Prayers for John

Hello all!
I have a prayer request. My cousin John was diagnosed with a malignant glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumor in December 2006. He's been fighting it ever since and has truly been a miracle. He started his 33rd round of targeted therapy on 4/18/11, after receiving some not so great news. Please pray for him and for our family. Thank you much!


Me, my sister Alison, and our cousins Michael and John on a visit to Helen, Georgia on April 10th. :)


If you'd like to check out his own 'blog' / caring bridge journal, please do so at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/johnpurvis
Love to you all,
Chelsea

Vegas Baby!

This past Saturday my mom, sister and I took off on a redeye flight from Atlanta to Las Vegas, Nevada. It was one eventful trip with approximately 100 stories to tell, but I’ll just give you the highlights… and even with just the summary… you may be reading awhile.

Saturday my dad (my poor dad) drove us chicks to the airport and dropped us off. We got checked in, had a quick bite to eat, I got my nails painted at a salon in the airport (only $12!) and then we were off!

We landed around 11:30pm on Saturday night (Vegas time). Normally, I’d be close to ready for bed but since we all napped on the plane and were lined with excitement for the Vegas night life we hailed a cab and headed to our hotel with exhilaration.

::Side story:: (there may be a lot of these)
Every cab driver but one wanted to discuss politics, religion or the economy. I viewed them each as a Debbie Downer. One evening upon my arrival in a cab I even announced that we would not be discussing any of the previously mentioned topics, and we could only discuss lighthearted things. He scoffed, and somehow we got a story about the birth of the Sikh religion. Interesting, but in my opinion, not Vegas appropriate.

We got checked into the hotel suite we were sharing with my mom’s good friends Carol Lynn and Wade (THANKS Carol Lynn!!!) and headed down to find a bite to eat. Somehow or another the time had passed since the airport and around 1:30am we found a TGIFriday’s in the hotel that was open until 4am. I ordered buffalo wings and a margarita (hey- we were in Vegas) then we realized how tired we were and went to bed.

I woke up the next morning around 8am with an awful cramping and churning stomach. Wanna guess as to what happened on my first day of vacation? Yes. I got sick. I was sick. As. A. Dog. I ended up spending just about the entire day in the bathroom of my hotel room. If I wasn’t in there, I was in bed. Yes folks, I had 72 hours to spend in Las Vegas and I spent a third of them in my hotel room. It sucked.

Alison and my mom were so bummed for me but at my insistence (of course!) I sent them out and about to enjoy their vacation! (But they came and checked on me a lot!) They had some fun walking the Las Vegas strip and doing other fun Las Vegas-y things. Carol Lynn even took them to see The Temptations (I really shouldn’t have to name anything they sing, you should know but in case you’re blanking… MY GIRL! + many other wonderful hits!). Mike Tyson was there and they got to see him sing a little song. They agreed he should stick to fighting!

So… the next morning was much more eventful for me! I finally had stopped throwing up, had some color to my cheeks and felt like eating. Hooray!

Alison and I before we left for our crazy Monday!


Before we could do anything we had to go pick up the tickets to the Beatles ‘Love’ Cirque Du Solei show! So Alison and I went to the Mirage hotel to pick them up (another annoying cab driver) and we played video poker at a bar where we drank water (honestly!) I lost $2. Not bad.

My sister is a bartender and has a customer/friend named Ed Roland (aka, the lead singer of the ever so popular band Collective Soul) who also happened to be in Las Vegas the same time we were. Ed and his manager Fred invited us to have lunch with them at the pool at the MGM Grand Hotel. So… of course, the pool sounded like a lovely way to recover from my sickness in a semi-low-key kind of way – so we went. They rented a cabana by the pool, which was gorgeous, and we spent the afternoon having lunch, a drink or two, and doing a lap around the pool. The pool was beautiful and was like the ‘Little Hooch’ at White Water here in Atlanta. Sorry if you’re not from ATL. I don’t know how else to explain it!

After the pool someone (aka, Alison) says “let’s go play black jack!” So… off we went into the hotel’s casino and all of a sudden we were sitting at a black jack table. This was no ordinary table and was pretty intimidating! The dealer was trying to be nice and help us but the ‘pit boss’ (you learn new words when you go to Vegas) kept getting really mad at my sister and I for looking at the cards with two hands. We couldn’t help it. It’s instinct. After about 3 hands we were both sitting on one hand so we wouldn’t do it anymore! Eventually we left the table, only a little bit of money down.

Oh! And I can successfully say the first hand I played in Las Vegas- I got a 21! YAY!

AND you would think I would have been totally star struck by Ed’s presence, but he and Fred were super nice and down to earth, and not at all intimidating. The only time I felt baffled was when I was telling them how much I loved the Beatles, and Ed said he had a Paul McCartney autographed guitar. That made me feel butterflies. I want a Paul McCartney autographed guitar!!!

We went back to our hotel room and got dressed for dinner, and grabbed our mom who had been off doing fun things with Wade and Carol Lynn. As we’re headed out the door to go re-join Ed and Fred (I found the rhyming name thing way more confusing than it should have been) my mom says… do you have the Beatles tickets? I check. Nope. I double check. Nope. Triple check. Still not there. Go back into the hotel room and look in the other bag I carried that day—Nope. Then we start looking… and looking… and tearing our hotel room apart for these tickets. And they're Gone! I paid with a credit card so I know that if I show up with my credit card and ID they’ll let us in, but I want to call and confirm this… so I call the number I have listed for the tickets in my e-mail. And it rings, and then I’m on hold. And we’re still looking, and I’m still on hold, and this goes on and on and on… so we finally decide that no one will ever answer.

