How Ironic

The good news is that my work week is going by pretty fast. I've been so busy, working through lunch, coming in early and leaving late. I'm not a fan of overtime. I mean, the extra money is nice and all, but I enjoy my time off.
I've never actually had a job where I had to work this hard and pay so much attention to little details and check and double check my work and sometimes I fall short of my expectations and then I beat myself up and it sucks. I feel like I'm drowing sometimes - especially this week.

I was driving home last night and I was just a big ball of stress. My mind was racing, my thoughts were all over the place, I couldn't decide if I should just go home and watch mindless T.V. or go to the gym or go to a meeting or like curl up in a ball and just cry myself to sleep.

I chose the meeting because I decided that sitting in a room for an hour listening to people complain was a lot easier than going home and changing and then sweating for an hour on the elliptical. And then, I stopped in the gas station to get a drink and this really cute guy was in there and I recognized him from a meeting I went to on Monday and I realized he was probably going to the same meeting I was going to and then I was happy :) Yup - that's all it took. Hot guy = stress gone. Cool!

Then I get to the meeting and my ex boyfriend walks in and now my stress is back full force with a nice helping of anger to go along with it because we actually had plans to hang out last night and he never called. And then he sends me a string of text messages through out the meeting and I'm thinking "we could have been having this conversation over dinner or something but instead we are in a room full of people texting back and forth about a bunch of bullshit that really doesn't matter anyway.

And then the cute guy from the gas station walks in and I finally see that he's wearing a wedding ring and now I'm really annoyed. I should have went to the gym.

Oh well. The most ironic part of the night was when this girl was sharing about how she got four years clean and everyone was all happy happy and they brought her a cake and her mom was there and she was talking about how great her life is now and then over the loud speaker we hear "CODE BLUE CODE BLUE IN ICU" and again "CODE BLUE CODE BLUE - ALL DOCTORS TO ICU" and I get the distinct feeling that someone in the hospital a few doors away from us is probably going to die and here she is sharing about her wonderful life and thanking her mother for the BOTH of the interventions.

Talk about a buzz kill.

So, here I go, back to work for another day of trying to keep my head above water.

The craziness...

I was on my way home a few nights ago and I stopped in this little convenience store near my house to get some energy drinks because I usually drink a monster every morning when I wake up and I was completely out of them. So, I'm waiting in line and this young guy - probably around 8 or 9 years old goes up to the counter with a yoo hoo. He's standing next to an older guy, I was assuming they were maybe brothers or the guy possibly could have been his father. I don't know. Anyway, the older guy buys his drink and then the younger boy dumps out a ton of change onto the counter and starts counting the nickels and dimes trying to figure out if he had enough money for the drink. I thought it was a bit odd that the older guy paid for his own and the younger boy had to pay for his separately, but whatever. Luckily I was in a pretty good mood or else I would have been totally irritated about having to wait for this kid to count a bunch of change. At any rate, he fell about 20 cents short and the older guys says "well, you don't have enough - let's go" and they were just going to leave. The older guy got his drink, but he wasn't even going to help his friend/brother or whatever with the extra 20 cents. I'm like "what the hell?" Poor kid - why is this guy not giving him the extra money? So, I pulled a five out of my wallet and bought the kid's drink and then I let him keep the change. I mean, jesus - it's hot outside - he might need another drink some other time. And really, what's five dollars to me? If I didn't give it to the kid I would have probably spent it on something totally ridiculous like a slot machine, candy or a magazine. The kid's face lit up like a christmas tree when I gave him the five bucks. It was really heart warming. Except for the fact that I had this nagging feeling that the poor kid has bigger problems.

I don't know. Is it just me? I mean, what kind of person takes a kid into a store and buys themself a drink and then doesn't buy the kid one? You take a kid up to the counter, let him count out his change and then when he doesn't have enough you say "too bad - let's go". What kind of shit is that? That's just downright mean. And like, it was almost midnight. Why was the kid out so late? And the guy, he looked a little shady to begin with. The whole thing just didn't sit right with me.

I dunno - it's just weird.

Over the weekend I was watching the Joseph Fritzl story on MSNBC. Holy crap! He's the guy in Austria that built a sound proof fortress underneath an apartment building he owned. He started building it when his daughter was 12. When she turned 18 he freakin kidnapped her and kept her underground for 24 years! He fathered 7 kids with her and nobody knew. They all thought she ran away to be in a cult. It was the most bizarre, sickening, mind numbing, disgusting and fucked up shit I have ever seen. I mean, you had to literally walk down a ton of stairs to get to the basement. You had to go through 8 locked doors and then a final door that was hidden behind a bookcase to get to this hidden room. He planned this shit for years before he finally executed it and his wife lived upstairs the whole time and had no idea. There were like 100 tenants living in the apartment building above her and nobody had a clue.

And then when it got too crowded downstairs, he took a few of the kids and dropped them off on his doorstep upstairs in the middle of the night with a note that he made the daughter write saying "I can't take care of these kid's - I'm so sorry - please raise them for me". So, his wife raised three kids upstairs and his daughter raised four kids downstairs and he was the father of all of them! And on top of it, he got financial assistance from the goverment because he was like a foster parent. Holy crap! It was so bizarre.

