Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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I missed all the good Vegas food!

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One of the things that I’m disappointed I didn’t get to do while in Vegas was go shopping. Before we left I’d discovered that there’s a huge discount shopping mall about 10 miles from the strip and I’d hoped to get over there. My wardrobe needs some freshening up and since the Canadian dollar is higher than the US dollar right now I might have really found some deals and saved some money too.

I’m not sure what I would have purchased as I need a little bit of everything from more casual clothes to dressy clothes. Perhaps some port authority clothing, and some shoes too? I don’t know.

As it is the only new clothing I came back with were some t-shirts, a B-5 media baseball cap and two CSI Las Vegas t-shirts. I love that tv show and since I was in Vegas I had to buy a shirt.

I also kept hearing how great the food in Vegas was supposed to be, but the only restaurant that we made it to was The Outback. We have that restaurant here and while the food was good I was hoping to get a chance to eat at restaurants or eat food that I don’t get a chance to eat very often. I think most of the rest of our meals were room service as I was too sick to go anywhere on Friday and room service certainly came in handy for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday.

We really did enjoy Vegas though – despite my illness and a few complaints. Hopefully we’ll go back sometime in the new year. If we go back we’d like to go when the weather is similar to what we experienced this past week. It was always pretty much between 70F and 80F and very comfortable.





I saw Elvis!

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Did I tell you that the hotel that we stayed at in Las Vegas, The Imperial Palace, which had the suckiest internet connection ever! had a vintage car and motorcycle showroom.

Chris got a chance to visit the showroom before we left on Sunday and said it was fantastic. Now I don’t know all the names of the cars but there were vintage cars from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s there. I guess I’m lucky in some ways. If I want to see vintage cars we have at least three neighbors close by that have beautiful old cars that are in mint condition and I can see them whenever I want. One guy keeps his car in his driveway at least 6 months out of the year and all I’ve got to do is look out my window to see it!

Funny thing. While we were in Vegas we really thought we’d see a lot more Ferrari’s, Porches and so on, but other than a few very nice convertibles we didn’t see very many luxury cars. Chris did see a honda cbr that he’d love to get! I think one of his new fascinations is motorcycles for some reason. Maybe it’s middle age setting in?

Since I was sick while we were in Vegas I missed seeing a lot of stuff so I guess we’ll have to go back sometime in the near future. Can you believe I didn’t even sit down at one of the machines or roulette tables to gamble even for five minutes! It’s probably a good thing since I’m sure I would have lost whatever money I used, but it feels shameful to say that I didn’t even try it!

Our Hotel had a feature in the Casino called “legends” and we got to see an Elvis impersonator singing at one point …. so yes, I saw Elvis!

My ears are still soar from flying

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My ears are still hurting from my flight back from Las Vegas! I think I mentioned before I left that my ears block up really bad when I fly. This has been happening ever since I had my tonsils out when I was 21. There must be some scar tissue at the opening of the Eustachian tubes that helps to regulate the pressure within the ear and as a result we think the tubes close up when I fly (due to allergies – perfume and cologne really should be banned on flights!) and it causes me a lot of pain.
Surprisingly my ears were pretty good on the flight too Las Vegas. I actually thought that maybe my ear problems were over, but I discovered on the flight home that I was wrong. The good news is that the pain wasn’t excruciating. A decade ago I spent a flight keeping myself from screaming the whole time!

My ears were ok until the last half hour of the flight. I think they started to decompress the cabin too fast because a lot of people complained that their ears were bothering them and that didn’t happen on the flight to Las Vegas. Mine of course closed up and the pressure caused pain at the top of my head and into my neck and chest!

Yesterday my ears still felt blocked up and I could barely hear anything. Today they are a bit better but still feel like they should pop.

Also, the noise in the cabin was really loud. I was sitting near the window and my seat was just at the back of the wing. I think I was on top of an engine. The next time I fly I should get one of those Headsets to protect my ears from all the noise!

How are your ears when you fly? Do you have allergies, and if you do, do they act up while you are on a flight? As I said I’m allergic to perfumes and colognes and when I fly I think that’s the main reason why my ears block up and cause me so much pain.

Now if my stomach would just start to recover I’d be happy. At least with Crohns and the week I’ve had I certainly don’t need a colon cleanse. I don’t think any of the food I ate while there or since I’ve been home has stayed in me for more than a couple hours. TMI I know. Sorry!

Home sweet home

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We’re back from Las Vegas!

I’m so tired! Our flight landed just before 11 pm, but it took a while to get through customs and then they didn’t put the baggage from our flight on out for pick up for a very long time so I don’t think we started to head home until at least midnight!

Now that I’m home I’ve spent the last couple of hours checking my email and so on. It’s nice to finally have a proper internet connection again. I’m so mad that I wasn’t able to get online while I was in Vegas. The Imperial Palace really has serious network problems!

I have lots to tell you about Blogworld. P0stiecon, the TAO nightclub that we went to on Saturday night for the Bl0ggers Choice awards and meeting a lot of bloggers that I’ve come to know online over the last couple of years. Some time later today after I’ve had a rest I’ll start to tell you about all the cool companies and software that I learned about at the blogging conventions and some of the fun stuff I did in Vegas.

