Vegas - the Odessy (yes, it's long)

[nightrythm]

We rolled into Vegas late Thursday/early Friday. It was something like 3am before we got to sleep. So began the weekend of very little sleep.

Friday was glorious with the sleeping in, or at least not getting up at the usual 6:30am. We bumped into folks in the lobby, a group that included nomilomi, giancarlo, mlerules and dritikol to name a few. They were on there way out of the cafe as we were on the way in. We had a lovely meal with red4269 & ascius. Then we headed off to City Hall to get our marriage license.

Um, yeah, it turns out, City Hall was the wrong place to go. What we needed was the marriage bureau on the South end of downtown. At least we had good parking karma, having just left a parking spot at City Hall with 40 minutes on the meter; we found a spot by the wedding license office with nearly the same amount of time. The licensing process was quick and painless, you fill out forms, pay your cash, get a piece of paper that says you're allowed to get married. Woot!

We got back to the hotel just in time to meet with our rent-a-minister. Our friend Stefan who was the co-officiant rolled into Vegas in time to meet with us as well. Apparently he and his honey (his honey did the driving) had just driven from the Pac NW straight without sleep. *eep* (Seriously folks, don't do that to yourselves if you don't have to.) Somewhere towards the end of that, our hotel room began to fill with our wedding party. Did I say party? Oh yeah! There was lots of laughter, good wishes and a few flasks being passed around.

So we had a rehearsal of sorts and then went upstairs to another room to collect more people and party some more. At this point my cousins showed up and I made the mistake of introducing them as "baby" cousins. They kept whining about it all night. I suppose since they are grown men with babies of their own, they might have a point. *grin*

From there we went to the buffet at the Paris hotel. Viva Paris! Thanks to twistedcat for that awsome recommendation. We enjoyed good food and good friends. Patch then opted for the Cigar & Conac bar. Those of us who preferred a less toxic environment went on an oddessy of our own.

I had two theoretically simple goals for my eveing. 1) Get one of those ridiculous "commemorative" glasses shaped like something interesting (say, the eiffel tower) and filled with a frozen alcoholic concotion. To find a location where we could sit and drink and talk, without having to pay a cover charge. (This apparently is impossible on a Friday night, especially when I'm put in charge and I'm just winging it.)

We wandered down the strip. I thought I found my drink at the Trader Vic's. They were having a private party, so our party had to wait outside, while I was escorted to the bar, where I was welcomed with open arms by three women celebrating a weekend away from husbands and families. Despite that, they were thrilled to hear I was getting married and bought me a mojito! Which was very cool and made me feel quite priveleged, but did not gain me the (more expensive) commemorative tiki drink I had gone in for. Being self consious about leaving everyone waiting at the door as well as having complete strangers spend money on me, I said thanks and headed out.

Shortly thereafter we secured free entry for the girls to the tropicana bar. The plan was we'd pool money to help bring down the cost of the boys cover charges, unfortunately the tropicana would not be ready for us for another hour, so we wandered on. Eventually we reached the NYNY hotel. I remembered they had a piano bar and I thought that would be fun. My friends like to sing and be loud, what's better than a piano bar? It had a long line and a cover charge and was PACKED. I was thwarted again. Someone else suggested the Irish Bar in the same hotel, so off we went. They too had a cover charge and didn't think they could seat a group our size together. At this point we started crashing... So we decided we should head back to the Paris, collect the rest of the folks and go back to the Suncoast where we had free booze waiting in a room for us.

It turned out the rest of our party was a mere five minutes behind us, so we waited outside on the terrace. Ok some of us waited outside and gloried in the warm summer night, the people of the winterlands went inside to the airconditioning to wait there. It's amazing how when you're tired, five minutes seems intermnable.

Once we were all collected, we headed for the monorail station at the MGM, which was of course, at the opposite side of the hotel. People were chatting and laughing, but obviously tired. When we reached the ticket kiosks everyone stood around staring at the machines a moment and then broke off into huddled whispering, or at least that's how it seemed to me and I broke. I was good and done. Everyone had been telling me that they would do what I wanted to do and everything I wanted failed and now it felt like everyone was miserable, in pain and unhappy and it was all my fault, I had a good old-fashioned, drama queen, I-am-the-bride hissy fit and threw (or dropped I don't remember) everything in my hands, including my (mostly) empty drink cup and my money. The true to form, I stormed away to try to find something to hit or somewhere to sob and rail at the universe.

My friends are golden. They are wonderful amazing people. fyrebringer came and hugged me and gave me a pep talk. She assured me no one was angry with me and that everyone still loved me. (My internal dialogue said she was full of shit. I told my internal dialogue that because it had chosen to become momentarily external, it was grounded for the night and neaded to shut the fuck up.) Patch then came and told me that I didn't have to be in charge anymore and that he'd take care of it. Idon't completely recall, but the final solution was to tell everyone, we're going home via the monorail, the rest of you do your thing.