Anyway, happy hump day!

rant

I have to head into work early today - I'm so freakin busy and a little stressed. I'm not ususally one to let work stress me out, but it is today. Oh well.

I'm almost a little embarassed to admit that I watched that show "I Love Money" last night on MTV. What the hell? It's like the lamest reality/game show on T.V. and my stupid ass sat down and watched it.

At one point they were doing a challenge where they had to build a machine that would throw raw chickens to their teammates who would in turn catch the raw chickens and carry them like footballs across a goal line. Um - yeah - not one of TV's finest moments and not one of my wisest program choices either. What can I say? I wanted something that I didn't have to think about and I got it.





Speaking of reality television - I watch the Denise Richards "It's Complicated" show and I also watch the gay ass Allie Lohan show. I hate them both. I'm sick of hearing Denise complain about the paparazzi hassling her. "Oh my god - the paparazzi ruined my trip to Hawaii, they were following us around taking pictures of us". Really? You brought a freakin camera crew with you and taped the vacation for your show. Did you really think the paparazzi wasn't going to notice a crew of people filming you? And, obviously you planned for this trip to be televised or else you wouldn't have brought said cameras along with you. Moron. Celebrities listen up. Yes, i know, there are tons of celebrities reading this blog as we speak - celebs - don't become a celebrity if you don't want to be in the limelight!!!!! How about you become an accountant or a secretary if you don't want cameras following you? Sound good?




And on to Allie - that girl is 14 years old so I'll give her a little lee way. But oh my god - she is such a whiny annoying baby. She has maybe half the talent that Lindsay had (before she became a lesbian and started doing drugs). She isn't pretty, her voice is annoying, she says that "music is in her soul and she just wants to create", but then she turns down all the songs people write because she "isn't feeling it". What happened to the days when musicians wrote their own songs? If music is in her soul, maybe she could go ahead and create her own song and then she'd be "feeling it".

Rant over

Another Weekend...

Blue Man Group - wow - what can I say? Words could never do this show justice! I got off work Friday and went straight over to the Palazzo which is obviously attached to the Venetian. I'm almost ashamed to admit that I've never been to the Palazzo. So, I parked over there and walked through the place. What a beautiful casino. I'd have to say that it's the nicest place in town - at least until City Center is completed. Anyway, I met my friend David over at the Blue Man Group theater and we chit chatted for a while and then the show started. It wasn't very impressive in the beginning and I honestly didn't think I was going to like it. As the show progressed I really started to take it all in and it was amazing. So, if you ever have the chance to see it, you should.




I had a great workout week. I'm sore as hell today and I know that tomorrow is going to be the worst - not to mention it's Monday which automatically makes it a bad day.

My air conditioning is fixed once again. This time I was informed that the hoses leading to the A.C. were dry rotted and one of them got a hole and all of the freon leaked out. Um - here's the thing. When I paid $1,500 to have the air conditioning replaced, shouldn't they have maybe mentioned that the hoses were dry rotted? I mean, isn't that something they probably should have noticed? They had the freakin car for 9 hours that day. I'm seriously not pleased with this whole car situation. I'm just crossing my fingers and praying that I get through the rest of the summer without incident.



Another weekend and another DUI in Hollywood - this time it's the very famous Shia LeBeouf. I'm sure most of you know he had the lead role in Transformers - he rocked it along with hottie Megan Fox. They are currently in the middle of filming Transformers II but unfortunately Shia was in an accident when he got the DUI and he had to have surgery on his hand so he'll be out of commission for about a month. I'm sure the producers are loving that!! Hey any publicity is good publicity in La La Land right??

PokerIntensity hits the web

I was recently contacted by the fine ladies and gents over at PokerIntensity.com. They asked me to check them out so I did!!

Their mission is simple - "To provide free, in-depth, knowledgeable, and objective information to the online casino gaming community". Okay. sounds good. Reliable information is something that isn't always easy come by. Especially when the information you are seeking has a direct affect on your pocketbook.

New players should take advantage of the online poker room link because they've already done the research for you. Just a simple click and now you have a ton of reliable information at your fingertips.

Personally, I fell in love with the Poker Room Blacklist. This site has some balls!!! I was so pleased to stumble across some true blue gamblers who weren't afraid to tell it like it is. I mean - they came right out and said "stay away from these sites. With so many options out there, why not take the advice of people in the know? Why play on a site that is shady?

Basically, Pokerintensity.com doesn't mess around. They know poker and they are happy to share their gambling tips with you. Give them a shot, what do you have to lose?

Another Page from Carmen's Past

You guys were right about Wanted with Angelina Jolie - it was way way way over the top. It was kind of entertaining and fun - but it wasn't exactly believable.

Here's another back in the day story...

I started drinking about age 15 and it was just at random house parties on the weekends, but I can tell you that the very first time I ever took a drink, I loved the feeling, I felt happy and carefree, I drank as much as humanly possible, I blacked out, I don't remember a good 3 hours of the party and I woke up with hickies on my neck the next day and had no idea who they were from. Good times. I got a lot of attention and I mistakenly thought it was good attention when in reality it was negative attention. At any rate, this was just the beginning.

