Two Stories

I was rummaging through some of my old pics (It was really slow at work and I wanted to spruce up a photo),
and I ran into a great one of two of my best friends (and I ran into a great pic of two of my greatest friends).

It reminded me of that day from a long time ago (I remembered taking this from earlier this year)
when it was taken at a old but quaint shanty (at the ‘W’ Hotel where he proposed to her…not the day the pic was taken, though).

I just can’t believe how much the picture has aged (It’s pretty cool what you can create with photoshop).

Hey…

…Even this guy can have a softer side.

I was just walking down near Millennium Park’s ice skating rink and saw a couple embrace in the middle of the rink. It’s not my usual cup of tea to check out something like this, but I thought it was perfect with very limited people around them and seeming to be isolated from everyone, although they were right in the middle of the rink.

The mood was perfect for this type of thing with 3 people falling flat on their arses around them and with BB Mak playing in the background. Why not right?

Please note the sarcasm.

Goodbye, Gratiot Classic

A part of me died today while re-living my high school days of cruising Gratiot Ave. back in Michigan, and my stomach probably cheered in celebration. The Hot n’ Now burger joint, home of the 39 cent cheeseburger and where I spent some of my hard earned cash from my $4.75/hr. high school job, closed in favor of a Checkers.

First off, for anyone that doesn’t understand Gratiot cruising, it was one of the ridiculous things to do while in high school. To this day I don’t understand the fascination, but I am guilty to have partook in Gratiot strip roving. But if there was one crazy discovery to come of these silly travels, it was Hot n’ Now.

I will never think of what these burgers were actually made of, given its insanely low price tag. One thing I will think of is that to me, this is where the burger word ’slider’ originated from. It was so far from being a mini hamburger, because it was just about the size of a McDonald’s hamburger. I will think of this as more of an In n’ Out burger, only the name being very literal (gross). I remember how much grease layered the cheese that then dripped onto burger wrapping.

Goodbye my Gratiot classic, my tears are running down like the grease from your burgers as we speak.

Vegas,Part IV: The Casinos

The highlight of any Las Vegas trip, the huge number of them makes it impossible to visit every single one of them on two nights. Or maybe it is possible if you stay up for 48 hours straight. There were so many beautiful ones out on the strip that we weren’t able to walk into, but the favorites of mine that we did have the chance to visit were Paris, the Luxor and the Bellagio (no surprise there). The stinker about casinos is that you can’t take any pictures on the playing room floor because they have such a beautiful setting, especially the Bellagio.

Luxor
It’s been around for quite a long time, and the last time I was there they had a little boat ride inside the hotel for people to ride. The tour boat ride is now gone, but that’s good though, you get to focus on the casino and the hotel itself, and the hotel is quite the setup.

Inside the pyramid you can see that all the doors to all the hotel rooms, which I can imagine is pretty sweet to have a view of the lobby floor and the casino as soon as you walk out of your room. The view from the outside is awesome with the pyramid and the ancient Egyptian statue.

Paris

Now i’ve never been to Paris, but from just how the casino tries to model the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, I think I may definitely want to take a trip and slam a few bottles of wine.

The Eiffel Tower has an elevator ride to get to the top, where you can take some great pictures of the Las Vegas skyline. I wish I had more time to check the view, because I can only imagine it being very beautiful.

The casino inside is pretty interesting as soon as you walk in. You see a part of the foundation of the Eiffel Tower come through the casino floor, where people have access to the elevators. As you walk through the casino floor, the ceilings sport clouds and a blue sky that brightens up the playing area, which is a welcome change from some of the dark and drab casino room floors at other hotels.

The hallway of shops and restaurants inside Paris I can only assume models some of the city streets you can find overseas. As you walk through it leads you to the casino room floor of Bally’s, which is right next door. Now right across from Paris is the Bellagio, and the awesome Bellagio Fountain.

The Bellagio

The cream of the crop is what I gotta say of the Bellagio. The fountain was the main draw to me, because once again playing and gambling isn’t my thing. But the hotel and casino is just gorgeous from inside out. Walking through to the casino floor I passed the shops inside, and with the shops they have you know only the people with good money stay here. The Bellagio was the main hotel target in the film Ocean’s 11, which made it just as cool walking through it. It’s kinda like walking through Chicago knowing that it was the site of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

Upon walking up to the registration desk, on the ceiling is a beautiful arrangement of artificial flowers. The colors are eye catching and vibrant, and a photo doesn’t do it justice.

