Paris Day 1 - June 1, 2007

Because I had never been on the EuroStar before (the train from London to Paris via the tunnel under the channel), we decided to go to Paris this way.

Here we are on our way. Surprisingly, I thought the tunnel part of the trip (where you are under water) would take much longer than 15 minutes or so, but it was very quick.

We arrived at the Gare Du Nord station in Paris. Please don't ask why I'm standing there like that! Hai, yes sir ;-) Okay mom, take the fucking picture and get the EuroStar sign in! I'm actually instructing her how to use my camera. You can see that I am very stiff, so it's not going too well.

En route to our hotel, we passed the Moulin Rouge which I didn't think was a functioning establishment anymore...but it is! Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir! And we heard it's really good fun to go see a show there so I will do this next time for sure.

We stayed at a very nice little hotel named Hôtel Champerret-Elysées that was situated very central and a block from the bus stop and tube.

Our room was actually a decent size for Europe with a "fake" king size bed (i.e. two twin beds pushed together and made up separately). We had a nice window that opened completely (I love this about smaller hotels).

The view out the left and right of the window was nice...

Mom and I were starving so we ate near the hotel. Afterwards, we decided to walk towards the Eiffel Tower (yes we walked the whole way). Along the way, we found a nice little outdoor market, selling all sorts of fresh fruits, veggies, flowers, fish, bread and cakes.

It was around this time I realized how generous the men are with showing their affection. It was almost possible to believe I was the most beautiful woman in Paris! Compliments were frequent and detailed, and generally made in a very tasteful manner...they were not shy at all. Apparently they are trying hard when they call you Mademoiselle a lot when you are over 30...oui oui ;-) Made my mother blush a lot, haha.

The first major monument was the Arc de Triumph.

It was so huge and big and the center of a major round-a-bout. The details and decoration were very beautiful. I could not imagine driving in the round-a-bout at all...it was pretty crazy and hectic.

And then I had this idea to take photos of "Lovers in Paris"...but I really wasn't brave enough to take the ones I really wanted to..I should have just asked. I decided to start asking permission to take photos on my last day..the ones I really wanted...the best opportunities to take photos of lovers are late at night on the train. I sorta have this thing about being on a train at night and, well anyway. I can't help but to stare! So mom and I started this game to find them, and we would debate what they were doing or feeling or the kind of space they were in. Haha..anyway, the first of many:

She was actually quite sad, and he was consoling her. I didn't get the feeling they were fighting, I got the sense she was in pain...Did he step on her toe? Did she find out she was pregnant? Or maybe, on serious note, it may have been something worse. But it was great...seemed they were so oblivious to everyone else around them.

As we continued walking, it was just amazing to look at all the buildings and take in the city. I'm happy we decided to walk instead of the bus. Here are random photos of what I saw:

Every once in awhile we'd see the big doors open, and inside a courtyard and/or parking spaces. So it seems like there are these mini-towns side by side going down the streets. I could just imagine horse drawn carriages pulling into these courtyard areas back in the day.

Everywhere you look - at the buildings, statues, art, etc. there seems to be decoration in religious undertones mixed with bits and pieces in the style from Roman times, medieval times and modern times along with references to the revolution and the old monarchy here.

Here is another shot of lovers...he was waiting to take her home from work. Shortly before I took this photo they were locked in a very passionate kiss then hug - very excited to see each other. Then he noticed me and I ruined it! Dang. But I think they were wondering what I was doing of course and probably made up some story about me too. Mom and I thought for a second if they thought we were undercover investigators...

Here is a statue of George Washington which I was totally surprised to see. Very interesting history lesson here.

We walked by this house which was right next door to the Iranian Embassy. It looked abandoned and not kept at all. There were old and tattered French flags hanging from the windows. I got major willies looking at this house..I felt like it was haunted.

And then we came around the corner and I saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time.

But we still had a bit to walk...so we walked through a park near the bridge that took us across the river.

I really loved all these statues we would see. There were a lot of Nike and Diana (Goddess of the Hunt) around...they were so beautiful to look at. This wasn't one of them though. Everything seems very passionate. It was a great feeling to see and feel.

So here we are about to cross the bridge to the Eiffel Tower...and the weather really started to turn.

