Vacation Catch Up

--Okay, so we left Tulsa on Friday evening after all of us got off of work. We drove to Vegas by going through New Mexico, Arizona, the Grand Canyon, the Hoover Dam, and stayed in hotels along the way. Well our van broke down in Gallup, Arizona but we got to see the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest then whipped by the Grand Canyon at sunset. There had been so many people passing in and out of the GC that it was really smoggy and polluted. I had the scariest Asthma attack I've had yet. I couldn't breathe at all, and started seeing black spots. A little later my aunt told me that my lips had started turning blue and that I scared the crap out of her too. We drove on to Vegas the next morning, and showed up around Monday evening. We had a blast. The first night we're there I slipped in the bath tub, bounce off my rear backwards into the tub and crack my head on the metal soap dish that's a part of the wall. I'm wedged in the tub and my aunt is saying something to me but I can't see and I can't grasp what she's saying. Finally it clicks and I realize that she's asking me if I'm okay and trying to give me a hand out of the tub. My parents call the hotel staff to send someone up to check me out. The hotel security is trained in nursing type stuff and tells me I should be okay, just to stay up for a little while in case I gave myself a concussion. Just really bruised up, but I survived that one too. I lost everything I plugged into a machine, plus all the money my mom and aunt kept giving me to play with; However, my aunt hit a royal flush on a poker machine and won 4000 credits in quarters (adds up to approximately $1000) and that is the best you can get on most video poker machines. My mom also won a jackpot on slots, but I'm not sure how much she actually got. I think it was $300-$400. We saw the Knight's Tournament show at the Excaliber.

This is us having fun at the Excaliber Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. From left to right on the bottom row is me, my sister Miranda, my Mom Jina, and a my friend Brian's wife Val. On the top row from left to right is my Dad Pete, my aunt Paula, and my friend Brian.
--So we leave Vegas and break down once again in St. George, Utah. The mechanic says it's a blown rear seal and will take 6-7 hours, after he bumps everyone else out of the way to help us. So we're stuck in St. George for 2 nights, but we had a lot of fun anywho. We rented a 2005 Ford Expedition and went to Zion and Bryce Canyons, I will post pictures of them and the trip when I develop the pictures. On our way back to our hotel we stopped at a little gift shop to use facilities and look around. I had put one of those rings made of stone on my thumb to try it out, but when I tried to remove it the thing snapped in two and sliced open my other thumb. I was bleeding all over everything, so much so that it was running down my hand and pooled up in my other hand and still dripping on the floor. The guy at the counter was just standing there and then said, "Looks like you broke it." After reassuring him that I would pay for the broken object and still bleeding over everything he went and got his wife. She was really friendly, assured me that it was fine, that I didn't have to pay for the ring, and bandaged me up. After leaving there we went on a scenic route up 9900 Ft above sea level and saw snow!! It was about 102º when we started up and was 49º-51º when we got to the top. The snow was everywhere and was at least waist deep, it was awesome. Probably the only snow like that I'll ever see this year. We stayed in St. George, retrieved our van, and returned the rented vehicle. On our way home we crossed the Colorado River and Vermilion Cliffs. I didn't get pictures unfortunately, but they were the most vibrant colors in rock that I'd ever seen, it was beautiful. Then the long long drive home.
--We finally make it home and I am so happy to be home. I had fun, but coming home is always so nice. There was a letter on the table addressed to me from the Kansas Turnpike. My heart sank. I opened it and it said that I owed $300 to the state of Kansas for damages to their wall! So then I was depressed. I log on to check my mail, tell people I'm home, and chatter to get my mind off of things. I IM Stacey to ask how she's doing and how things are, since I hadn't really talked to her in a long while. If any talking happens between us anymore, I have to instigate it. She is really angry because she finally reads my blog after more than 6 months and makes her way to Lynlee's blog. I just can't understand why she is so dead set against Lynlee. I love them both, but I'm trying to not get involved with the situation between the 3 of them. So I ask Lynlee why she was so upset and angry because I hadn't read her blog yet since I had just gotten home. Then Stacey gets really mad at me because I was talking to Lynlee about how she was upset and that I had no right to talk to Lynlee about her. How is that any different than Stacey asking me why Lynlee wants to know about her, why she got her hopes up when Al said "I might," or questions like that that Stacey has asked me about Lynlee? Why is it okay for Stacey to want to know about Lynlee and me telling her, but it's not okay for Lynlee to be curious about the girl Al changed for, settled down with, and is happy with? If the questions got too deep or I felt like it wasn't my business to tell them, I would tell them both that it wasn't my business and that was just between the 3 of them. I think she got upset that Lynlee and I have become good friends, but if she had really read my blog like she said she did, she would have seen that I still love her, worry about her, wish she would wake up and realize that she was pushing me and our friendship away, and that I have tried and tried to keep that line open for her but she just keeps trying to close it. I even tried to tell her that last night, but I still don't think she heard me...she was so angry with Al for haveing talked to Lynlee and not telling her about it. I asked her, "did you ever stop to think that maybe he didn't tell you because you would act like this?" and she tried to tell me that she wouldn't have been as pissed off as she is now. I don't believe that. She got very pissed off and angry when I showed her the pictures of Lynlee and Pax that she asked to see. I'm just at a loss to be honest...I want so badly to have the friendship with Stacey that we had while she was in Florida, but I just can't help but feel that my usefulness was used up. I was the only friend that came to visit her, that called on a regular basis and especially after those horrible hurricanes to check up, and tried to be there for her for whatever reason; However, ever since she moved back to Kansas she hasn't called once, every time I'd ask for a contact number or address she wouldn't answer for a long while, when I visited her while I was there for Morgan's baby shower she visited for a few hours and then was glued to her computer and the World of Warcraft game and stayed in her computer room (even closed the door once) almost the rest of the time I was there, Al and a friend of his had to keep me company, and she used to send me what I used to call "get happy" cards. Just little pick-me-ups that used to make me feel so good, cause I knew she was thinking about me...she hasn't done any of that stuff.
--Hopefully my week gets better..