Vegas babay

A trip to anywhere at Christmas time is usually not in the cards for anyone among the unemployed. Not true for me. My best friend started a new job her first job in over 15 years, this past summer and invited me to stand in as her 'other person' for the big Christmas bash.

This was not your ordinary office Christmas party. The company has agents all over the United States and my friend works at the corporate office here in Utah. It was a great opportunity for her and her co-workers to put a face to voices they spoke with on the phone many times a week. For me- it was a free trip to Vegas!

We had a great time. We drove down rather than fly, it gave us an opportunity to stop by my parents house on the way. Although it is ten degree's warmer where they live, they were both sick with the flu.

We got to Vegas Friday afternoon, just enough time to get cleaned up. The company scheduled a cocktail party -meet and greet for that night. It was a casual affair. I thought it might be a great chance to meet some handsome young bachelors while she was introduced to coworkers. That was not to be. Most were couples. The only other singles were young nineteen year old girls from her office.

The party was open bar. The company went all out to make it memorable for the employees. And it was. After about two hours we were led upstairs to an improv comedy show. We were not the only patrons at the show but the entire half circle front section of the theater was reserved for the employees and guests.

The comedy was rank and a bit uncomfortable for my friend as she works everyday with these people but funny nonetheless. The evening after the comedy was ours, but after a few drinks and the six hour drive, we were ready to call it a night.

We stayed at the MGM grand and after two nights there, I am convinced it is time to save up for a new mattress here at home. Those beds were like sleeping on a cloud.

Saturday was awesome. We had the morning to ourselves and played a little at the casinos. My friend regretted that we rode a roller coaster as it caused her residual whiplash to flare up. We didn't win big at the tables and we didn't lose either. That night we got to dress up. There was to be a dinner and a dueling piano show.
I have been to one other dueling piano show prior to this and  it is an experience I will always remember and was anxious to watch one again.
We took a taxi to a very swanky upper class country club. It was beautifully lit in the warm Vegas evening. The night began with hor devours to die for. Then a dinner buffet that made the hor devours taste even better as it was not that great.

After a little more socializing and a chance for the overindulge-rs to do just so, the entertainment began.

I was so excited for the show. It started out just as I expected, Billy Joel, Van Morrison, Jimmy Buffet and all the classics. There was a performance by a terrific Rod Stewart impersonator, complete with twirling microphone stand. And then, it turned quickly into a hair band concert of the 80's... one of the artists stood on the pianos belting out a guitar solo from AC/DC so loud I am sure they could hear it in San Francisco.

It was still fun to dance to and it got a little crazy as it was open bar that night also. I still had the time of my life. Let loose and let off some stress.

But am I really getting that old? Am I really turning into one of those old women? It was so loud my ears rang for hours afterward, the nineteen year old girls were driving me crazy, the guitar solos went on a little too long, and I preferred the softer classic rock to dance to.
The highlight of the evening? (insert sarcasm mark here) was getting hit on continuously by a very drunk older man while his fiancée stood two feet away glaring at me. Apparently I was the 'sexiest girl in the whole room' and was 'rocking my dress'.

But those were just the highlights. It was truly a great time and I was grateful for the time away.

Downside to the trip is in the ten minutes I spent with my parents, I managed to catch the flu and have been fighting it for a week. It could have possibly been that my friend was always directly too hot to my too cold and drove with the windows down partially in 20 degree weather.

My son is coming to town tomorrow to spend a couple weeks with us for Christmas I will be drinking up the Vitamin C and resting up to make this the best Christmas yet!


Anyone ever been to a dueling piano show? Do you prefer it up loud and crazy? Am I acting like an old lady?  I can take it - tell me the truth     Maybe it was the flu coming on.

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it. - Patrick Young

Old Mother Earth is wrecking all sorts of havoc this month it seems. With The earthquakes and aftershocks in Haiti,

Heavy rains and flooding in Southern California, Extreme High Surf in Northern California, and heavy snow and low temperatures over the northeast.

And here, as in my last post we have been living under a heavy thick cloud of our own pollution held down like a veil over our heads making it so difficult to breathe that most schools have kept the children in at recess.

But yesterday, snow fell. Rain moved in from the storms on the west coast.. the clouds opened and the sky cleared.

Have you ever made the statement 'I spoke too soon'? Well, I have spoken too soon. I made a comment just the other day, how with all the bad luck the past few months, at least I haven't been sick. Last year at this same time, I had bronchitis more times that I wish to recall.

Last Saturday my best friend and I decided to hit a club for some long overdue girlfriend time. I had felt a little stir crazy after so many nights in out of the bad air. When I met her I was having a hard time breathing and figured it was the outside air that night.
Recently the law changed and smoking is no longer allowed inside bars. Great news for me, bad for her. I mentioned that I would not be going out on the patio with her, my lungs wouldn't take it. And it is not the place I choose to be anyway.
There were a couple times I was left alone at our table when she went out for a smoke. And only one obnoxious, pushy, sweaty, overweight man with bad breath who didnt get the not so subtle hints bothered me.
When she came back in, we got up to dance, for the most part to avoid the aforementioned creep man.
While we were dancing, I began to really have a hard time breathing.
Now- we have not been out in a while and with this horrible weather I have not left the house as much as usual the past few weeks, but I was really heaving.
We sat for a while and had some more to drink as I caught my breath. The rest of the evening went along pretty uneventful. Until we walked to the car.
I had to pull out my inhaler. Really scary stuff.
I was diagnosed about 6 years ago with very slight asthma. Very slight. I take a pill every night and sometimes I nearly forget I am asthmatic at all. I occasionally use the inhaler when at high elevations or when I am hiking or exercising strenuously. But it is only on rare occasions that I need it.
I caught my breath enough to get us home and made it to work on Monday morning.