Here are more lovers..now she was very mad at him. I guess she is probably upset at his looking and being generous in the male parisian aforementioned way and then just totally put off by the impending rain and bad weather. Not the ideal honeymoon in Paris? But little did she know the weather would be perfect the next few days.

Ahh, and these lovers look very happy that they made it to the top and are already on their way home, great photos in hand. Actually, they looked very intent on their walking and getting somewhere...I wonder if she is ovulating and there is an urgent necessity to get back home to make love to get pregnant in Paris. Or maybe just dinner reservations...it's always more exciting in my head. I must keep this PG13.

The entrance to the Eiffel Tower...

There were armed army men and women all around the bottom of the tower, keeping everyone safe and secure from terrorists I suppose.

By this time, it was already raining and very cold. So we decided not to go up to the top, as we were advised that unless it's a nice day it's not worth the cold and long wait in line. We decided to get ourselves a Cappuccino Chantilly (yum) to warm up and head back home. We were exhausted. We cabbed it back to the hotel, rested, then had dinner at a nice cafe across the street from our hotel. Very yummy wine and food.

I was surprised that it didn't get dark until 10:30pm which made it easy to just keep going then wonder why you are feeling so tired!

My internet didn't work in Paris except for the first day...and so it goes. Time for me to have a proper holiday ;-)

xo

Las Vegas, Nevada - June 10-12, 2007

Shadi planned a weekend getaway to Vegas for us (well, at least for one night as Sean & Jeff were flying in to meet us on their way home from Cabo on the 2nd night.) It was our 1st trip all alone since we were 18 or 19 years old, when we went to Portland, OR to visit my grandma. We were both super excited to go and have some BFF alone time.

We left on a Saturday morning...I had been up ALL night long. I was really hung over and had about 3 hours of sleep. She was so sweet when she arrived at my place, bringing me my grande 2 pump vanilla % no foam latte!

We headed out at about 10:30am....we had a lot to talk about, so we started chatting away. After about an hour I felt really sick...I couldn't drive anymore. I felt so much anxiety and felt like I would pass out. So we stopped for some groceries for our hotel room and she drove the rest of the way.

After I rested for about 15 minutes, our chatting continued. Suddenly, Shadi says "umm, does your gas tank indicator have a tendency to drop suddenly?" I was like "um, not really. Sometimes when I'm not paying attention I realize I am out of gas, but no, not usually. WHY?" She asked if my car could tell us how many miles were left. I checked and it said 13 miles.....she said "We're in trouble. We just entered the 30 mile stretch of no stops."

FUCK!!!!!! It's about 100 degrees in the Mojave Desert. My white ass would not last 5 minutes in the heat. Fuck fuck fuck. She said "let's just go until we stop". Fuck. We did have water that we just bought at the store, and I did have my AAA card. So I called to get them rolling. The thing is, there really isn't anything around to tell them where to find us. All I knew is we needed shade. There is no way we could stop in the blazing hot sun. Then we saw an exit. There seemed to be some kind of building. We only had like 6 miles left. I told Shadi to exit. At least we had a chance of getting shade and having a spot for AAA to find us at.

Turns out it was the last stop before running out of gas. THANK YOU JESUS! All that was there was this store..no name just Store with a blue roof and a sign that said open 24 Hours. It was really white trash in the middle of no where...nothing around for miles. But sand and dirt and rocks and dried shrubs. The landscape was pretty actually...once I felt some relief.

I went in to use the restroom. Some guy who worked there kicked Shadi out, said only customers could be in there. So thankfully there was an outdoor patio area that was covered. When I came out of the bathroom I saw her out there. There were also two very rough, fat looking Harley guys out there too. I made the call to AAA. They could not locate us, could not find where we were. She kept asking, "what is your intersection" and "what is your address?". I was like look - we are in the middle of the desert, off 15 North exit 22. Ahhhh. Took AAA 20 mins to just to locate us and call us back. "Are you at a store that has a blue roof?" Yes ma'am, thank gawd. AAA said it would be 1 hour 45 mins before they could make it to us. LOVELY.

Some other guy came out who worked there. Told us if we were too hot we could take a shower in the outdoor shower. Yeah, no. I told Shadi under no circumstances are we getting all wet in front of the Harley guys. I'm trying to minimize any sort of sexualization that might be going on. Fuck. This really sucks. I don't care how hot it gets. It would be so easy for those two guys to grab us, take us out back and take our car out back too and we would be gone. Thank gawd AAA knew where we were. This really fucking sucked.