Around age 18 I took my first hit of acid. I wasn't scared, I couldn't wait to just feel different and I loved it. From that point on I basically did any drug that was put in front of me.

I hung out with a lot of losers that didn't have cars and of course I had a nice new Mitsubishi Eclipse so I drove everyone around every night and didn't think a thing of it. One particular night I'm with these guys that weren't exactly a good influence but I thought they were my friends (looking back I realize they were just using me). They said "let's go on a road trip to Largo". The only thing I knew about Largo was that this amusement park called Wildworld was in Largo and it was right on the outskirts of D.C. I was like "sure - let's hit it".

We drive down there, they go to someone's house and buy some party favors and then we get in the car and head back to our area. They kept calling it "love". I thought it was some fancy sort of weed. The guys rolled it up in papers and started passing it around the car, but it smelled kind of odd to me. It smelled like amonia which I thought was odd because weed doesn't smell like that. But, whatever. I took a couple of hits and I felt so weird. I had never felt this feeling before ever but I liked it. The guys were laughing because I'm like "wow - I feel like I'm on a roller coaster - this is some good shit" and the more I smoked the more I started losing my mind and eventually I was like "seriously guys, what the hell is this shit?" and to mess with me they said it was "crack". I about died. In my mind, crack was for homeless fuckups that didn't have teeth and didn't have jobs and they were super crazy. I had always swore that I would never touch crack.

Long story short - it was PCP. To be more specific it was called "love boat" and it was a joint sprinkled with PCP on the top. Wow - talk about a crazy high. I hate to say it, but I was in love with this drug.

The problem with love boat is that if you take one hit too many you freak the fuck out. I remember laying in the back of my car thinking I was dead, I was like in some other dimension and I couldn't get out. I started trying to kick the windows out of my car, I was freaking out, it was the worst feeling ever. Eventually I gave it up and luckily I didn't hurt anyone or myself. I still to this day get flashbacks of things that I did on that drug and I regret these things immensely.

Since we were all underage we couldn't go to clubs, so we found other creative ways to entertain ourselves. I don't know if anyone has ever been to the end of the line in D.C. - I can't think of the name of the station but it's the very end of the line if you are coming from D.C. into Maryland. Well, late at night there was a huge huge group of people from all over D.C., Maryland and Virginia and they had illegal drag races over at the metro station. The reason we did them there was because it was a really long road and it was off the beaten path and it was a perfect place for racing.

So, we could go up there on the weekends with our party favors and get crazy! One night things got way out of control. Someone pissed someone off and the next thing I know there are guns waving around, bullets being shot and everyone is running for dear life. I think someone got shot, but I wasn't sticking around to find out.

I fucking loved it. Drama - Excitement - Adrenaline. These are the things that I lived for.

I'm pretty sure I headed back there the very next weekend. Some of us never learn huh?

Wanted

I am not kidding you - the air conditioning in my car is not working again!!!!!!!! I am so freaking pissed. I spent $500 in the end of May to have it fixed. It worked for a while week or two and then I took it back because it wasn't working again and it was making a horrible noise when I even tried to run it. That cost me another $1,000.00 to have fixed. They said I needed a whole new compressor or something like that and now it's not working again! To be honest, I never thought it was working properly even after I paid the $1,000.00. I felt like it should be colder than it was. It was somewhat cool, but it never really felt like cold cold. I just chalked it up to the fact that it's an old car and it's 112 degrees outside.

But now the air that is blowing out isn't even a little cold- it's basically just like a fan blowing. UGH! I'm taking it back in on Saturday - but this is so freaking annoying. I have drive around for 3 more days in this miserable heat with no A.C. I mean, I work in a professional office and I'm getting to work in a sweat. It's bullshit. Not to mention that another Saturday will be wasted while they work on my car. The craziest thing is that it's my sponsor's boyfriend that owns the shop, so I can't even go in and throw a fit because I like know them. Oh well, you get more flies with honey so I don't actually need to be a lunatic bitch, but sometimes I just want to be!

Anyway, I went to the gym last night with Hilary - it was good times. I love going to the gym with a friend - I get a better workout and it goes by a lot faster. She doesn't have her kids this whole week so we've been hanging out a lot. Her kids come back on Saturday though so I'll be back to doing the gym thing alone.




Has anyone seen Wanted with Angelina Jolie? I'm going to the Red Rock tonight to see that movie. I heard it was good so we'll see.

Happy Hump Day!

Jealous? Paranoid? Nope!

So, who went out and saw "The Dark Knight" over the weekend????? I wanted to see it - but I promised to hangout with Courtney because it was her birthday. So, I made plans with my ex to go see it this week, but then he called on Sunday and was like "can you go see it right now?" and I'm like "no, I haven't even showered yet", so he went with his roommates and now I still haven't seen it. But, I will this week for sure.




