This was a particularly bad winter. Seems like it lasted forever. The blizzard of February 2011 was horrendous, and made me even more jealous of my friend Lynn who now resides in the desert. Initially, I was just jealous that she was in Vegas (I can't say that word without mentally saying "VEGAS, BAY-BEE!!"), but getting 20" of snow - in just that one snowstorm, I might add, made me particularly jealous of the fact that she was in the arid southwest.

I'm really thinking a move may be in our future. Particularly if the whole global warming thing doesn't kick in like I'm hoping it does (sorry, my green friends). It is now the middle of June and I'm sitting on our beautiful new back deck, looking at our beautiful new above ground pool - and I'm wearing jeans. And I'm not IN the pool. Something is wrong with this picture.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday (those are especially bothersome after 40) and the doc said she wanted to see me back in 6 months. The front desk gal made my appointment - in DECEMBER! I stood there aghast. Crap. Only 6 months 'til I have to worry about that blasted drive to work again. GRRRR.

Oh - a side note that I think I'll probably talk about more later - I have had a really good travel spring. I went to my very first Creating Keepsakes Convention in St. Louis in April. It was fun, I learned a lot, and I made new friends. Special thanks go out to my new friend Dottie who I went with, and to my new friend, Kelly, who roomed with us when her plans went awry. And a shout out to the owner of Boxer Scrapbooks who put on a hell of a class - it was my favorite class, I'm still using stuff I learned in it, and their products are all made in the US. That alone guaranteed that they will continue to get my business.

April was a busy month for me. The annual Missouri Paralegal Conference was held in Kansas City, and I was asked to be a speaker (Prepare to Present: Using Adobe Acrobat Professional in Discovery). That went well, I took advantage of being in KC and visited my cousin Tonya. We went to see the Princess Diana Exhibit at Union Station. Not only was the exhibit itself amazing (seeing The Dress was nearly a religious experience for me), but I was impressed with Union Station. We had lunch at Harvey's, where Patrick was our waiter - quite the entertaining server, and good to boot!

But May . . . ahhhhh, May was incredibly special and oh, so fun! I took a trip to Vegas to see my friend Lynn. It was exciting just GOING somewhere. I suspect that a lot of people don't travel alone. Oh, people do for business all the time, but I mean to take a trip just by themselves. I highly recommend that women do that. There is something empowering about traveling alone. Not only do you have your thoughts to keep you company (seriously, gals, we don't chat with ourselves enough), but you are not distracted by a fellow traveler and you can really focus on the experience itself. I rode MOX to St. Louis (by the way - kudos to MoX for having such a friendly website), where I caught a plane to Phoenix, where we dropped off passengers (the older couple next to me were excited to get home) and picked up passengers (I hope that poor woman had a good time at the Hilton with her hubby and had a smoother flight home) and then it was on to Vegas (VEGAS, BAY-BEE!!). Lynn met me at the airport and we were off! Here are the highlights:

Thunder Down Under. Yummy. Absolutely yummy. By the way - I touched the guy on the left in their pic on the Excalibur website. So did Lynn. He ran right in front of us on the bar. I went in feeling like a frumpy middle aged wife and mother, but after sitting on a hot guy's lap and having him slap my butt . . . I came out feeling like a million bucks. <SIGH> And I'll never be able to listen to Thunderstruck by AC/DC again without a big goofy smile spreading across my face.

Phantom of the Opera. Beautiful opera house. I was way more blown away by the set than the music. I'm not sure if that says the set was fantastic or the music wasn't as good as it could have been. Or perhaps I'm just not as cultured as I think I am, because I must say . . . I'll go back to see the guys from Thunder Down Under, but I'm happy with the memories of Phantom. :o)

The Mob Experience. A fun, immersive experience. My apologies to Lynn, though. I really hope the $100 I stuck in my pocket didn't get us whacked!

Ah, yes, I'll write more on that experience later. Vegas was just what the doctor ordered - I came home feeling refreshed and happy and ready to face the world again.

Have you ever taken a vacation alone or traveled to meet someone?