Back at the monorail station, I was my usual cheery self. They had one of those video games that project on the floor, so fyrebringer and I occupied ourselves with stomping at it until the train came. Once on the monorail, we were a loud obnoxious bunch. We chanted "10 little monkeys jumping on the bed" much to little vincentroland's delight and to the everlasting chagrin of those who shared the car with us. I was really surprised by how much our neighbors looked like we'd peed in their margaritas. It was Friday night in Vegas baby! There are a thousand ways people can be drunk and obnoxious, I thought we were pretty easy to take considering.

There was some winding down in the party room after we got back to the Suncoast, but mostly I collected fyrebringer and angelloffyre who were to help me keep my bed free of menfolk for the night. That is all I'm willing to share about my evening. ;-)

Saturday I was up bright and early. Breakfast was served in my room at 8am. The Bridal party showed up surprisingly bright eyed and bushy tailed considering. It was a wonderfully relaxing morning despite the chaos. I didn't really feel stressed at all. A little hectic, but not stressed. After breakfast, I had a lovely meditative bath. My cousin then took what she called "nudie pictures" as I got dressed in the unsexy grandma underwear from hell, that snugged me in and held me up.pzonivy came and did my hair for me. It looked fantastic! Thank you!

During this time the rest of the girls filtered in and continued to get ready. The room was cheery with morning light and women's laughing voices. I was surrounded by love and comeraderie that made me feel not only special but safe and loved. I can't tell you what a truly amazing experience that was.

sknowite painted everyone's nails silver. *whee!* We had some more food because it had been some four hours since we'd eaten. Boy howdy, does this girl stuff take time! At some point my mother arrived and we took a variety of pictures including of her putting my veil on me. It was pretty funny because they are totally posed shots. The reality was that stacymckenna sewed the veil to the comb, to keep it from falling. She also sewed my underwear to my dress to keep it from showing. All of this encited some comments about why we had asked her to be part of the wedding party. *grin*

Enough detail, suffice to say it was chaotic, but a somewhat orderly chaotic. My cell phone was ringing, the room phone was ringing and there where what seemed like a constant trail of people in and out of the room. We had a few moments peace when my mother blessed me before we marched through the hotel and around to the staging area for the ballroom.

And now we get to it... the wedding itself...

I was enjoying some quiet time with my mother when my father poked his head through the door and called us to line up for our enterance. I was nervous, but it wasn't awful. I had afterall, just fortified myself before we left the room. When the doors opened and everyone stood up, my heart stopped. We started walking and I began to feel a growing panic, with each step I got more nervous and I tried to move faster, only to have my father hold me back. I told him that we needed to walk faster and he told me that it was my day and I should enjoy it. I was enjoying it, I just would enjoy it more if I was already at the front!!! I was so happy when we made it to Patch. He was there with such a big grin. His presence really steadied me.

Then our friend Stefan began "Mawwige, Mawwige is what brings us together today. Mawwige that blessed arrangement. That dream within a dream…" It was awesome! I could hear all our friends laughing and I could almost hear the puzzled silence from the half of the room that didn't get it. But I was thrilled that I had dug up that speach and had him open with it. It was perfect.

The rest of the ceremony, while not perfect, was wonderful. The main technical problem, our two officiants had the five page (17 minutes only though) ceremony out of order! It was kind of funny to watch Patch's eyes bug out when Stefan moved on to the next page and started introducing the readings. We rolled with it though, cause really, what are you going to do? The moment he could, Patch re-shuffled the pages so that we could get everything else right.

The highlight (aside from you know, the vow thing) was watching eain walk up to do his reading, vincentroland on one hip and his Treo in the other hand, looking up the email that had the reading in it. The original plan was that there would be a podium and the readings would be waiting up there for goaskalice71, Tim and Eian, but the papers were left in the room and the podium was lost in translation. Eian however, was the only one of the readers that didn't print out the sheet JIC. *grin* But frankly, it was much more fun to watch V grab for mom & the Chuppah, freeing up E to do his thing. It got a big awwww from the crowd. It was the kind of trouble I had hoped would happen in lieu of things of a more disasterous nature.

After that, we got back to the original program, the parents were asked for their blessings, we were asked to acknowledge our intentions, the chuppah was explained and other cultural ties were defined. We said our vows, exchanged rings with the translation of the usual hebrew "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine." (Song of Solomon - one great love poem, you should read it if you don't know it.)

At some point Patch lifted the veil and kissed me. Stefan performed a handfasting, which was designed to take the place of the Christian tradition of wrapping the married couple's hands with a stole and pronouncing "what god has joined let no man put asunder". All that was left was the official prounouncement. The rent-an-officiant, put his hands on ours and said 'by the power of God, the father, the son and the holy spirit, by the power vested in me by the state of Nevada I now pronounce you man and wife. What god has joined let no man put asunder.' Apparently he didn't get the memo about no god in my wedding ceremony. *grump* But he said the important part, he named a legal entity and that made if official and that was what we were paying him for. So Patch & I turned and made our escape.