Anyway, speaking of Batman - Christian Bale aka Bruce Wayne was questioned for verbal assault. What? Yes, they actually have "verbal assault" in England. He didn't touch anyone, but he was apparently mouthing off to his mother and sister or something. What the hell? Scottland Yard knew they were going to question him, but they waited until the weekend's Batman festivities were over before they brought him in. That was awful nice of them wouldn't you say??

Christian released a statement today...

"Christian Bale attended a London Police station today, on a voluntary basis, in order to assist with an allegation that had been made against him to the police by his mother and sister. Mr Bale who denies the allegation, co-operated throughout, gave his account in full of the events in question, and has left the station without any charge being made against him by the Police.

At this time, there will be no further comment by Mr Bale."


Good god - if I could be arrested everytime I verbally assaulted someone - I'd be doing life in prison.



And by the way, aren't parents supposed to protect their children? What kind of jealous bitch has her son locked up for verbal assault? I know! It's a pissed off mother who didn't take care of her son when he was younger and now she's mad that he's doing well and she's not reaping the rewards. Tuff shyt!

So, I went to this place called Calico Jack's on Saturday night to meet up with Courtney and her friends. It's a bar/restaurant and they do karaoke on Saturday nights. I figured a restaurant that does karaoke would be pretty laid back and low key. I was wrong. The place was packed and people were wasted and it was like a nightclub. I wasn't really expecting that. I try to stay away from clubs because I don't drink anymore, but luckily my friend Hilary came with me and she doesn't drink either, so it was actually pretty fun watching everyone else do stupid things - like the girl that went up on stage and pulled down her shorts and wasn't wearing any underwear. I swear! Security came up to her and told her if she did it again she would be kicked out. The woman was like 40 years old - so it wasn't a pretty site.

Anyway, it was a pretty good time and a very diverse crowd. I'd probably go there again. It was especially nice driving home sober without the paranoia that I might get pulled over looming in my head.

Road Trip Part V

So, we finally get back to Maryland after a horrendously long trip back home with 5 of us crammed into a truck and I get my car back from Chrissy and unfortunately her car is still stuck in Texas. Her parents are livid!!!! I guess they bought the car for her and I'm sure they are thinking "what the hell kind of friend takes your car to Texas and then just dumps it there and doesn't bring it back home?" I mean, it was definitely a messed up situation.

They paid like $800.00 to have it shipped back to Maryland and then they had to pay like another $1,000.00 to have the engine replaced.

Of course they wanted me to pay for the repairs even though the engine seized up because of years of neglect, it was just really unfortunate that it happened while I was borrowing it on a road trip to texas.

At any rate, a few weeks later I wasn't surprised when I received a court summons from her parents - they were sueing me. Ouch! I was nervous!

My uncle knew his way around a court room pretty well. He had been on the giving and receiving end of a few civil suits, so he was happy to accompany me to court. It was nice to have him there for moral support. Chrissy told her parents she wasn't testifying - she wanted no part of this.

So, the big day came and I met my uncle at the courthouse and basically what happened is that they brought their mechanic in to testify.

He got up on the stand and explained how much the car cost to be fixed and when the judge asked him if the car broke down because the owner didn't have the oil changed on a regular basis, he couldn't lie - he said "yes". Case dismissed - I didn't have to pay a dime!! Good times!

Army Guy Ron aka Pryck and I never spoke again. Not a big deal since he was in Texas and I was in Maryland. He definitely lived up to his nickname though - he was a total asshole.

Melissa and I are still buddies. She lives in Maryland and obviously I live here in vegas, so we don't ever see each other, but we still talk over e-mail and she's one of the people that stood by me through all of the rough times. I'm lucky to still have her as a friend.

Chrissy is still friends with Melissa and I think she bought yet another Hyundai!! I doubt she ever lent it to anyone else for a road trip to Texas though.

The puppy of the day is so cute today!!

Best Thursday Ever!!!!

Road Trip will resume on Monday -

At this time I will be interrupting this program for a very special announcement...

Tonight (Thursday night) after work I went straight to the Palms Casino to watch a live broadcast of the Adam Corolla show. I know this is absolutely irrelevant, boring, uninteresting and unventful to the most of you, but to me this is like the best thing since sliced bread.

I literally live and breathe the Adam Corolla show everyday. They are on from 6 - 10 a.m. and I listen to them while I'm getting ready in the a.m. I listen to them on the way to work and then I podcast them all day at work. I don't miss a minute, I have listened to all of the archives, I loved Adam's movie the Hammer and I just think that Teresa, Bald Brian and Adam have the best chemistry, they are super smart, witty, funny, poignant, and they make me laugh. So, meeting them face to face was a big dream of mine and it finally came true.

I walked in and the first person I saw was Teresa. I pointed her out to my co-worker, she heard me and extended her hand to me and seemed genuinely interested in meeting me. She is more beautiful in person and seriusly, her pictures do not do her justice at all...



I'm friends with her on myspace even though she doesn't know me, but she accepted my friend request a long time ago and it was really cool to kind of introduce myself to her and she even talked to me for like 5 minutes. I think I have a little girl crush on her. It happens! So what?

