Vegas, Baby

This past weekend I had my first adult trip to Vegas. I simply have not been since I turned 18. We went for Sean's birthday and the group of 6 was a perfect size and mix. We all stayed at the Luxor, which seemed to position us pretty well given that we had a car and could drive to the other end of the strip when needed.

Saturday:

We got in and had drinks with Dan and Lisa at the Luxor bar, which was lovely. The sheer amount of people was a little overwhelming, but I found a quiet spot in the lounge where we hung out for a bit. We then went upstairs to settle in (14th floor, West Tower) and get ready for dinner. The steak at Del Frisco's was perfect and the service was really excellent, though I maintain you get better service when you dress well, which we all did. The James Bond wine table was really cool - if you go for dinner there, make sure they show it to you. Afterwards, we were all tired so we just went back to our rooms and slept. I love hotel beds - and turn down service at the Luxor includes lots of chocolate.

Sunday:

After leftovers for breakfast (nom nom), Valerie and headed to the pool. Sadly, the Luxor pool was closed (I later discovered it was because something had spilled in the pool - we guess bodily fluids), so we went to the Excalibur pool, which was allowing Luxor guests. As you can imagine, it was packed between the two hotels, which was disappointing. We stayed a bit, then returned to the Luxor to clean up. We did get to enjoy the people watching at the pool, which had us in stitches several times.

Pool time was followed by a trip to Neil's lovely house, where we played with the really really adorable puppy named Sega. I had already been fighting mild pain for a few days (enough that Sean asked if I wanted to cancel), but by the time we got to Neil's, it had really flared up. I settled into the lovesac and was soon medicated. I was also fed by Neil, who makes bitchin' steaks.

We had tickets that night for Absinthe at Ceaser's Palace and met there. I had no idea what to expect and was wow'd by the entire thing. The acrobats were all fantastic and the show was incredibly funny, if very raunchy. The old couple sitting next to us never cracked a smile (which made me wonder if they spoke English) but the woman had tears in her eyes after the "bodygaurd" act. They were awesome.

Following Absinthe were the craps tables at Excaliber. I wasn't interested in playing and wandered the casino a bit, but watched about 3 hours of craps. Everyone ended up, which was awesome, even after Sean got down to $20. I guess that's the drama of Vegas.

Monday:

We all met at the Luxor buffet for breakfast and to say goodbye to Lisa and Dan, who took off early. Sean and I went exploring some since I hadn't seen Vegas and really wanted to see the Venetian. I bought a hat at their hat store and it was generally a lot of fun. We met Valerie and Jesse at Nine Fine Irishman in New York, New York, where we got to listen to Sin E Ri Ra play. Dinner was great and I have to work on perfecting the bread-and-butter pudding now that I know Valerie likes it. Theirs was inspirational. We poked around New York, New York, then went to the Bellagio to watch the fountain show. En route, we discovered pretty girls in boxes at The Cosmopolitan, so Valerie and I led the charge to explore it. It's a casino designed for us! Pretty girls in boxes, everyone was dressed up, Bond-themed bar menu, high heel-shoe chairs...We were in heaven.

Sean and I returned to Nine Fine Irishman and listened to the band while we had another Magners, then returned to the hotel for a bath (awesome soaking tub) and a serious coma brought on by being warm, good food, and the most expensive room service tea ever.

We left on Tuesday and had a nice drive back. It was a relaxing trip once I adjusted to the sheer crush of people and array of tacky. I think I would have preferred the old Vegas, where children weren't common and people dressed for their evenings, but I can appreciate the new Vegas too.

Review: A Film Unfinished (2010)

Today I watched A Film Unfinished, a 2010 documentary showing an unfinished propaganda film made by the Third Reich in the Warsaw Ghetto in May 1942, a few months before it was cleared. The original work is about an hour long, so the documentary runs about and hour and a half with the commentary. In addition to the film itself there are interviews with people who lived there at the time while they are watching the film as well as voiceover readings of court transcripts from one of the cameramen, journals from the Chairman of the Judenrat within the Ghetto, and letters from the SS officer in charge of the Ghetto.

The documentary is a look into one of the most fascinating areas of Third Reich for me - the propaganda machine that the Nazis created. Though the film lacks soundtrack or commentary in it's original form, other sources help narrate what we're seeing and provide context. The film oscillates between staged scenes of a luxurious life that some Jews apparently lived and the extreme poverty of others, focusing on the lack of sharing between the two. They also filmed staged aspects of Jewish religious life, including a life-threatening circumcision outside of a hospital.

One of the things the documentary does well is provide commentary on day-to-day life in the Ghetto, as well as the effect is had on those within it. When one of the women discusses how they became indifferent to the suffering of others, you can hear the pain it causes her to say such because she knows it's terrible, but she also knows that it was what she had to do to survive this. There are several stories that are similar and each one of them is paired with visuals from the original film that either prompted the story or illustrate it.

The documentary is a little slow and most of it is subtitled with the only English provided by the filmmaker. Many of the images are hard to watch, though if you have watched other films of this era, the images of starving people and corpses will feel familiar. But it's an interesting look at an incomplete project of the Third Reich. I probably won't watch it again, but I'm glad I watched it.

