Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Amazing Show

Still don't like Vegas that much but I have seen Second City and Mystere... and loved them!! Second City was very funny - great sketch and improv.

And then there was Cirque du Soleil - OMG AMAZING! I've seen them on TV and to see them live was just so wonderful!!!! Liquid muscle in motion. A completely engrossing production. The music, the costumes, the lighting - there are not enough superlatives. I'm so very, very glad I went (and was so tempted to buy another ticket.) When I'm rich I would be so tempted to come to Vegas just to see Cirque.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Las Vegas!

I'm going to Vegas, baby!!!

At least that's what I was going to say last week when I had every intention of posting. The annual Human Resources convention is in Vegas this year and my company is sending me! I have been so excited - about the conference, about seeing Vegas for the first time, about just getting away for a few days!

Well, I can now say I would never choose to come to Vegas on my own. I have been long away from my fervent church days, but even without my past Christian intensity, my heart is sad and sickened by Vegas.

I was riding the conference shuttle back to my hotel (staying at the Flamingo - dive of a big hotel - definitely do not recommend it) and watched this guy on the sidewalk handing out business card sized ads for girls wearing a t-shirt proclaiming your dream girl can be in your room in 20 minutes or less!

Yech! And all the ads for the strip tease shows and erotica shows...

Vegas is pretty overwhelming for a small town girl. I feel better today than yesterday when I was trying to deal with sensory overload on about 4 hours of sleep. There are some pretty things and I hope to see a few good shows (I'm going to Second City tonight). Still, the Strip just kindof turns my stomach.

The conference itself has been great so far. I attended a pre-conference session on finance and accounting for non-financial peoples. Yawn, yawn...I know. Very important stuff to know though. So I signed up for this 8 hour course. Turns out we had an extremely gifted teacher who presented the basics with humor, interaction and really got how hard it is for the non-financially trained mind to wrap their heads around terms like assets, owner's equity, accumulated depreciation, retained earnings and the like.

The opening session of the conference featured a performance by Ruben Studdard and the keynote address by Lance Armstrong. It was cool to think I've heard Ruben live, but I'm not a huge fan of his. Lance Armstrong related his cancer story and passion to find a cure through the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Did you know his foundation has sold 60 million of those yellow Live Strong wrist bands? At a buck each, that's a lot of fundraising! Anyway, he was funny and passionate and good speaker.

Tomorrow is busy, busy, busy with classes and such. I fly back home on Wednesday and then I'm off work until July 5th! YEAH!!!! AV and I are going to take a 3 day camping trip to a local lake for some fishing and swimming. Should be fun!