A few minutes later, Adam came out and signed autographs, shot the shit and even took pictures with fans - like me...



The first guest he interviewed was Louie Anderson - he's a comedian that lives here in Vegas - he was pretty funny...

I know he looks like he has a microphone growing out of his head, but he doesn't - it's just a bad angle...



Next up was fellow Dancing with the Stars cast member and of course another Las Vegas resident - Magician, Penn Gillette of Penn and Teller...




Adam has a Nicaruguan friend that does a lot of work for him at his house and also does a few special segments on the radio - but most of all he was the stand-out star in the Hammer so I was really excited to meet Ozzie...




This chick, Natalie is the sister to one of the guys working on the show - she lives in L.A. ane teaches school or something like that - she was really fun to talk to...




She was in the VIP area and I was literally standing right next to her with just a little pole in between us - just an indication of how awesome my spot was in front of the stage.

The worst part of the night and somehow the funniest was some of the drunk bastards that kept screaming and hooting and hollering - I mean - they were so loud when Adam was trying to interview the guests that I couldn't hear a word that Penn said - it was really annoying until Adam called them out and eventually they were escorted out - of course I took a pic - duh...

Wouldn't it be funny if he saw his picture on my blog???



Oh and this was his very drunk and equally obnoxious friend...



It was such a great time. I had a blast! I can't wait to do it again.

My friend Jerry was like "um, you can make friends with anyone huh?" Because I literally made friends with like every person around me and that's just because I was so happy to be there and Teresa and Adam totally kicked it off by making me feel comfortable as soon as I walked in. They were very approachable! I had a blast.

If you are ever looking for something to listen to at work or you just need a laugh - do yourself a favor and check them out online.

Road Trip Part IV

Before I left Texas to go back home, Army Guy Ron was talking about moving to Maryland when he got out of the Army and how he couldn't wait for us to be together and how much he liked me etc. I was feeling pretty hopeful. I definitely liked him.

So, here we are in Texas and we have no way to get home. What to do what to do?? Luckily, the girls were really digging JP and Mike, so they offered to drive us all the way back to Maryland. The only hitch?? They had a truck. It was the kind of truck that had a very small cab with like bucket seats. So, only three people could sit up front at any given time. There were the two bucket seats and then a tiny place behind the seats where one person could like lay down because and it was a really tight space and then at all times, two people had to lay in the back of the truck because there was 5 of us making the trip back up to Maryland.

On top of it, we had to take a totally different route on the way home because there was a hurricane hitting the east coast, so we had to like drive some convoluted way to get back to MD without hitting all of the rain. Good lord - I thought that trip would never end. It was really not that fun laying in the bed of a truck in the blazing heat for hours on end. I mean, we all took turns, but still it SUCKED ASS! I was grateful that we had a way home though.

Of course, Army Guy Ron stayed back in Texas and to be honest, I noticed that on the way home, he wasn't quite calling as much, our phone calls seemed to be a little shorter than usual and I was getting this kind of weird vibe. I should also mention that there were a few times when we were at his place and the phone would ring and he wouldn't answer it- maybe as if there was something he was hiding.

We finally get back to Maryland after what seemed like a year on the road and I get back to work, the guys don't have to go AWOL or anything so everything's cool. Until I get the dreaded e-mail from Ron - aka Pryck. He's basically like "your so fucking stupid, I was never going to move to Maryland, I just said that bullshit. Why in the hell would I move up there??? I barely even know you - I totally just used you and I have no interest in ever talking to you again."

Holy shit - that stung. Wow. How naive I was. I really thought we had something. Thinking back now, the signs were all pretty much there. I mean, he was a beautiful guy, he could get any girl he wanted, he was just playing the game to get what he wanted and then he was done. That definitely sucked and I felt like an idiot. But, the good thing was that he lived in Texas, I lived in Maryland and I didn't have to see him on a daily basis or anything so after a little mourning period and beating myself up a bit I finally got over it and just chalked it up to experience and hoped to make some wiser choices in the future.

Then, there was the issue of the car to deal with. My mustang was fine when I got it back. Chrissy took good care of it and that was great. But, unfortunately, her car was stuck in Texas without a working engine.

Her parents were PISSED!!!!!!!!! She wasn't mad at me because she knew that all I did was get in and drive. I had no idea the oil had never been changed. They had to pay like $800.00 to ship it back to Maryland and then they had to pay another $1,000.00 or more to fix the engine. So, they wanted me to pay for it and I was like "hell no, I'm not paying for it - I didn't do anything wrong". Chrissy told them it wasn't my fault, but they didn't care. They threatened to sue me and that's just what they did.

To be continued...

Road Trip Part III

We arrive in Texas and the moment of truth arrives - I finally get to meet Army Guy Ron. And guess what? He's even hotter in person that I could have ever imagined! Score! I was pretty psyched! We had a great time while I was there. Amazingly enough, all three couples clicked. Mike liked his girl, JP liked his girl and Ron (Pryck) and I had total chemistry too. We had a whirlwind week. I remember going to a few parties in the barracks, hanging out at the Riverwalk in San Antonio, going out to eat, I think we might have even played around in a Jillian's or Dave and Buster's type place where they have videogames and skiball and all that fun stuff. We seriously had a blast.

