the good, the bad, the toady...

should i go in order?

eh, how bout in general. vegas rocked! i haven't had that much fun in a long time. and i needed it.

tho to balance out the scales and to make sure that i didn't get too happy, the ptb sent me a car accident on the way there. lame on me, i rearended someone on the freeway not an hour out of town. no injuries or anything except to my poor car, my pride and my insurance cost. i hit this mean old couple who were very rude and called the highway patrol unnecessarily making me trip to vegas extra very long. and annoying and frustrating them. so i have to call my insurance tomorrow and deal with that crapola. but i tried not to let it get me too down...and really didn't think about it much till the way home...

so vegas. i took jessica's sister nina up with me cuz her ride flaked on her. we met jessica in vegas and were all prepped to celebrate nina's 21st bday. they wanted to go to a nudiebar and i couldn't make myself do it. i dunno why. i have this mental block. it's not even an embarrasment thing or a disapproval thing or anything, i just couldn't do it. so after much debate we scrapped that plan....but nina still wanted to see chicks behaving indecently so somehow we ended up at the Frontier Hotel (ick) watching bikini bullriding in a hokey country bar (double ick) full of the trashiest, whitest, white trash. and it cost ten dollars each. and i paid for nina. and it sucked. and i still have a stupid blue "F" on my hand tho this was friday.

oh and we were staying in a crappy icky motel and there was only one bed for the three of us.

but the next day and night were much better.

except for our crappy breakfast. after which we went to the Gugenheim Hermitage museum in the venetian hotel and looked at masterpieces of art including monet, picasso, pollock, kandinsky...etc. it was called "art through the ages" from early renaissance to pop art. it was fun. we've been there before with a different exhibit. it makes me feel all cultured and whatnot. but because jessica spent a ridiculous amount of time in the giftshop buying like 12 posters of prints and the ridiculous amount of time it takes to get anywhere in vegas we were late to meeting up with my Toad friends at the Mandalay Bay. We missheard the room number from some friends that we ran into downstairs and ended up walking around the 32nd floor for 15 minutes like idiots when the room was actually on the THIRD floor. anyway. we found the rooms and met up with all the peeps and almost right away had to run down to the House of Blues to have dinner (having dinner before the show got you into a 'pass the line' line). we had crappy and expensive foor and a table for 35 with understandably crappy service, but i got to be at the front of the stage and that's what counts.

but the stage was ridiculously high. about as high as i am tall...so i did get like a crick in my neck, but it was worth it. glen was in high spirits. i got very covered in confetti (long story not worth going into, really, but there was lots of confetti). when it came time to play nightingale song glen started to explain that they used to bring up audience members to play tambourine for it...and he looked at our group and was like "how bout one of you internet folks?"...(don't get excited, it wasn't me or anything)...but he recognized us freaks in the front and it was kinda fun. we all pointed to michael, a part of our group, who got chosen. and ryan, our sort of denmother promptly dug in his bag for a sign (that he didn't think he'd ever use) that said "Screw tambourine! Can I play bass?" and glen totally brought him on stage to play Dean's bass. how they actually got on the stage with it being so high is a mystery to me tho i was standing right there. anyway, they both played and it was very fun and put our little gathering in extra high spirits. Also Toad played "All in All" which is a duet by glen and todd which i've never heard live. it has the most beautiful harmonies. and that was my personal highlight of the show. then afterword...a friend took a huge risk and 'snuck' about 15 of us into the aftershow dealy in the foundation room. i got randy to sign my new years eve ticket to complete it. it's now signed by all four guys. and i FINALLY talked to randy. i talked to glen for a bit. and like a tard asked him to sign my ticketstub...again...it seemed dumb to me as soon as i asked. but he did so graciously, asking "what is your name again?"...at least he recognizes me somewhat. but i know i've never asking him for an autograph again. it was kinda said knowing i'm not going to see another toad show in a very long time. maybe ever.

then we went back and partied in our fancy mandalay bay rooms and had a jolly good time. i felt more at ease with these peeps than i previously had. which is good. the ppl who weren't staying took off around 3am and at about 3:30 we headed back down to the casino to play a bit. i lost the rest of my money and watched my friends gambling for real at real tables with high (for me) limits...it was interesting. and fun. we didn't go upstairs till well after 4 and i wasn't asleep till perhaps 5 am. and i woke at 9:30!

driving back today sucked. we got a late start...didn't leave vegas till around 3 and traffic was HORRIBLE. somehow we still managed to make it in about 5 hours...but there were times that i was so sleepy i thought i would have to stop. but i chugged soda and made nina talk to me and we made it.

my parents were even pretty cool about the accident (i of course told them right after it happened, i didn't wait till today or anything) and sorry that i had to go thru the ordeal, more than mad that i hit someone.

i watched roswell and farscape which both taped sucessfully so that is good.

clearing off my bed so that i can actually sleep on it will take some doing. and i am so tired....i can't believe i'm still up at 10 to 12...

i so need sleep. and i SO have a megaton of work to do tomorrow. bedtime.