The entire day I felt as though there was an elephant lying on my chest.

After a doctors diagnosis, ruling out pneumonia, I left with an arsenal of medication and no real understanding of what it is I am fighting. Here I am on day 2- home from work, day 2- on antibiotics, day 2- inhalers twice a day, and day two sleeping 4 hours straight.

TMI moment: The antibiotics are causing bladder infection... the cough medicine makes me sick to my stomach and instantly puts me into such a deep slumber that I am among the dead. And Ironically, the inhalers throw me into a coughing fit until my ribs ache. - Good times

And I still cannot breathe normally.
All because I spoke too soon.
Tomorrow I will get myself to work and hope that the meds start to kick in. I wouldn't dare take the cough medicine. Codine has that effect on me.
Please let this chest cold / Asthma pass as the inversion and bring on the sunshine and blue skies.

Although I love this Place

Utah has been getting press lately regarding the air quality around here.
No offense to the people who live there but usually when the topic of bad air quality is debated, La comes to mind. And well,  to be honest, Salt Lake City usually brings to mind images similar to Denver or Tahoe. Clear bright blue skies with pristine snow caps.
Not this year!
*Cough* *Cough* *Sputter*
It seems that no less than four of the northern major cities in the state have qualified for the 'worst air in the nation' list.
Wintertime in the Rockies it is not uncommon to see a large low cloud hanging low into the valleys, a cloud large enough to run mountain bench to mountain bench. This large looming cloud is called an inversion.

With the ceasing of convection, which is normally present in the atmosphere, a number of phenomena are associated with a temperature inversion. The air becomes stiller, hence the air becomes murky because dust and pollutants are no longer lifted from the surface.

This can become a problem in cities where many pollutants exist. Inversion effects occur frequently in big cities such as Mumbai, India; Los Angeles, California; Mexico City ; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Santiago, Chile; and Tehran, Iran, but also in smaller cities like Oslo, Norway, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Boise, Idaho, which are closely surrounded by hills and mountains that together with the inversion effect bottle-caps the air in the city. During a severe inversion, trapped air pollutants form a brownish haze that can cause respiratory problems. The Great Smog, one of the most serious examples of such an inversion, occurred in London in 1952 and was blamed for thousands of deaths.- Wikipedia

Most winters we get inversions, however a good snowstorm clears it out of the atmosphere and the sun shines in and the air is clear once again. Not this year! Although we have had a couple of real good storms, the bad air continues to hover and haunt.

I suffer from slight asthma and it is tough to catch a breath these days, outdoor activity is near impossible. Respiratory illness and bronchial colds are as widespread as the swine flu.

We had the opportunity this weekend after some work schedule changes, to drive to the south end of the state to visit my parents for three days. I felt like an elephant had been lifted from my chest. My eyes were not red, my lungs filled with clean oxygen, and my sinuses clear as ever.

Until we drove home.
As the girls and I were heading north, we could see the beautiful sun setting in the clear blue sky above the red rocks of the south, as the mountains took on a more blue grey hue, so did the sky. Resembling the large shadow cast over the land in Close Encounters, the horrible grey-brown clouds hung over the valleys we were headed into.
It was great to see my parents, it was nice to chat about our upcoming cruise and to breathe so free.
But too short.
They predict a storm on Wednesday, Hopefully it will be big enough to clean the atmosphere but not so big that the traffic is hazardous. I am still making do in my sons car, awaiting my repairs. And I am just not used to driving without 4-wheel drive.

For now, I will be shallow breathing. And if we don't get a storm soon, I am afraid that the winter doldrums will continue to bring me down.
for now, this song brings a little sunshine to my day whenever I hear it:

 
and so does this face!

Getting into the spirit

I finally broke down and went to the doctor and came home with two different kinds of antibiotics. I am already feeling a little better...

My parents came into town yesterday afternoon, and although my house looks like Hiroshima AFTER the bomb, there is some comfort in family being there. They didn't seem nearly as mortified as my imagination warned me they would be.

We had a pretty laid back night, enjoying each others company and catching up on the past few weeks. I went back to work today, been out nearly 4 days, and we are to have our Christmas lunch today. There was a good sized snowstorm again yesterday and we are expecting a doozie this afternoon, so the drive home will be challenging at best.

My sister is coming down from Wyoming this afternoon or this evening, and I wish her a safe trip as I think there will be worse storming North of here, and they will be coming 'over the mountains. I was hoping to have so much more done this week and being able to blog blog blog on the festivities, but, I am so far behind, it will all have to wait.

If I am absent for a few days, please, Have a happy Holiday and as Paul Harvey used to say, stay tuned for the rest of the story.