mothers day getaway FOR mothers

one of my "happy mother's day" presents from russ was the chance to stay down in las vegas after the duran duran concert and have a girl's nite out with megan, jody, melissa, and karen.

we "roomed" together after the depeche mode concert back in april 2006 and decided that the time was way overdue to try that out those living accommodations again. melissa was coming down from slc to visit her sister, karen, who already lives in vegas, and so she invited us to join in on the festivities.

we checked in here about noon on saturday:

so we could spend the next 31/2 hours chillaxing on big orange lounges here:

the pool is simply amazing, and, as always, vegas doesn't disappoint when it comes to people watching. we were quite fascinated with this fellow:


after pondering why it is that any man would consider it a good idea to wear a speedo, we went up to the room to get ready for dinner and our show--we went to the cheesecake factory out in the district in henderson and had the most disappointing dinner of our lifetime with the worst waitress in the history of the world. it was finally bad enough that i had to complain to the manager who was disguised as a 15 year old boy. i actually considered asking him if i could talk to his dad, but he turned out to be very gracious and comped us some of our dinner and gave us free cheesecake. i rewarded him with five minutes of uninterrupted eye contact, which i think he was TOTALLY into.

we left dinner so very late and hauled ass over to mandalay bay for our 10:00pm showing of "mama mia"--we went to valet the car and the attendants wouldn't let us, saying the lot was full-- did they NOT know that we know steve kemp? more importantly do they not know i'm married to RUSS CLOVE? very disrepectful imo.

 we drove up into the millions of cars in the parking garage and were frantically searching for a spot when we finally spotted one at the end of the row. megan put the pedal down and we got down there when another car pulled around from the other side to get it. it was now about 9:50 and we still hadn't picked up our tickets, so we were frantic to get in--i started yelling for megan to pull in, it was our frickin' spot, but the guys in the other car started flipping out and it was total anarchy. melissa and karen were slumped down in the back seat in the fetal position, laughing and crying at the same time, and megan was paralyzed with fear, saying, "i don't know what to do...."

i was in the back seat, trying to unlock my door so i could get out and stand in the spot and fight for what was rightfully ours, screaming "dammit, megan!! let me OUT!!!".......what a mess.

megan decided to be a lover, not a fighter, which ended up being better in the end, as we got a more prime, closer spot--but i was a little miffed, as i knew we TOTALLY could have taken them.....

we ran thru mandalay as quickly as 5 women in high heels could (karen broke her shoe in her efforts for punctuality--RIP) and managed to slip into our seats moments before the curtains went up.

now, let me say this: if you want to see mama mia, i would suggest you do it ONLY if you get the tickets at the half-price booths, because it is showing it's age a bit. most of our problem was the fact that we were on the front row and could see everything WAAAAAAAAY too clearly. the lead actress who played "sophie" came out in a skirt that was two sizes too small and all i could focus on was her muffin top which was coming out all over the place and moving in lots of different directions. sad, i know, but holy mother of trainwrecks--there were a couple of other dancers who's costumes were about 2 sizes too small, and megan put it best when she said, "i think some of the cast went on a two month hiatus from their diet, but forgot to tell the wardrobe department....they showed up that night, saying, 'i can still make this costume work!' they just had to pull out the pliers and the spray bottle to wet it down...."

worst moment of the production?? the very end scene where the two young lovers stand on the stage and this coolest full moon comes up over the stage and they kiss in front of it and it's so very romantic.....unless you are sitting as close as us, and then you can see that the young man's pants are WRANGLERS, FOR THE LOVE!!! WRANGLERS, I SAY!!!!

oh my.

what a fun 24 hours we had!!! we did count up the pairs of shoes we had between the 5 women in the room--the tally? 21 pairs!!