So we get in a taxi (I’m still on hold) and drive to the Mirage hotel. I am STILL on hold when we arrive. We wait in the will call line. When I am next to be helped someone answers and I just blow up. I believe my words went like this “I have been on hold for 45 minutes and in that time I have physically taken a taxi down to the Mirage hotel and am next to be helped in person. So thank you for being UN-Helpful!” Then I hung up. I am not confrontational often, if ever. It takes a lot of guts for me to stick up for myself… but I was SO mad that I raised my voice to the lady. I feel a little guilty about this. But I will admit it felt good at the time and helped me calm down a bit before I had to talk to a person in person. She said it wouldn’t be a problem, and just come back to the window 15 minutes before the show. See- simple fix. If someone would have just answered the darn phone we would have known that and not wasted $12 on a cab ride there!

So off we went to the Aria hotel. We had a really delicious dinner and watched the Butler Vs. UCONN game. Ouch!

THEN we went back to the Mirage to see the Beatles show! It’s called LOVE and it really was fabulous and the highlight of the trip! When George and I hadn’t been dating long, he got me the soundtrack to this show. At the time I didn’t even know the show existed but it’s a beautiful compilation of 100 plus Beatles songs and it’s magnificently done. Ever since then, my mom and I have talked about going to Las Vegas to see this show! And after oh-- IDK, 4 years(?) of discussing this, we finally made it! It really was everything I could have hoped for (though I expected more acrobatic tricks)…

After the show they were still playing Beatles music in the lobby so we stood there and danced. And we took silly pictures. And danced more. And danced. And danced. And sang. And danced, until literally—we were the last people in the venue. The guy came with the mop and cleaned the floor… so we moved to the carpeted area just outside the entrance where you could still hear Beatles music playing. And we sang. And we danced. After the song “Oh Darling!” the music kind of stopped for a minute, and we got a standing ovation from the people that were in the casino gambling at the slot machines. We all took bows and cracked up, and then danced some more until we were done. I love my mom and sister. They really are the most fun people!

My beautiful mommy and me!


The three of us acting very silly!


Here's my mom with the guy mopping the floor in the background. We seriously shut down the place! HA!


We crashed hard in our room that night and the next morning took our time getting out the door to explore the strip and to take in the last of the sights we didn’t get to see (I still can’t believe I lost a WHOLE day in Vegas because I was sick. Can’t believe that really happened!) We started at Diablo’s restaurant, which is a Mexican Cantina—where we had a delicious lunch, and then walked up and down the street! We went into the M&M store (which has special meaning to George and I) and on a power high from the night before, I yelled at the employees who wouldn’t open a second register, even though there were five… FIVE employees behind the counter standing there chatting instead of working. Ridiculous, I tell ya!

Us at the M&M store!



We took pictures with an out of shape Spiderman, saw the fountain show at the Bellagio, and went inside the Cosmopolitan hotel and took a nap! HA! It was so peaceful! :) THEN, Alison, who the whole trip kept saying “I’m going to the roulette wheel and I’m going to put $100 on black” kind of walked away from us, and the next thing we knew… she had put $100 on black! And she won! We were so happy! So then, I decided to try my hand at the roulette wheel! We played at a $10 minimum table, and I walked away from the table $47 up! I’m a rock star roulette player! It gave me the itch. And all of a sudden, I think I was temporarily addicted to gambling. I never understood it, but now I do—gambling is WAY addicting, and WAY dangerous. But when you’re winning, it’s also WAY fun.

So we went in the Bellagio, and played roulette again, because I needed to. I walked away from the $20 down. Booo!

Here's Alison and I inside the Bellagio (I think) atrium.


And us at the Cosmopolitan. This picture does not do the millions of crystals justice. They were all twinkly and beautiful!


Then we made our way into the Venetian hotel (which was beautiful!) and I decided I felt really sad about losing that $20 and I wanted to get my $20 back. So, win or lose, I was going to put my $20 on black (hey- it worked for Alison) and walk away either $20 up, or $40 down. Lucky for me—it was black! And I was once again a champion!!!

We spent the rest of the evening sashaying around Vegas. We had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen inside the Mirage (which was delicious!) and then headed back to our hotel to get our bags and head for the airport. We ran into Carol Lynn and Wade whose flight left around the same time ours did but they weren’t leaving for a little while longer, and convinced us we had plenty of time to sit and play if we wanted. Originally, we declined and thought we’d just get to the airport a little early and relax… but then, I saw another roulette wheel…

AND it was only a $5 minimum! SO… I sat down. And played. I put $20 out there, played for about 45 minutes, and then walked away with $20. I broke even. I’m awesome!!!

We got back to the airport, got on the plane, and slept the whole way back to Atlanta. I had a recovery day today from all of the excitement where I didn’t do much except for homework, and listened to Collective Soul… I still can’t believe how many songs I know by them, and how nice and cool Ed was!

Las Vegas was a blast, even though my three day trip turned into a two day trip. And (besides George of course) I can’t think of two other women I would have rather spent that vacation with (not that George is a woman!) I love my mom and sister so much and will always cherish the memories we share from our time there—some were funny, some were pathetic, some were sad, some were bad, but overall, it truly was an incredible trip.

Always bet on black!
Chelsea

P.S. WE NEVER Found the Beatles tickets, even after unpacking back here. They seriously disappeared into thin air!


Here I am near the Mirage hotel and the Beatles advertisement!