Unfortunately, there was this nagging feeling in the back of my head that something serious might be wrong with the Hyundai and I wasn't sure what it was going to take to fix it. I mean, what would we do if the car wasn't able to make it back to Maryland???? I tried not to worry about it too much and just waited for the mechanic to give me a call.

For some reason Mike, JP and the girls decided it would be fun to take a 4 wheel drive truck into the mud and play around in the woods or something. Apparently they got stuck. Ron and I got this call from them asking us to come help get the truck out. So, we drive over there and sure enough, the truck was really STUCK! We all tried to push it out without much luck. I'm a light weight anyway so my pushing wasn't doing much to help the situation and I was covered in mud!!!!! Everyone else was having a blast slipping and sliding in the mud but I am not an outdoorsy type girl and I was VERY grosssed out about the whole situation. YUCK!!!! Next thing I know, my whole body is starting to burn - very badly and it hurt and it itched and it burned and I was freaking out because there were fire ants everywhere! I've never seen a fire ant in my life but apparently they are pretty normal in Texas. My whole body was swelling up and I was covered in welts and it was pretty painful. We eventually got the truck out and I went back to someone's house and took a bath with epsom salt or whatever in it trying to numb the pain. Holy shit that hurt!

Anyway, the mechanic finally calls and he informs me that the car is going to cost like a couple thousand dollars to fix because the oil had never been changed and it needed a new engine. I'm like what the hell?????? As it was, I had already put a few hundred on my credit card on the way down to Texas trying to have this car fixed.

So, I call Chrissy and ask her how she wants to handle this and she tells me to leave it there. I didn't have the money to pay for it, she didn't have the money to pay for it and it was no longer driveable at this point.

Okay, so now we are pretty much stuck in Texas and JP, Mike and I have to get back to work in a few days. I was so smitten with Ron that I would have happily stayed there forever, but that wasn't really an option so we came up with another plan to get home.

To be continued...

Road Trip Part II

So, I was talking to a really good friend of mine, Melissa, she also worked in the OPS Center (on a different team). She would sometimes come in and relieve me when my shift was over and vice versa. We actually met when we were high school work studies and she quickly became one of my best friends. She literally knew every detail of my drama filled life. I got a lot of great feedback from her and we were total lunch buddies. We went to lunch together all the time and most of our conversations revolved around guys, guys and more guys.

Anyway, her roommate Chrissy had a Hyunda Accent and it got really great gas mileage. She said she'd be willing to switch cars with me for the road trip. I guess looking back at it now that was probably a weird thing for us to do, but at the time it seemed totally normal. So, I gave her my mustang for the week and she gave me her Hyundai and JP, Mike and I drove to Texas.




It was a long ass drive and we didn't take any breaks except for gas, food and to switch drivers. We all took turns driving and it was pretty fun. We drove down the coast through like Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and finally into Texas. Nothing too exciting happened until we hit Texas and the car started over heating. We pulled over, let the engine cool down, and continued our journey. Like, an hour later it was over heating again and again and again. We were literally about an hour away from our destination and we couldn't even get there.

I can remember how nice the people in Texas were. We were literally stuck on the side of the road and people kept stopping to help us. I was definitely not used to this kind of behavior. People in Maryland don't generally pull over to help out. I can remember sitting on the side of the road for like an hour one time and nobody ever stopped.

But anyway, we eventually made it to San Antonio, we dropped the car off at a repair shop and I finally headed over to the barracks to meet Army Guy Ron for the first time. I was nervous because pictures can be very deceiving - how did I know if he was really as cute as his picture made him seem? What if I hated him in person? What if he hated me? These are the reasons I came with two friends - just in case things didn't work out.

I should mention that Ron's nickname on IRC was Pryck - um - I was hoping that was a joke.

To be continued...

Road Trip

Okay kiddies - it's time to tear another page from the history of Carmen's past. Today I'll be reminiscing about the road trip I took from Fort Meade, Maryland to San Antonio, Texas.

So, I was working at the Department of Defense in Fort Meade, Maryland back in the day. I was hired on as a high school workstudy when I was 16 years old. It's funny how it worked out because I really had no idea what the Department of Defense was, I had only driven through Fort Meade once or twice and I had no desire to join the high school work study program. I was a cheerleader for god sakes!!

But, they came to my high school and gave all of us juniors a test. I scored pretty high and they came back to do an interview with me. After a few more interviews, 2 lie detector tests and a year long background investigation, I was granted a top secret security clearance and worked half days as a senior in high school. When I graduated from high school they hired me on full-time and eventually I took a job in the 24 hour Operations Center. It was a cool gig! I worked 6 days on and then I'd have 2 days off. We got overtime, extra pay differential when we worked nights and time and a half on Sundays. I worked a rotating shift that consisted of mids, swings and days and then every 8 weeks I had a week off and these were the times they wanted us to use to take our vacations.

