2002-08-05 || 12:51 p.m.

I have been ignoring dairyland for a while now because of my fear of loosing my entries. I have fixed it now and I have SO much to write about. First, I need to tell you all about my trip.

Day 1: Arrival

On Thurday (July 18), Marge came in. After a bit of relaxation, and opening my bday gift from her, we went out to dinner with my dad. My dad was leaving on a motorcycle trip to the mid-west and needed to have my "bday" dinner that night. Why? I don't know. The only good place I can think of in the mid-west is the Mall of America. He, on the other hand, wanted to fulfill his goal of getting his pastport stamped with every national park there is in North America. ??? I'm not his daughter, really. So, we ate at Carluccios (Librace's restaurant) and Marge kept gushing at all the "hip" old ladies there were. Marge can't wait tell she is 65 and can wear gold lamay and get away with it. At one point, Marge actually fell asleep at the table. I then made her drink a cup of coffee. We then went back home and I played with my new Mio poloraid camera that takes wallet sized pics.

Day 2: "stripping" with coupons

Today was the big day. We hit up every hotel on the Strip. I was equipped with coupons for various places/rides/musuems and enough water to fill the Hoover Dam. We were ready. I think Marge's goal was to pee in every hotel on the Strip cause, damn, that girl had to pee like every 5 mins. We made fun of people at Manadaley Bay, played arcade games at the Luxor, saw the lions at MGM, ate at Paris, and visited the wax musuem at the Venetain. The other hotels we just drove by because they weren't worth the hassel to walk inside. If Marge was a 65 year old complusive gambler, she would choose the MGM to spend her days. She liked it cause it had pictures of classic actresses/actors on the walls. On the other hand, I would choose to waste my social security check at a 7-11. If I would choose to live this lifestyle, then I would go down by living it up. I would just sit there playing video poker, eating a hot dog, and drinking a coke slurpee. Hell, maybe I could score some quarters! Ok, now back to reality. The wax museum was tons of fun. There was an entire room dedicated to Vegas stars/legends. It makes perfect sense people. Vegas is made up of fake glamour covered with pretty glitter so why not remember it's stars by making them out of wax? The *best* part was you could touch anything and take as many pictures as you wanted. Such good times. That night we went to see Charo in "Bravo". We found out the tickets were $45 and laughed because we didn't have to pay a penny. Charo was amazing! She told dirty jokes, danced, and played her guitar. Who knew this sexy mama had it in her? Day 3: My Special Day My birthday was spent driving around Parhump. What's that? You haven't heard of Parhump? Lets just say this- never go there. It is about an hour outside of Vegas and it is mostly known for it brothels and scary people. Check out his 7/21 diary to learn more details: http://robbiew815.diaryland.com/index.html Anyway, driving around lasted all day and we still had plans to go to dinner for my bday. We were tired and it just ended up being my mom, Marge, and myself. Our plans for "partying it up" at my dad's empty house fell short when I pasted out on the couch. This was a far different bday experience from last years. Oh well, it was still enjoyable (if Marge wasn't there, I probably would have had a different experience :)) Day 4: The World's Largest Gift Shop and A Haunted House By the titling, you can probably tell we went to the World's Largest Gift Shop! Wow, I had never seen so much cheap crap in all my life and guess what, it was over-priced. There were some scary tourist in there going crazy over this stuff. I think they all had on fanny packs. After that adventure, we hopped on over to an Imax movie. We thought the movie "Haunted House" sounded fun, so we went to see that. We never thought the movie would be a lesson in the morals of record companies. Holy Moley! It was so funny! I think everyone left the theater very confused, but feeling very informed. Who the hell would put a green light on that project? Day 5: Destination- Austin and Gay Boys I got a brief Austin tour when I first arrived and then we hung out at a coffee house for the night. We happened to sit at the corner where ALL THE GAY BOYS IN AUSTIN were sitting and had many laughs with them. We found out most of them were younger then us and were shocked. I never thought a gay man could be more mature then I. They were funny boys though. Marge is going to have fun running into them for the rest of the summer. Day 6: Texas Has Much Pride We went to the "Texas State History" Museum. It was 3 stories! They LOVE their state! The greatest part was the 15 minute movie they had about Texas. It was very interactive, so interactive that, at one point, a thing pops up from under your seat to make it feel like a snake bite (did that make sense? I don't know). Anyway, I enjoyed that (so much that I wouldn't to watch it again so I could have that thing touch my ass again). We then saw another imax movie. It was something about space, narrated by Tom Cruise. I was kind of getting sleeping and the guy next to me was snoring. Haha, good times. Day 7- Live Music and Coffee Houses We went to a country, live music thing. It was mostly us standing around watching drunk guys. Why are they so funny? Of course we ended up at fun coffeehouses. Why can't Vegas have coffeehouses like Austin? WHY? Day 8- Leaving Austin Before leaving Austin, we had to eat breakfast at coffeehouse and I had to get a t-shirt from a cool coffeehouse. It was nice and I spent my flight busy with a book so no tourist could bother me. This time, it was all families on the plane. No small children for me, thank you. All in all, it was nice vacation. It got me excited to go back to San Fran and be with everyone again. Now I have been to Austin, Texas and have a shirt to prove it. luv, steph

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