All You Need is Love

...and may be some good drugs! This is a late Thanksgiving posting, but I had to comment on my first trip to Las Vegas.

My holiday was split in two, part one in Vegas with my father and Uncle David and part two in Carson City with them and my uncle's crazy (and not in a good way) girlfriend. Vegas was more fun than I imagined and not nearly as tacky.

We started off on a high note with the Cirque du Soleil's show "Love" at the Mirage. I am a huge Cirque fan and have seen a bunch of their shows in Philadelphia. This was different- Beatles music, costumes that weren't as wild as their norm, and more dancing than usual. It was wonderful and I boohooed through at least the first 20 minutes because I was sooooo overcome with emotion and memory. I wasn't the only one who was swept away, there were tears all around me.

We sat in the first row, not the best place to see the whole show, but we were inches from the performers and they made regular eye contact with us! The funniest for me was during Blackbird when a very cute cheeky baby blackbird crashed back to the stage in front of me and pulled himself right over the edge of the stage. He looked me in the eye and said "Mama?" I replied, "Baby?" before he was whisked away on his bungee. It reminded me of my favorite childhood book, Are You My Mother?


The Octopus' Garden was the most beautiful portion of the show. The aerial artists costumed as jellyfish were breathtaking. If you are ever in Vegas, go see this show...hell, go to Vegas just to see it! That is an order!

Other amazing sights in Sin City where the Venetian, Paris, Mandalay Bay, oh and the Bellagio. The gardens and pool are so gorgeous, I would love to hang out there for days. The glass flower ceiling in the lobby by Dale Chihuly is beyond cool. I want one of these for the next time I have bronchitis and am sucking down the codeine. Talk about a psychadelic experience!

Then we headed off to Carson City...and the turf war began. My uncle's girlfriend only envisions his family as being her, her daughter, and my uncle. She doesn't want one that includes my father and myself. We are a really small family, only the three of us, we are not asking her to share him with the masses. Being around her is incredibly stressful. I cannot imagine how my uncle deals with this 24/7. He has told me that he is going to ask her to move out before Christmas. But then my uncle has talked about this before, and nothing has happened. The sad part really is that the family...my uncle, my dad and I...all really love the crazy's daughter. We would adopt her into the family in a heartbeat. She is a great kid- smart, fun, polite, and she loathes Bush...what more can I say? Can we push her mother over a cliff somewhere? Arrrrrgh!

But now I am home with the kitties and detoxing from too much rich food and stress. Oh, and hoping that my uncle's christmas card is from him only!