Right across from the registration desk is the site of the Bellagio Conservatory, home of a crapload of fresh flowers and one cool light display that changes every so often, complimenting the flowers, ‘lawn decorations’ and water fountains that is inside the conservatory. Currently it’s in it’s Fall theme, with a very scarecrow greeting you as you walk in.

The lawn decorations I speak of are the things that stick out of my head when thinking about the conservatory. It’s not a bad term I’m giving it, it’s just pretty interesting to see a couple of talking trees inside. it’s something I haven’t experienced since watching The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

It was definitely a fun trip out there and to get away from Chicago for a few days. If you’ve been reading my last few entries, just remember that if you head out to the Vegas desert, check out these spots on top of the other places you see, and don’t take Spirit airlines!

Vegas, Pt III: Other than Casinos…

Vegas is obviously known for their casinos, which I had a great time in quite a few of them, but I had just as much fun checking out some of the other things Vegas is known for. I didn’t have a clue what exactly before the trip happened, but thanks to About.com I had a little bit of guidance.

Mandalay Bay
The first (and only) thing that always pops into my mind about Mandalay Bay are the  boxing matches that go on over there. I’m not much of a boxing fanatic, but I’ve become one with the greatness of Manny Pacquiao, a fellow Filipino man. It’s a beautiful casino from outside to inside.

 

 

 

 

We checked out the Shark Reef Aquarium inside, and it was a pretty neat experience. The main draw is the giant size aquarium that engulfs you, that is filled with many different types of fish and obviously, sharks. Although I would never do this, partly because i’d be scared as heck to do it, but for a giant rate you can actually gear up and swim inside with the sharks. No thanks, not that daring.

 

 

Minus 5

Also in Mandalay Bay is probably my favorite experience while out in Vegas. It’s such a different concept because a place this cold shouldn’t be out in the desert, but it was a sweet thing to check out. I wish I was able to to take pictures, but because it is literally below freezing in there we weren’t allowed to take in anything electronic inside the bar. But it was pretty awesome to be dressed up in a thick winter coat and given gloves upon entering. Everything is made up of ice carvings, from the walls to the bar and to the cups for your alcohol. The bartender was really awesome and encouraged us to dance to keep from freezing our buns off. To motivate us, she happily danced beside us. That was nice.

M&M’s World
4 floors of chocolaty goodness. The smell of chocolate emanates throughout the entire store which I’m sure just a quarter of the aroma comes from the giant size dispensers of single color M&M’s the store carries on the 2nd floor.

And with the calls of free samples on the top floor made it so much easier to cruise through and check out all the cool merchandise and models this place has.

One thing that I thought was the best was not so much the chocolate, but the orange M&M character. The way they drew him out and the type of personality that he must carry makes him to be a befuddled, confused and kinda worrisome. In some ways he reminds me of me…or just Butters from South Park.

Vegas Pt. II: Early impressions

After arriving about an hour earlier than expected (there was a good thing in riding with Spirit Air), it was great to to check out the a city of blinding lights…there was my nod to U2 in this post. Before jumping on the plane and heading over to Vegas, I was doing quite a bit of research on the city, looking for places to check out and things to do. After all this planning I think I built up this grandiose vision that I was going to be swallowed up by the lights and all the glitz and glamour. Walking around for a little while in a place I haven’t been to in 12 years, it looked and seemed a bit smaller than I was thinking it would be.

We ended up staying at New York New York, a place that was BRAND NEW the last time I was there in 1997. I remembered the roller coaster and the model New York skyline just engulfing me back then, but it seemed smaller than I thought it would be.

Now maybe it was one of those things where as you get older, everything becomes smaller. But the first night there, it was a pretty short walk that we took down the strip, and the next day definitely blew my first impression of a small Vegas right outta my mind. It’s classic me, rushing to judgment on something I knew so little of. Taking a walk early in the morning the next day, my impression of the casino changed dramatically. It was huge.

This was just a start of a long day of walking and checking the rest of the strip out. Coming up ahead were more examples to sink my early impression of a little Vegas…

Uncomfortable?

Just riding the ‘L’ back to the apartment and as usual, there’s at least one person that catches your attention that can hold up your ‘huh?’ or ‘WTF?’ for the day. Today I had to witness one uncomfortable space violations between strangers on a train.