So, I met tons of really cool people working in the Ops Center and I also found that mids (10 p.m. - 5 a.m.) were often very slow and boring. To entertain myself I would log onto the internal IRC (internet relay chat). It was a chat room on goverment computers, you had to have a top secret security clearance to access it and it was supposed to be used for work related purposes. There was always a laid back chit chatty room at nights though and I would get on there and talk to people in Texas, California, Japan, - everywhere really. I connected with army, navy, air force and marines stationed all over the world. They all had security clearances like I did so I felt that most of them were probably pretty safe.

So, I started talking to this guy stationed at an army base in San Antonio, Texas and we hit it off. We spent several months talking on the phone, talking over the computer, we traded pictures and made plans to hopefully meet in real life someday.

During this time I was good friends with two military guys, JP and Mike. They both worked in the OPS center with me and they both had fun with IRC as well. It just so happened that they became pretty friendly with two ladies stationed at the same army base in Texas!! I think we all know where this is leading - road trip!!!!!





There was only one hitch...

Mike didn't own a car, JP drove a small truck that definitely wouldn't make the trip to Texas and certainly wouldn't be comfortable for 3 people and I drove a convertible mustang that got TERRIBLE gas mileage and I was planning to sell it, so I didn't want to put the extra miles on it. So, we put our heads together and came up with a plan...

To be continued...

Happy Friday!!

Our favorite blogger made it through day 3, made the money and is still going strong!!!!!! Go Iggy!!

Last night was the first night in about a week and a half that I actually went home and relaxed. I played an 18 person SNG and took first place so that was nice. Halfway through the game I just wanted to hang it up and eat some dinner and lay on the couch and watch T.V. But, I had the biggest stack and I figured that would be stupid to give up in the middle of the game. So, I stuck it out and I won! Go figure! Anyway, I definitely don't have the stamina to sit through 14 hours a day of play like the big guys do.

Okay, so, I still haven't been to a meeting. I need to get back on track. I seriously need to do this. My homegroup is tonight - it's my favorite meeting - we always go out for dinner afterwards - this is my plan and I am sticking to it. I'm walking a fine line and I know it. Okay, it's on paper and therfore it is law.

It's Friday - good times. I think Courtney and I are hitting up the Red Rock pool tomorrow. I'll try to take some bikini shots for you Courtney fans.

Oh, and congrats to my boy Waffles for taking down Riverchasers last night. Looks like everyone is cashing in these days.

I think another trip to the Rio this weekend might be in order - it is the main event after all!!!!

I know my regular non-poker readers are probably bored to tears reading about all this poker, but it's poker season and it's almost over so I promise I'll get back to story telling, reminiscing about the good old days and all that good stuff. Oh, and if I ever go on a date ever ever again (i'm having a dry spell) - I'll be sure to write about that too.

Let's all try to do as little work as possible today :)

Day Three - He made it!!

IGGY MADE IT TO DAY THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First thing I did this morning was check Pauly's blog and saw that Iggy made it through another long day at the main event and I couldn't be more thrilled.

I actually got off work at 5 yesterday and made the trek over the Rio to see Iggy. I must have walked around for about a half hour trying to find him before I finally texted him and asked him what table he was at. He was in the total center of the room, I couldn't get near his table, in fact I couldn't even see him if he was sitting down - he stood up and waved to me and I let him know that I'd wait around until dinner break so we could catch a quick bite. By the way - the lucky streak has ended. I wasted an hour at the hooker bar playing slots and I lost, so I won't be gambling again anytime soon.

Dinner break came and we rushed off to the way way other side of the Rio - there was a barbeque joint with just a 5 minute wait. We got the table and talked talked talked. Next thing I know, Iggy looks at his watch and he has 15 minutes until dinner break is over and play resumes. We never even got our food!!!!!!! We cancelled our order - he sprinted back to his table and I went home to eat leftovers. The blinds were so freaking high at that point - there was no way he could miss one hand!!!! And there was no way that I was going to be the reason that he missed one second of that tourney. Luckily he had a nice man bag full of staples like granola etc. so he wasn't starving or anything.

I did see Gus Hansen and Phil Laak when I was over there - that was about it for the pros. I mean, there were probably some other ones there, but I didn't see them. I also caught of glimpse of Pauly talking to Iggy in the roped off area where I wasn't allowed to go, so it was nice to see a familiar face even though we didn't get a chance to talk.

Ummmmm - I haven't been to a meeting in about two weeks, so I might want to think about doing a meeting tonight. Who knows. I also haven't been to the gym in more than two weeks so that was a really good investment on my part - so glad I signed that 2 year contract!

Oh, and my sponsor met us down a the Golden Nugget the other night with her boyfriend - they play 1-2 no limit pretty often in that poker room. So, while I was bleeding chips at the 2-4 limit game she hit a straight flush to the king and won about $550 for the high hand jackpot and then she also made another $400 from playing - so I'm telling you - this week was a good week to play at the Golden Nugget!!

Well - I gotta head off to work - peace out for now peeps!!

