"And I know what I have to do now.

I have to keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide will bring?" Tom Hanks - Castaway

Home Sweet Home...

Home at last. It was nice to finally come home...sleep in my own bed, go through piles of mail, wash my clothes...good times. I didn't stay long though. Less then 24 hours and I was out the door to pick up my sister at the airport and head to my parents. I will be here for 3 days before going back to Chicago.
Believe it or not as I sat watching Friends tonight with my family, much to my surprise I saw a familiar face standing behind Ross during the wedding scene. A wanna be actor from good old Milligan College, hardly recognizable, and had I not been sitting with my sister (who also went to Milligan) to back my crazy thoughts up I may have not believed my own eyes. After a call to Alina (who thank goodness taped the episode), who also backed me up, it was confirmed...5 years and all he gets is a 3 second shot of his face in the shadows...wow.

Vegas...One more night...

The Strip has been like no place I have ever been. I have walked up and down Las Vegas Blvd. Checked out as much as I could. New York New York and The Venetian (where the conference is being held) are my favorite casinos inside and out by far followed by Paris. The fountains at the Bellagio I could watch all night and never get tired of them. Cesars Palace will always be a classic. People of all different shapes and forms come here for all different reasons. I have lost 20 dollars in the slots, learned more about RFID technology then I probably will ever care to know, but I can now add another experience to the ever growing list. Seattle, Kamloops (British Columbia) , Seattle, Portland, Seattle, Kamloops, Seattle, and Las Vegas all in 4 weeks...

Conference Day 1

Today was a pretty good day. The conference was for the most part interesting and the day went by pretty fast. I ran into a couple of our clients which was a pleasant surprise. I also picked up a creepy weird guy that followed me around this afternoon and kinda freaked me out. I went down and saw the dancing fountains tonight at the Bellagio which was very cool. Back to business tomorrow. A day and a half before I get to go home...honestly the 4 weeks have gone by pretty fast but I will be happy to be home.

What a day! I started out at about 11 this morning, hit the hot spots, registered for the conference and lost 20 dollars all in about 7 hours. The Casinos are amazing. Disneyworld for adults. My favorties have been The Venetian (where the conference is being held) , the ceilings here my favorite in here because as you walk the coulds appear to be moving even though they aren't. New York, New York was my favorite inside and out. It is amazing how it all looks real, from the Brooklynn Bridge, to the Statue of Liberty, to the streets inside, it really is amazing.
I have lost 20 dollars in the slots...I think I'm done for the week...it is too frustrating for me to keep putting in money that I could be shopping with.

Sin City

I have arrived! Yesterday I woke up at 4:30 am to depart British Columbia and begin my journey to Vegas. After landing 20 minutes early due to a medical emergency in Seattle, and a quick 2 hour flight to Las Vegas, I have reached my final destination before heading home. Overwhelming is the only word that I can use to describe my first impression of Las Vegas. Slot machines everywhere when you step of the plane...bells dinging, people everywhere, brides wandering...I am staying at the Mirage, which seems to be in the perfect location to see everything. I grabbed something to eat and took a quick nap before heading out. There seems to be so much to see but I really didn't know where to start. I headed first to the Bellagio so I could see the dancing water. While waiting for the show to start I was already picking up the men. A guy asked me if I knew when the show was going to start, what a pick up line, eh? He asked me if I was here with friends, and I began wondering what my mother would think if she knew I was talking to strangers in Vegas?!?! He has 2 friend with them but they all seemed harmless enough, after talking for about 20 minutes we all figured that the show must be cancelled due to strong winds, I decided I would go opposite direction of what ever they were going, and it worked out pretty nice. I will admit it was fun being picked up though :) I got back to the Mirage just in time to see the 'volcano' outside erupt...only in Vegas.
See picture of my flight into Vegas here and my first night in Vegas here.

One Last Hurrah!

It is my last day in Kamloops. I am ready to go home, yet it does not feel like I have been here 3 weeks. I decided to spend my last day driving up to Sun Peaks, a popular ski resort, and the main reason a lot of people come to Kamloops in the first place. The drive there was awesome. Lots of mountains, lots of snow, lots of trees. I wish I would have known how to ski. The village around Sun Peaks is full of cottages and resorts which awesome. See the pictures here.

I'm Proud to be an American...

As I sit here in an office full of Canadians, Lee Greenwood plays on my Launchcast Radio station...I am suddenly filled with wonder whether my new Canadian friends even know the song...I contemplate standing up and singing to them all the wonderful words of my friend Lee...then decide against it...'Isn't Ironic' by Alanis Morissette is the next song...and what is really Ironic is that she is a Canadian...hmm

2 hours, 52 minutes, and 45 seconds...

I have been sitting at this desk since 8 am and staring at the clock since about 2. It is now a little after 4 and I still have almost 3 hours left to go before this day is over. I don't know if I will make it or not. Every time the box pops up saying I have new mail I can hardly stand the anticipation of who may have sent me an e-mail....only to find out it is a Failed delivery Report from the last e-mail that I have sent. It is a cruel world. My favorite cd of the moment continues to skip, why I don't know, it worked perfectly fine yesterday. 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 20 seconds...

Today I am grateful that I am in Canada...

Today at 5:30 pm a two EL trains collided on the commute home. Had I been in Chicago there is a very good chance I would have been on one of those trains. 1500 passengers were on the 2 trains, in a total of 12 cars. Luckily only about 45 minor injuries, so short of a major inconvenience it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I will have to wait until tomorrow to see if anyone I knew was on either of the trains.
You can read the story at http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/020304_ns_brownline_crash.html, I'd put the link in but I'm tired and don't feel like it. Today I am grateful that I am in Canada.

Back to business...

And back to Canada, eh...I got back from a great weekend in Portland tonight. I met the babies, which aren't so much babies any more. They are sweet sweet kids and it was fun playing with them this weekend. Nat thinks she's a princess and since she isn't old enough to know better I will let her continue to believe it ;) Jack is a very happy little boy, from what I saw of him...he loves Tess so much that when she is the room nothing else in his world matters, and you'd think 'Meow' was the only word in is vocabulary (which is only a trick because he can say a lot of different words, even knows some Spanish). I wish I had pictures of them but my camera was in the car..hence the reason for the lack of pictures. Lina took me to some great little places to shop and I was able to get a taste of Portland. It was a lot of what I thought it would be like, including the rain. We got lucky today and actually had sunshine, which was really special because I got to see some of the area Mountains.
Flying back in the daylight today was amazing. The sky's were pretty clear so I got a really good look of the different mt. ranges...Unbelievable...not even real. So 6 more nights in Canada, I am ready to go home but I a m pretty sure that this week will go by pretty fast because I have a lot to do. I'm signing off...here are a couple pictures from the weekend.