25LIVE

This past weekend we went on our trip to Vegas to see George Michael in concert. The concert was on Saturday night and we both had to work that day, but I only worked about half a day and B was able to finish by 4:00, so we were on our way by 4:15. It took us about two hours to drive there and even though the concert was at 8:00 p.m., we ended up just barely having enough time to grab some dinner before it started. It took a while to find a place to park in the MGM Grand's parking garge, find our way inside and then find the check-in desk. Then when we got there, we ended up having to walk waaaaay down to another part of the hotel because they upgraded us to a suite! Here's a picture of what our room looked like below:

I guess by the time we checked in, all the regular rooms were taken, just like when we stayed in Mandalay Bay back in 2005. The room was really nice. In addition to the standard amenities, it had a coffee maker, toaster, blender, refrigerator, flat screen TV, microwave, a stove top, pots and pans, dishes, glasses, silverware, a whirlpool tub and two bathrobes. It's one of the nicest rooms I've ever stayed in.

Our suite was in a separate part of the hotel called The Signature, and it had its own lobby (picture below). We had to walk past all these restaurants and stores and then take several moving walkways to get there.

So by the time we made it up to our room, it was about 7:20 and we still had to eat, so we ran back down to where all the restaurants were and quickly found a place to eat. Thank goodness the arena was practically right down the hall from where we ate because we made it there right before 8:00 as it was. After we got in and found our seats, I decided to run back out and see if I could buy some concert T-shirts and stuff. I was really afraid I'd miss the beginning of the concert, but I didn't want to wait until after the show to try to buy things because I knew the lines would be even longer then. I think I waited in line 10 or 15 minutes, but fortunately I didn't miss anything because the show didn't start for probably another 15 minutes after I got back to my seat. I don't know why it started so late, but I didn't mind. I got a couple T-shirts and a hat.

B and I bought some earplugs especially for this concert so our ears wouldn't be ringing and we left them in the suitcase up in our room. :( The good news is, our ears only rang that night after the concert and we were fine the next day. :) I thought he did a great show and he did two encores. I can't remember how many songs he sang, but he did quite a variety of stuff. Some songs from his Wham! days and some songs from each of his solo albums. The stage was pretty cool. There were two big monitors on each side of the stage and then one gigantic monitor-thing in the middle that actually went down onto the floor of the stage where he was standing (below).

Our seats were great, too. Even though it wasn't real close, we had an excellent view of the stage because we were in the front row of our section, so nothing was blocking our view.

The next day we had some breakfast there at the hotel and then we drove up to the Wynn hotel. I've been wanting to go there and just check it out since it's one of the newest hotels on the strip, so we went into the casino area and checked out all the stores and things. We had some lunch there, got ourselves some souvenirs and also found three really pretty pots/vases for our pot shelves at home for really great prices. We've got these nice vaulted ceilings here and all these pot shelves, but nothing to put on them, so now we have at least one of the pot shelves taken care of.

After we finished exploring the Wynn, our feet were getting pretty tired, so we decided to head home. Driving to Vegas, the traffic around Hoover Dam wasn't too bad, but for some reason, coming back home it was really congested. I expected more traffic on our way there because we were going to Vegas on a Saturday night. It was boiling hot outside too, but there were still tons of people walking around at Hoover Dam. I'm not sure what the temperature was, but I know it was hotter in Vegas there here at home, though it has been pretty hot here lately. In fact, it's 96 right now.

I've got my second appointment with the pain management doctor coming up on July 1, which I'm not looking forward to. I am curious to see what my x-rays reveal, if anything. I went to see a chiropractor here in Kingman last Monday because I was having pain in my lower back and butt on my left side that was making it hard for me to get my work done because it hurt most when I was sitting. It's been very, very slowly feeling better since then, but it's still not totally better. I'll probably go to this chiropractor again soon. He was really nice and the atmosphere there was much better than at the pain management place.

By the way, I got my hair cut a few weeks ago like this, but black because B colored it for me:

It's not that straight either, and I tend to push it behind my ears, which makes the sides curl forward. This is the shortest I've had my hair in a long time, and so far I like it a lot. It feels nice to have it short in the back because I don't get those hairs going down the back of my shirt. I hate that. I don't know if B's crazy about it, but he said it's cute and it makes me look younger, so that sounds good to me. I saw soooo many women with this haircut when we were in Vegas, but everyone had theirs super-straight, which I can't seem to do with my hair, so mine looks a little different (which I think is a good thing).

The second doctor

Well, today was my appointment with the pain management doctor I was referred to. The good news is, he gave me refills on two of my prescriptions, so I'll be able to continue with those. The bad news is, the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth because of his demeanor.

Right off the bat, when I was taken into the room where he was sitting, he didn't even look at me or say hi or anything. The nurse told me to have a seat, so I sat there and waited for the doctor to seemingly notice me. Maybe it's petty of me, but stuff like that makes me feel uncomfortable and gets things off on the wrong foot for me.

When he finally deigned to speak to me, he then asked me about what medications I'm taking, what they're for, how often and how much. He poked and prodded me, asking if it hurt, then said it seems I probably do have fibromyalgia (duh). He said something about me needing to exercise, and I tried to tell him what exercises I'm already doing, but he moved on to something else. Then he said I needed physical therapy and I explained that I've already had physical therapy (he said this while looking at a piece of paper where I had specifically written "had physical therapy"). Then he wanted to squabble about why I'm taking two different painkillers. I explained that one is for normal pain and one is for breakthrough pain - something I figured a pain management doctor would be familiar with - and he said he wouldn't prescribe both; just one or the other, so which would it be? I was at a loss for words for a moment, then I asked what I would do if I took the first painkiller and that wasn't enough to take care of my pain? Then suddenly he changed his mind and told me he'd give me prescriptions for both. I just said OK at that point. As you can imagine, by then I was feeling upset and defensive and really, really uncomfortable.

He told me he wanted to get some x-rays and handed me a slip of paper to give to some woman outside the door, then he basically said goodbye. I was told by some other woman that I'd need to come back in a month, so I made an appointment for July 1. Oh, I also tried to talk to him about my worsening fatigue and he more or less blew it off, saying "that's just part of fibromyalgia." WTF? I guess I'll go back in a month and see how it goes, but if this second appointment leaves me feeling just as crappy as the first one, then screw him. I'll find someone else.

In other news, B and I are going back to Vegas in June to see George Michael at the MGM Grand!! I don't know if I've even mentioned it, but I'm a huge fan and when I saw him perform on the AI finale, I was really excited. Then when he announced that he's on tour in the US, I immediately wondered if he'd be coming to Vegas. Sure enough, he's performing one night on June 21st, so I got us a couple tickets! It's been a long time since I've been to a concert, so that will be really cool, plus we get to go back to Vegas. Whoo hoo! We still haven't decided if we're going to spend the night there after the concert or just drive home. If I could find a place where we could stay for less $100, there'd be no question, but for some reason every place has their prices jacked way up. I'm still planning to research this some more and see if we can find some place off the strip that's not so pricey. Part of me wants to spend the night at the MGM Grand hotel because that's where the concert is, so after the concert we'd already be at our hotel, plus we've never stayed there and it looks really nice. But it's one of the more expensive places and if we're only going to be there for one night we won't get to really enjoy it much. Maybe that stimulus money is just burning a hole in my pocket. :)