But Shadi, my sunshine, is so smart. She found another guy who worked there and asked if we could buy one gallon of gas. We were told that the next gas station is 12 miles up the road. That would get us there. The guy said he'd go and ask. After awhile we went inside to check on the situation....this other guy, really big guy came out. He said he owned the place. His name was Jimbo. Ha. Oh my god. I feel like I'm in Deliverance Part Two and something bad is about to happen. But he was super cool actually. Shadi asked him if we could buy gas..turns out the first guy was out back getting gas for us. Inside 30 mins we were outta there. So thankful.

Once the gallon was put in my car, we left. But the strange thing is my car did not register the gallon of gas. It still said 4 miles then dropped to 3 miles really fast. Shadi turned off the A/C and we were very quiet. It turns out most of the way was uphill too. Fucking sucks. We were glued to the mileage reader. At some point it went to zero. I thought I saw him put the gas in the tank..it's in there. It's in there. That was the longest 15 mins ever. It was so hot.But we finally made it!! Yipee! Gas!!!! MILE ZERO in the Mojave Desert. Shit. The gas station was also some kind of deserted town looking kind of place too. Of the four pumps they had, one was out of order, and one only had diesel.

So here is Shadi pumping gas after all that! We are so relived. So excited to have made it out of what could have been a really super big dangerous situation.

We were so happy, I cannot tell you. We had to start our photo journal here. Shadi has this unusual style of photo taking...she just clicks a bunch of times in a row and rotates the camera...haha. It's great. And actually sometimes we get great photos when she does this. She asked that I animate these next two series of photos...

While she was pumping gas, I went round back to have a smoke. I noticed this big dirt mound and a super old graffiti'd out tank. I thought the scene was really cool and depicted where we were perfectly. So here's this series of me on the mound, compliments of Shadi.

The whole next part of our journey we just laughed..that's all we could do. Actually we laughed a lot during our crisis. That's how we get through most the shit we've been through. It works pretty well.

Seeing Vegas approaching is great..I always get really excited when I start to see the city. We are almost there!!!

I think we still managed to do the drive in 5 hours, even with our stops. Shadi was a great driver. I don't know how we manage to have issues whenever we go to Vegas. Something happens every time. Because the running out of gas issue happened already, we figured we were really good to go. Nothing else could possibly happen.

Whoop! Time to exit, we have arrived.

We were starving so we hit up In-N-Out

So good. I always order a double double with cheese...but can never finish it. This burger never tasted so good.

We stayed at Planet Hollywood. It was still under construction, but the inside was really nice and hip. They are doing a great job with the decor. We went upstairs and got ourselves settled....I desperately needed to take nap before we headed out for the night. Shadi was reluctant to let me sleep but I promised I would wake up when she said it was time. She was so sweet and went down and got me another coffee when it was time to get up. She knows me so well and knows all the tricks. Ha!

We both got ready and headed downstairs. We saw all these lights, like diamonds in this one area. They were so beautiful.

And I got silly trying to strike a pose...haha.

The security guard saw us and offered to take a photo of us...

So, as I said we didn't have a game plan and it was about 10pm. So what to do? Hit the strip bar of course! Our spot is Olympic Gardens. Upstairs are the men..and it's not some kind of lame ass Chippendales show. These guys actually get down like the chick strip joints. There is a stage where they do a little show, but there is always audience participation. And all the while, the guys that are not on stage are coming around, giving lap dances. There weren't too many cute guys there this night. But it's always fun to see the ladies enjoying themselves!

This lady was so down for participating. She didn't care who was around. She was super into it, having a great time.

Okay, this one is hot..look at how he's looking at her! OMG. They are professionals for sure ;-)

Fetching his tips from her pockets...haha

This lady LOVED the police officer.

Once we were done, we caught a cab and were on our way to Tryst, my old favorite place. I think we have at least 50 self-portraits of us in cabs!! Shadi took these...she takes the best self-portraits.

It was about midnight and we figured the lines must not be too bad this time. We did get right in which was awesome. We made our way to the bar for a drink ASAP.