The Randomness

Hi kids! Today's my mom's last day in town and I actually won't see her anymore today so we said goodbye this morning when I left the Golden Nugget. It's been an awesome trip and I'm sad to see her leave. If her house ever sells her and my dad will be moving to Vegas for good - anyone want to buy a house in Severna Park, MD? Come on! Please!!!!

As most of you probably already know, today our friend and fellow blogger Iggy is playing in Day Two of the Main Event over at the Rio. I'm crossing my fingers and toes for him and if he's still playing at 5 p.m. when I get off work I'm heading straight over there to hang with the railbirds and cheer him on. Go Iggy!!!!!!!

And, if any other bloggers are still in good luck to you guys too. I haven't been keeping up with it since I've been so busy.

One of the best days I had this week was on Sunday when we drove up to Mt. Charleston. It's only a 40 minute drive from Las Vegas and it's worth every second of it. Literally the temperature goes from 110 in Vegas to 75 degrees up the mountain. Wow - what an awesome change. It was beautiful too. I can't wait until ski season starts so I can go up there and practice. I can't believe I've lived here for 2 and a half years and I've never been to Mt. Charleston. I always thought it was just some small hill or something. I had no idea how tall and pretty it was going to be.

Me and My Mom up on the mountain...




Beautiful...



Me and Don at lunch...




And you guys know I HAD to take a picture of my royal flush - woo hoo - Golden Nugget rocks!!!



Me and My Mom heading out to the Roseanne show...



My mom and I at dinner...




Don and My mom - I swear my mom was backing up so close to the cliff I thought she was going to fall off and then my dad would have seriously killed me for letting my mom die on vacation - can you imagine???

Hot Streak

Do you ever have one of those weeks when you are just super lucky?????

When I moved here, after a few months of not really playing the machines, I decided to go to a PT's near my house and play some video poker. I was losing my ass off so I hit the keno button and started playing that. I kept trying to get 4 out of 4 which only pays out like $100 or something, but I couldn't hit. So, I went up to 6 numbers and I hit!! I won $1500. The next day I went back to the same bar and played the same machine and hit 6 out of 6 again. And then the very same week I went to a different place with the same kind of machines and I hit 6 out of 6 again! I had won $4500.00 in one week! SCORE!!!!! And then I never ever hit 6 out of 6 again. I don't even try anymore.

So, the other night I'm with my mom at the Golden Nugget and if you get a player's card they will give you $10 in free slot play. So, I log in, start playing the little video poker machine and I hit a royal flush for $1,000. I never even put a dime in the machine. Good times. I proceeded to hit a few four of a kinds on that machine and cashed out big.

Last night we are at the bowling alley and we have 30 minutes to waste so I put a $20 in the machine and I hit 4 aces and then a few more four of a kinds. And then after bowling we went to eat and I hit 4 aces again on a different machine. I think I made about $300.00 yesterday.

I'm literally up like $1,500.00 for the week. Tonight is my mom's last night at the Golden Nugget so I am staying downtown with her and hopefully I'll get one more big win in before she leaves.

I know this lucky streak will definitely go away, so I'm going to take full advantage of it while I can.

And you guys are not going to believe this, but we saw Roseanne Barr at the Sahara over the weekend and we loved her. She was so damn funny. I laughed my ass off and she looks fantastic!! I mean, she's lot tons of weight, she grew her hair out and she was dressed in a very classy outfit. I was very impressed.

Before...




After...

Quick One

I don't have a lot of time to blog today but the weekend was great. I've been having a good time with my mom. I actually played in a tourney at Planet Hollywood on friday and I had the distinction of being the first person to bust out which is always a good time. But, I totally made up for it by winning $250.00 on the slots over there.

I stayed at the Golden Nugget last night and played in the poker room there and had some REALLY great luck that I'll get into later, but all in all I'm having a blast. My mom is here for two more days and I'm back to work so as always it's good times!




Also, I finally saw The Hammer with Adam Corolla and it was really cute and I loved it. I gotta say - the standout in this movie was definitely Ozzie his Nicaraguan friend/gardener. It's out on DVD so you should totally order it through Netflix or buy it from Walmart - it's a cute romantic comedy and very refreshing and fun.

Counting the hours down...

Who's excited to see the new Batman movie????? I am psyched - especially after watching the first five minutes in this clip!! Enjoy.

So, we actually won two games last night at bowling and we bowled against the league president and he was pretty nice even though I know he wasn't pleased about losing to the last place team. But anyway, the real victory for me was when the girl on his team apologized to us on behalf of the league and her team for everyone's behavior to us last week. She totally said that we didn't deserve that treatment and that we are fun to bowl with and she's glad to have us on the league. Ahhh - sweet vindication!! I was pretty happy about that.

My mom is flying in tonight and we have all this fun stuff planned. My friend Courtney from work and bowling is spending the weekend in San Diego with her mom and they have a free hotel room that they are giving us because it was pre-paid and someone backed out. So, I'm California bound this weekend with the girls - can't wait to lay out on the beach!! I just hope my car makes it.



glitter-graphics.com

I don't know how much I'll be blogging for the next few days so Happy Fourth of July to everyone!