Now on the trains or any public transportation there will be some occurrences where you’ll have to experience the can of sardines feeling – rush hour, entrance or exit to a special event, etc. – this can happen. Now at 2:30pm on a Friday where there’s quite a bit of space left on a train, there shouldn’t be any need for closeness of this magnitude to a stranger.

I think the guy coming so close to this one girl was getting ready for his club night out tonight. It’s one of those proximity things where a dude at a bar creeps up to one unsuspecting girl on the dance floor. He doesn’t approach from her front side, but behind her. He sneaks up a begins to freak her. This wasn’t that much different. If he had a friend on the other side of her it’d be a ‘Night at the Roxbury’ re-enactment.

Vegas, Part I: Spirit Air

It was 12 years earlier since I last ventured into Sin City, only 18 and not being able to do a darn thing. With the exception of seeing a Cirque De Soleil show, riding roller coasters and blowing 50 bucks on air hockey with the brother and sister, there wasn’t much to do back then. But this time around, it’s different…

How did I get there? By the wonderful flight of Spirit Airlines! I don’t like to gripe that much, but I’ve never seen so many ridiculous hidden fees there are. I was blown away by their cheap ticket, but the cheapy turned into the WTF of all ticket purchases. Having to pay for check-in luggages was one thing, but having to actually pay for an actual seat on the plane was something else. Thinking the ticket covering an actual seat on the flight was foolish thinking on my behalf. Add no complimentary beverages or snacks and having to pay for EVERYTHING on the flight, this was definitely something to remember….

Although Spirit Airlines definitely created a interesting feeling, why let it define a great little vacation, right?

Part II Comin’ Soon…

Red Line Tour – Rogers Park

During this time off I’ve been trying to fill my days with things I haven’t done before, and lately I’ve been trying to venture to new places I haven’t seen. I figure I’d start high on the Red Line today and start at Rogers Park. I jump off at the Loyola stop and begin to venture through the Loyola campus. I’m usually one of the guys that likes to check out college campuses and all, but a few minutes into my trek I decide to take a hike outta the campus. There’s a difference between a dated campus and an historic one. Historic – Harvard. Dated – Loyola. Granted, a casual stroll just for a couple of minutes may not be enough to form a strong opinion, and I sure as hell aren’t comparing Harvard to Loyola, but strolling through Loyola just reminds me of a bunch of office buildings put together, not so much a college campus.

Anyhow, on the way out of Loyola I make my way to the lakefront and venture to one of the many beaches, I start out to Hartigan Park, the closest beach to the University. Now it being November and 52 degrees there’s really not a lot going on. No co-eds gracing the sand, no lifeguards, just a lot of empty space with the beach gated off. All this talk may sound negative, but that’s not the case. The openness of the beach, the tranquility and the sounds of just the waves and the waves alone were very soothing. One thing I am enjoying with this interest in photography is the ’solitude’ that can come with carrying the camera around. In a dvd I watched for my very short lived independent study this quarter, my professor had me watch a special on Annie Leibovitz, the world reknowned photographer. One thing she said of photography is that you become what’s around you. Walking along the beachfront with no one around, I felt nothing but tranquile. Leibovitz also said that ‘with a camera, you can be alone in the world, but with a purpose.’

On that beach and through my tour of Loyola Park, it was great to be alone and just taking some pictures. With myself, it’s hard for me to have a connection with an environment if being with others, especially when taking pics of just a place. This ‘loneliness’ isn’t a bad thing, this camera makes me feel like it’s okay to be on your own. I may not be connecting with one person, but I am trying to connect with my environment…These better not be the early signs of me becoming a tree hugger.

Farewell, Friend…

It’s never easy to say goodbye to one of your good friends. Tomorrow morning will be a tough one to face when she empties out her office. Although I am kinda disappointed that she’s leaving, but this is because of my own selfish reasons. I totally understand her reasons of leaving, motherhood and being around a child during the best years is something you can never take back after missing…talk about timing, I’m listening to a John Mayer song from his new album, perfectly titled ‘All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye’. The words of the song don’t really apply, but the title definitely does.

It’s so hard because she was the only co-worker that I really could say anything to, and could talk to her about anything. She is one of the chosen few that I could talk to about that ‘thing’. Talk about music and movies, have these fun discussions and hear her interesting reasons behind liking or hating a specific movie or song that I just damn love. Everyone has that co-worker that they can talk to and can consider their security blanket at the workplace. She was definitely mine…

Farewell friend, and be talking to you on the outside…