A Film Unfinished is currently available on Netflix online streaming.

Having It All...Eventually

A few years ago, during a particularly difficult part of life (or, as I call it, the Worst Year Ever), I made a list of the things I wanted from life. A lot of these are check-the-box goals, things that are visible rather than the esoteric goals like "To be Happy" or somesuch. I like things I can touch and feel...and attain. Some of this list looks like this:

• Gain an advanced degree, preferably a PhD
• Get married again
• Have kids (2)

The last one is a bit of a kicker given that my body refuses to cooperate in most areas of my life. But, with a little patience and money (and science!), kids are a possibility. I also get the joy of forever telling my children they were a science experiment, which I am looking forward to. 

The biological challenges of having children handled to a degree (or at least planned for), I am now looking at timeline for things. I need a timeline, even a flexible one, in order to function. Obviously the second on that list is a preferable first step (I considered having kids without getting married, or buying (read: adopting) one, but I don't think I can take care of one on my own), but I have faith there. Ideally, I'd like to be done with children-having by mid-thirties. This is, in large part, due to my concerns about the continued decline of my health. While someone else's healthy uterus will be baking  my offspring and my eggs are hearty, it is simply a basic reality of me that I can not walk on some days. While I pray for better management options or a cure for fibromyalgia, the truth is that it is degenerative and usually gets worse as people age. There is a great possibility that The Great Decline won't come until I'm into my 40s or 50s, but I don't know that. I want to be able to play with my children and the older I get, the less likely that will become. So, mid-thirties is my goal.

Well, now we've got a problem. If I was independently wealthy, this wouldn't be an issue. I could go to 5 years of grad school while having children since I don't need the physical recovery time of delivery. But I'm not independently wealthy and having children is more involved than nature intended. The cost of having a child this way could be as much as 100k per child between surrogacy and IVF. Unless Santa brings that one year, it's going to be financially difficult to make that happen without working full time. Some people are hardcore and can go to school and work full time. I applaud and envy them, but I am not one of them. And while I've got good reasons for not wanting to wait overlong on children, I don't have a good reason not to put off grad school other than "I don't wanna". 

So while I'm disappointed at realizing that I may have to put off one dream for the other, I realize that I can, in the end, have both. And that's the important part.

Arizona Resident

Isn't the desert beautiful?

I am now an Arizona resident. I've been here a week and I have a driver's license that says so. It also doesn't expire until 2047. Woohoo.

The trip was fine, though exhausting. It got above 100 twice on our trip, and Indy and I had an agreement that when it got above 100, the window would be rolled up and the AC would come on. Blessed AC. We got a later start than we wanted because my tires were being cranky and my dad was (understandably) reluctant to let me traipse into the desert without good tires. Once they were fixed, we were on the road. We pulled in a little after midnight, in desperate need of a shower and bed. And never had a shower been so lovely.

Since then, we've gotten settled in the new house. Indy and Fray, the resident dog, get along well. He gets along less well with the cats...or I should say they don't get along well with him. He wants to be friends - they hide. But they've got a few months to adjust before Indy becomes a full time resident in their home, so hopefully it will be generally painless.

I'm starting to check services off the list. I have found a good local coffee place and a cobbler. I'm undecided on the salon I went to, so we'll see on that. The locals have been very good at providing suggestions for other services, so I'll be checking into those over the next few weeks. Priority number one is getting classes sorted since they start next Thursday.

But all told, it's been pretty good. I feel comfortable here and it's an easy fit. Hopefully, this will be my last major move for a very long time.

Review: Charmed (all 8 seasons)

Isn't it amazing that we can watch an entire run of a show in one sitting, if we so choose, online? I was thinking the other day about how, even a few years ago, you had to buy all the seasons you wanted, and many of them weren't available on DVD. Now, thanks to Netflix and similar services, we can watch it all for a fraction of the cost. Genius.

Anyway, I just finished all 8 seasons of Charmed. The show is fantastic until about season 7, when it slows down. This is also when my patience for Rose McGowan wore out, so I admit I might be biased. However, the end of season 8 was so well done. I get frustrated when a story that I've been engaged in and characters that I've gotten to know end without me knowing what happens "next". What are their lives like until they die? The story doesn't end, for me, until the characters do. One of the things Charmed did well was give us the future. We know what happened next, who married who, which kids were had, etc. We know that Wyatt becomes all powerful, but a good guy, and he and Chris lead the next generation of Halliwells (of which there are 9). I like that we know this!

I admit I got sniffly. Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) finally found her love and got married in a flash-forward, which was sweet and her Holy Grail. Piper (Holly Marie Combs) got Leo back (and we love having Brian Krause back cause he's pretty) and they had a third child. And Paige (McGowan) has her kiddies and becomes a Whitelighter guru blah blah (sorry, she really irritates me). So they got what they wanted, in the end, and redeemed Billie (Kaley Cuoco). I'm a sucker for a happy ending.

Eight seasons is an investment. In the end, the writers and creators made Charmed worth the investment. To me, that's a good ending to a series.