march I started running at the gym while watching  season 7 of 24. I was doing great - about 5km in 40 min, burning something around 440 calories. I was pretty impressed with myself until....

Mystery Illness - Just after my birthday I started getting this pain in my pelvic area that went through to my back. After about 4 or 5 days of this constant pain I went to the doc who thought maybe I had a kidney stone. He sent me for an ultra sound which resulted in nothing. However, I have a friend who is an anatomy student and she suggested that maybe I'd hurt myself running and that I'd done something to my hip flexor. I looked it up and it seemed completely plausible. So, I was told to stop running for a bit and see if it helped.... sadly and gladly, it has. However, I haven't been able to work off any of the food I've eaten. *sigh* Gotta find something to give me a cardio workout but doesn't result in pain.

Dave going to Japan - it's more or less official that Dave's taking off in Sept for 8 months. I'm still working through the logistics of getting a roomie and all that. I plan on switching bedrooms, giving up the bigger bedroom to the new person and taking the smaller room. However, I have to find a smaller bed to go in the "master" bedroom, and move my queen bed home and replace it with my double bed from the glen... so complicated! Most frustrating part is the fact that I will have to get it all done before I go to France, since Dave will be gone before I get home.

Vegas!!! - Okay, so not a march thing, but I'll be going to Vegas next week! I can not wait. I think it will be amazing... If only I could justify spending money on gambling...maybe then I'd end up rich. Hmm.

Reebok Easy Tone Shoes - I've been checking these out... They aren't nearly as fugly as the Sketchers ones. They look like normal running shoes but with rounded bottoms. However, they are stupid expensive. Like, $120 or something. HOWEVER - I was at Payless the other day and saw a pair of shoes that are really similar to the Reebok ones - but way less expensive!! Like, $45. So I think I might get them - and start walking at lunch time now that the weather is getting nicer.

Hmmm... what else. I have to make a turkey for Sunday. Dad decided that we have to have easter dinner. Fun. Lets hope I can wow my grandparents again with my awesome cooking prowess.

My Junk is Junk (Boys be warned!)

So, it's official - I'm turning in my girl card. Boys just do not have the same amount of troubles as girls do, nor do they have to endure the things girls do in order to be sure they are healthy.

After a year of wanting to get it done, I finally went in to get an IUD inserted. I am sick of the pill and want some type of birth control that doesn't require thought. After a zillion doctors over the last couple years I finally was at the point where I held the little box in my hand and presented it to the doctor and said "alright, put it in!"

It was supposed to be that easy.

However, as is the case with all my down-below experiences, it was not. It never is. Why? Well, my junk is apparently just that. Junk. Always fricking broken. God.

Remember this? Allie's story about why people should get the Gardisil vaccine instead of ending up like her. Well, that story leads into this...

The whole procedure started out awkward enough with the med student there watching on as the doctor explained what he was doing in extra detail. He explained the IUD and how it has strings. They like to cut the strings long, "so they just float around like wobbly spaghetti" (his words, not mine) because if they cut them short that they can be kinda pokey "which some partners don't really like". Hmm. No kidding. I'm sure guys would love the idea of being poked while doing it! After that, it was the standard lay on your back, feet in the stirrups routine. Warn the student not to insert speculum into wrong hole? Check. Look! Thats a cervix! Check. Swab the inside of me with a scratchy brush to make sure I don't get an infection? Sign me up!

And then things took a weird turn.. he goes "Have you ever had surgery on your cervix before?" and I said yeah, a couple years ago. And he goes "Hmm..." and not in a "well, that's interesting" kinda way. More in a "well, that's not good" kinda way.

So then he stops and says "We can't do this today..." and proceeds to explain that my fantastic cervix, whom I almost feel needs a name since it gets talked about so often, has healed up and has scar tissue pretty much making it closed. If he were to try to put the IUD in, I would probably be in paid akin to child birth. GREAT.

Thankfully my doctor is a nice guy and he went onto explain that all hope is not lost - I have the option to be put under and they will manually dilate my cervix. That's right. It's so painful that they knock you out. AWESOME. The whole thing is called a hysteroscopy. Look it up. Not fun sounding. At least he didn't use binocular action like the other doc doing my colopscopy did.

What's with me and various "scopy" treatments in the nether regions...

So now I have to make the decision whether it's worth my while to undergo minor surgery to have a piece of plastic with copper wrapped around it inserted into my uterus. Easiest form of birth control ever? Yes. Cheapest over the long run? Heck yes! ($11.99/60 months = 20c a month!) Worth being knocked out so the doctor can torture your insides? debatable..

Ack! Why me!?