As I already mentioned in the one post that I was able to make while I was away, I was very sick while I was in Las Vegas. I really shouldn’t have gone on this trip. I didn’t get much sleep before I left on Thursday morning and partied way too hard on Thursday night. I think being very sick for two weeks prior to going and then my all out Thursday on virtually no sleep did me in.

When I first woke up on Friday morning I thought I was just hung over, but as the day progressed I didn’t get any better. In fact I got worse. I couldn’t eat. I had one meal late Thursday night that, thanks to my crohns, went through me far too quickly and then I couldn’t manage to get any food into myself again until Saturday morning and I didn’t eat much that day at all.

On Friday evening we were supposed to go to the Belagio to meet up with several bloggers. I’d manage to perk up enough to go to Blogworld for a short two hours on Friday and then went back to the hotel to sleep for a bit before going out that night. I just couldn’t do it though. My husband tried to wake me and had trouble and when I did finally start to wake up he said I looked so bad he seriously thought about taking me to a hospital. We ended up staying in on Friday evening and I really tried to eat but I just picked at the room service food that we ordered.

On Saturday morning I was supposed to be part of the Fab5 panel at P0stiecon. Other than meeting fellow bloggers and attending P0stiecon and Blogworld, one of the main reasons I went to Vegas was to be part of that panel. Unfortunately I was still too ill in the morning to make it there. I felt really bad about letting everyone that had worked so hard to organize P0stiecon and particularly the Fab5 discussion down. Ben from The Benspark was a real trooper. They apparently asked him to step in my place in the discussion and I hear he did a really good job. Thanks Ben!

As I said in my last post I did manage to make it to P0stieCon in the afternoon and I really enjoyed the discussions that I got to see. I’ll tell you about that later today.

So I guess you can say that my trip to Las Vegas could have been a lot better than it was, but there were some great highlights. I learned a lot, met some really great people and I also enjoyed being in Vegas and going out to some of the clubs and bars.

It’s been an interesting week

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As many of you know I’m going to Las Vegas tomorrow to attend both the Blogworld blogging convention and P0stiecon.

Well … I’ve been busy preparing for my trip. I haven’t been on a flight since oh … 1998! Almost a decade! I have been out of the country more recently, but not on a plane.

I’m a little nervous. Nervous for several reasons actually.

You see, when I was about 21 I had my tonsils out. Prior to this I loved flying, but post tonsillectomy …. well lets just say something must go seriously wrong because my ears get blocked up and my ear drums have almost burst a few times while flying. So I’ll be dosing up with my allergy meds, decongestants and I’ll constantly have a candy or a wad of gum in my mouth to help me keep swallowing to clear the pressure in my ears. The pain, as I remember it, is excruciating. I have been taking allergy meds regularly all week so hopefully that helps this time round.

If I make it with ears intact I’ll still have all those meds on board which frankly make me feel hyper (I’m already kind of hyper) and high so it will take all of Thursday evening to come down off those meds!

Then there’s the fact that my husband is afraid of flying. We got him some Valium and Ativan for the trip so he can take the edge off, but still, I’m sure he’ll be a bit panicky and if I’m having really bad ear pain I’m sure we’ll be quite the couple to sit near on the flight.

Anyone from Toronto going to these conventions? I’ve just told you a sure way to figure out who we are if you’re on our plane!

So that covers the plane ride … but once I’m there I still have a reason to be a bit nervous. You see, I’m going to be on one of the P0stiecon discussion panels and I’m actually a shy person so I probably won’t really feel all that comfortable or relaxed until I get that over with on Saturday morning!

On top of my worries I’ve also been sick. Very sick. As you probably already know I’ve got Crohn’s disease. Well, it’s been acting up very badly this past week. Maybe my nerves over the whole trip is making it worse. I don’t know. Either way I’m still sick.

I actually spent almost two days in the hospital at the beginning of the week. That’s another reason why there haven’t been many posts on my sites this week. I used my laptop a bit while in the hospital, but I just didn’t feel up to it.

I had a bowel obstruction.

That’s why I was feeling so bad on Sunday night with pain and nausea that just wouldn’t go away. It was terrible. I’ve had bowel obstructions with this disease before and none are pleasant but I’ve been lucky and it’s been perhaps 10 months or more since I last had an obstruction that I know of and this one took me by surprise.

It’s resolving, but I probably really shouldn’t be going to Vegas now … yet, unless I get worse over night I’ll be on that plane. I’m so glad I took out insurance!

I’ll be making updates while I’m in Vegas. Convention related updates will probably be on The Web Files and or WebStyle. If we see any celebrities those posts and hopefully photos will be on Celebrity Scoop. Any really cool photos that I take while in Vegas will be on Breath of Life and of course the cool stuff about meeting up with blogging friends and the awe of seeing Vegas for the first time will probably be posted here. Hopefully I’ll always have a good internet connection!

Ok that’s all for now! If all goes well I’ll write from the airport or shortly after we get to Las Vegas.

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