After that there was photography, which seemed to take forever (just like this story!). I just wanted five pictures that's all! Me n' Patch, Usn' the wedding party, Usn' his folks, Usn'my dad w/wife, usn'my mom w/dudecompanion. So while people attempted to entertain themselves in the air conditioned ballroom, the wedding party melted outside and somehow it was still fun. I was riding an increadible high and I have friends that love me. Friends who are willing to wait around until they are needed and friends who are willing to bust their asses in the hot sun operating camera equipment. I am greatful that everyone put in so much effort. I apparently just suffered a disconect between my expectations and reality. :-)

Then, the reception! I have this increadibly clear image where we're waiting outside the ballroom and ratswallow is grinning at me while telling everyone to sit down so that we can make our grand entrance. He played "How will I know" (from Enchanted) as we walked in. I loved that! And as we were standing on the dance floor getting ready for our first dance, Patch says to me, "this wasn't the song we decided on right?", just as "I get a kick out of you" starts up.

We danced the Hora. Rick played Salsa. I danced with my father to Jolie Blonde. There were beautiful toasts by Lee, Ronda, my father and Patch's dad. There was cake cutting and cake feeding. There were no forks and I wasn't about to use my hands, that leads to cake smushing, so I grabbed a butter knife and Patch used the cake server and we fed each other our one and only bite of delicious cake. It's not that the cake ceased to be good, it's just that we never got back to our table to eat once it was served.

I danced a lot. Patch mingled a lot. We mingled some together. I know I didn't get to talk to everyone there, but I had a great time and I was so happy. I'm glad that we could have so many of our friends and family there. I've never felt so loved it was wonderful.

The after party at Quarks was a blast. There was dinner in the interim. Original plan, dinner at Quark's. Reality - Patch lags. We women folk decided dinner must happen *now* so we went down to the Italian restaurant, waved hello to my dad's family and started with the fried Calamari.

We got to Quarks and were greeted with cheers and applause, which was very cool. Then, we started drinking sknowite , Ronda and I were quite schnookered by the end of the evening. Patch made a grand speach to close the evening to the remaining few people bragging about the fact that he was more sober than I was. At which point I started drinking water and he had a few more martini's, so by the time we got to sleep at three am, the tables had turned. By morning, He was more hungover than I was, that is to say, I was not it the least hungover, and he was miserable, and had thrown his back out again to boot.

Sunday, we caught up with sknowite's faboulous birthday brunch at the Rio and then after a final goodbye to loved one's we travled on to the Palazzo for the remainder (or so we thought) of our trip.

Sunday afternoon was spent dozing in front of the TV watching movies in our room and then meeting Ronda for a *very* good but horribly expensive dinner. And then off to bed for much needed sleep.

Monday was gloriously casual with breakfast in the concierge lounge followed by joining up with Alex for "Hellboy" and then back to the concierge lounge for appetizers before going to the Blue Man Group show (tickets purchased at a 1/2 price ticket booth earlier that morning). The BMG was fun. The best part though, was running into elainiac and her lad and going for drinks afterwards. It was another late night in Vegas enjoying laughter and good company.

Tuesday was our scheduled departure day. We again breakfasted in the concierge lounge. Because we wanted to catch one cirque show before we left, we booked tickets for 7pm performance of Zoomanity. We then took ourselves over the the Palms to see "Kung Fu Panda" on the IMAX screen. We lunched at Sonic (mmmmm.... Sonic) and then took ourselves over to NYNY for the show. Zoomanity was marvelous. I can't recommend it enough. My only comment was... "I thought there would be more kink". (Of course, I then have to realize that in the "normal" world my sexual proclivities are not the norm. It is only amongst my friends that I am considered Vanilla.)

From there, we loaded up the car and headed home. Roughly 30 minutes later, I wake up as Patch is pulling over in front of a call box. It's after midnight and the car is dead. No big deal right? A small adventurous detour. A tale to share with our friends when we get home. We have AAA, so everything is fine.

We get towed to a mechanic and dropped off at the SouthPoint hotel. So named because it's the Southernmost point within Vegas city limits, before the barrenness that stretches to Jean. We make a few phone calls to office voice mails to let them know we won't be in and off to sleep we go. For any of you still following the story, I can sum the rest of it up for you:

Wednesday - Timing Belt, Food, Gambling, "Wanted", Food, Gambling, More than just the timing belt, Call the office, Check back into the hotel.
Thursday - Oil Pump, Food, Gambling, "Wall-E", Food, Poolside, Gambling, Headers need to be replaced or motor rebuilt - will give quote tomorrow, Call the office, Check back into the hotel.
Friday - Rent car, leave half of stuff in other car, go home. Make phone calls to our mechanic. Have him talk to Vegas mechanic. Arrange for car to be towed home.

Local mechanic will make final call on life of vehicle. New vehicle being researched. End week one of new marriage. Marriage survives intact!