What? It's true!

Interestingly, my tarot reader was right about my trip to the desert! M. whisked me back to the scene of the crime: Las Vegas, where we got married just a couple of months ago. The wedding trip was amazing and wonderful. Imagine being in your favorite vacation spot with all your favorite friends and family members. And we got married, which made it not just a trip but a celebration. But it was a performance being hostess (aka The Bride), so as fun as it was, it was not what I would call a leisurely trip. This one was all leisure. We didn't even spend much money or stay out too late. I had great fun relaxing poolside. There was a Roller Derby convention in town. Derby girls were everywhere. We tried to go see a bout on Saturday planned for Fremont Street, but it was nowhere to be found. We surmised that since it was close to 110 degrees, they may have moved it to an indoor roller rink. What a bummer. When we asked for directions to the event (that was not there), a concierge at Binion's told us that when we got near the place, we should see "lots of different looking folks" that would let us know we were on the right track. I liked his way of describing them, and was actually pretty surprised that we weren't considered "different" in quite the same way.

On the way out there, we made a pit stop in Barstow at the "Barstow Station." It's like a vortex of weirdness. Here you can get food, trinkets, bizarre collectibles like pirate themed snow globes and ninja stars. Golden buddhas make inappropriate semi-naughty requests at you:
Lots of tour buses empty out into the place, crowding it with a cross-section of the most odd people to ever live. I went into the bathroom here and as I'm washing my hands, a tall, mid-30s African American gal was staring at my ass. Sometimes women look each other over as part of the "feminine evaluative process." This is where one gal looks at another to assess whether or not she is lower or higher on the scale of do-ability or attractiveness. I've seen it done to me before. It's part of the Cosmo/Vogue conditioning process and it usually takes only a couple of seconds. But this woman was really looking at me-and seemingly confused. I was about to finish up washing my hands when she said, "where did you get your jeans?" My jeans are gap "curvy" jeans, which are the best jeans in the world if you have curvy hips and a small waist. They are pretty much the only jeans for our kind. I told her about the wonders of Gap curvy, and was glad that I could spread the good word when she said, ""Cause you know, you have a booty like one of us." To which her mother said "Loretta!" Loretta replied with, "What? It's true!" as I walked out, laughing. Pretty awesome.


So thank you Barstow Station, for being weird and offering choices to folks on their way to places less weird.

This week some friends are in town, my In-Laws are coming to visit, and I have two major items on my to-do list before they arrive:

#1) Buy the last book in the Twilight series and finish it before our guests arrive. I read through the first three in about a week and a half because they are absolutely engrossing and didn't give me a moment's rest. There's a whole werewolves vs. vampires thing that is reminiscent of Underworld without all the leather. And if the central character doesn't turn into a vampire in the next book, I will be royally pissed!

#2) Watch The Dark Knight because it's enough already with the waiting.

I also have dissertation writing to do, bills to pay and mail to track down at my favorite post office, the Long Beach East Side Station. Busy Bee!