fear and loathing in las vegas

for a single woman (who would like to be otherwise), valentine's day brings with it a fair amount of fear and (self) loathing.  my mo in previous years has been to completely ignore the greeting card holiday, but when a work trip meant i'd be traveling to  las vegas on the dreaded day, where i was sure to be surrounded by lovey dovey couples (who may or may not be drunk), and i wasn't sure how well my 'ignore tactic' would work.

enter one of my favorite people!  melissa, would also be in town early for some meetings and wanted to see if i'd be interested in seeing a show that night.

yes, yes, yes! it's always a priority to spend time with melissa when our conference schedules cross paths, but i was espcially excited to catch up early in the trip, rather than somewhere in the middle or end when we are both exhausted.  and, barring having a handsome gentleman to be macking on ;), i couldn't have asked for a better date.

i had decided to drive to vegas this time to have some flexibility (in timing AND in packing), and i enjoyed the road trip. arrived safely and without incident, got unpacked, took a quick shower, and met up with my girl for dinner.

we opted for a casual meal (with the promise of frozen hot chocolate) at serendipty and chowed down before heading over to the tent outside of caesar's palace, where we would see absinthe.

i'll be honest in saying that i couldn't recommend it to about 70% of my friends and family, as i know it would exceed the 'crude' and 'vulgar' tolerances of most of them (you), but i'll also admit to really enjoying it. there was one 'bit' that was definitely over the line for me, but other than that, i found myself laughing a lot and really enjoying the acrobatics.

i also appreciated the small space, which made for some truly excellent voyeurism, and the 'permission' to take photos.  i wish more shows would do that.  i didn't see one flash go off and there were a number of people snapping pics.  it was nice to be treated like an adult!

all in all, it was a great girlfriend date night. good company, good food, good laughs, and good aerialists.  couldn't have asked for more!

color runners

i don't know what i was thinking, but back in november i signed up for my first 5k ever, created a team, and began inviting my friends. one of my co-workers designed the team logo (a purple people eater), and another embroidered headbands for me, while the team grew. i was excited about the event, but back then i couldn't have anticipated just how exhausted i would be, having just returned from two wewks of travel -- some of which included a lot of physical activities, leaving my body even weaker and more torqued than normal. i arrived home from costa rica at 1:30am on friday morning, and headed into work that day, sure that the 4am wake-up call on saturday morning would just about kill me. but i underestimated the power of color and good friends. the purple people eaters had grown to a group of about 25 people. some were friends, and some were friends of friends who i had never met. and though we all came with different levels of abilities, and expectations, somehow this casual run (or walk, in my case) exceeded all of them!

costa rica

there is just too much to say about my recent trip to costa rica, so i will summarize by saying that it was uh-mazing. something about that country just resonates with me and it was even better than my first trip a year ago. the trip was unbelievably smooth, and julie, colby, and their 8 year old daughter madison, were perfect travel companions. the absolute highlight for me, was returning to the adventure park in puntarenas for our zip line tour, where we re-met old friends (most notably, petey, the zip line guide i'd spent a few hours flirting with --despite the language barrier -- the last time around) and making new ones. rather than overwhelm you with my words, i'll let these videos speak for themselves!
arenal...
tenorio...
puntarenas...
manuel antonio...

are we done yet?

this is wayne.

wayne is a supervisor (my supervisor) with our exhibit house.  he takes care of me at all of our large trade shows, and he's one of my favorite colleagues.

you can't really see wayne in this pic, because wayne has wedged himself in the only air space left after we crammed the rental car full of boxes, and a couple other people.

wayne is always bending over backwards (or forwards), with a smile on his face or a thumb in the air.

and this is what day 2 of a booth set looks like. we're already so exhausted, we contort ourselves into tight spaces just to avoid making multiple trips.  git'r'done.

let's get it started

day 1 of booth setup for our biggest trade show of the year.  let's get this show on the road...so i can get myself to costa rica ;)