I am one of those who gets up to dance on the little platform stage things...Shadi is always super great at encouraging me to do so too ;-)

I got down and then a girl asked me to go back up to dance with her...oh sure...why not? ;-)

So this place isn't may favorite anymore..it's changed. Seems to have gone down hill. The clientele has changed. The vibe has changed. But we had a great time anyway.

We started to get bored inside, so we went outside for some fresh air. They do have this really great big waterfall that's pretty cool outside. We started to goof around taking pictures and starting to be a little mischievous.

I think Shadi fell backwards as she was taking this photo and we started laughing our asses off. Yup, we had a few!

There is this little cove which is super cool out by the waterfall. It's set back and has a couch, table and candles all around it. You can see it behind me in the photo above.

These two were in cove area...cuddled up, talking and smooching. They were really good sports and didn't mind us (umm, Shadi) chatting them up for a bit.

Shortly thereafter, we were ready to go. So as we were leaving we saw these really pretty flower arrangements hanging from these trees. They were really beautiful and smelled so lovely.

We left to go back to our hotel. The cab ride was so funny...made me have to pee so bad. Shadi was giving the cab driver such a hard time..quizzing him on his cabbie card, she didn't believe it was him in the photo. He was so funny, he was playing right back. The two were going back and forth for a long time, and we were all laughing so hard.

When we got back to our hotel, we saw them pretty lights again and took a couple more pictures.

Up the escalator we went, more self portraits..this is what we do when we've had too much to drink, are in a super silly mood and know the night is just about done.

I think we both fell asleep immediately upon our heads hitting the pillows. I of course had my bubble bath before bed.

DAY 2

Sean and Jeff would be arriving in the late afternoon. So my wonderful BFF again brings me my coffee to drag my ass out of bed (note: not a morning person) so we could go lounge by the pool.

Okay, I think I am the only person who has not see Borat. All the time I am hearing people make jokes about Borat. So Shadi and I find the perfect two chairs..one in the shade for me, and one in the sun for her. I was already dying of thirst because it was so hot already, like 100 degrees again. So off I went to get us some water.

I'm standing at the bar and hear "you make sexy time with me?" and "sexy time, sexy time". I look and see these two wannabe Borat dudes.

OH MY GOD. I ran back to Shadi. She got up to go find them. She couldn't believe it...she thinks Borat is so funny. These two were hilarious.

Had to make a Borat sandwich. Hahahahahaha.

It was a bachelor party stunt. These two were having their bachelor party together and their very sweet friends made them do this. How'd they get the swimsuits to fit is what I want to know! LOL!

We went back to the room and then went for a shop. Wasn't too long after this that we had to go get the guys from the airport. Once we picked them up, we went back to the hotel room. They were exhausted from their trip to Cabo...and we had to get all the stories and updates of their adventures there. They had a great time. Jeff was on the phone with his girlfriend Melissa constantly...they are so cute. Anyway, we had room service instead of going out so we could rest before our nighttime activities.

We decided, after a heated debate in the cab, to go to Stratosphere. Sean says this is the only Roulette table in vegas with exactly 50/50 odds. So we found the table. Sean and I started to play. He was teaching me the basics. I was on FIRE! I was picking the color and odd or even consistently for about 8-10 times in a row. Such a great feeling. Then I started to feel myself loose it a little. Was only getting either the color OR the odd/even right. Then I stopped. Sean didn't want to, but I wanted to leave with my new money in my pocket. Once we convinced Sean it was time to go...we got back into the cab. Another heated debate ensued, and we agreed on Light.

It was pretty cool. The crowd was much better. Dancing was a lot of fun! Music was great. Shadi and I usually pick out one song when we go places that we hear, usually from the 80's or 90's that we make OUR song for awhile. This night, it was "I Don't Want To Lose Your Love Tonight" by The Outfield.

You can see Sean is a bit tired still...he woke up after a couple though.

We were feeling good in no time!

Besides dancing on the stages, I LOVE twirling around. Especially when I have a twirly dress on!

So I was in my own little universe for awhile...and soon after we left. We hit the sack and were all asleep in no time.

The next morning we got up and made our way back home. The drive home was nice. Jeff drove and Sean took us on this old highway at one point. It was really cool and the landscape so beautiful.

Wasn't that crazy a time as we've had in the past, but it's great to get out and away with friends. Even the quiet time in the car was priceless with these guys.

xo