ich bin ein auslander

Just back from a completely random and unplanned trip to TJ and rosarito. Margaritas. Yum.

just back from a last minute trip to vegas. literally. first time i’ve ever done that. bought tickets at 5pm, on the plane at 7pm, landed around 8, straight to the green day show, hung out after, quick crash in bed, back at the airport at 10am and back home (to about 20 messages and a few desparate sounding clients - how do they know the second you leave?) by 11:30, just in time for lunch.

Seems like I’ve been more places. Note I didn’t count airports where I never left the terminal

create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide

create your personalized map of europe
or write about it on the open travel guide

create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

2:51am. doesn’t seem to be much point going to sleep now since we need to be at the airport at 5. printing out my rochester airport to hotel in buffalo directions courtesy of yahoo maps… everything’s packed up, including a fine dvd selection courtesy of wendy. got the audio splitter jack so wendy and i can both listen to the spankin’ bad ass g4 rock the dvd movies for however long the battery lasts.

coffee pot starts brewing in an hour and 15. i really could have used sleep tonight. i never sleep on planes. oh well. this is a good way to ensure i start my vacation with “relaxation”. of course, the vacation part doesn’t really start until monday. i’m supposed to be performing this weekend.

so where the hell was i? we finished eating, and that was about the time the band was due on stage… wendy ran off to shoot the show, while i did my normal stand on the side of the stage routine… i like listening by the stage soundboard since i can hear the main stage mix. anyway, the show went really well, the band was on and they have a pretty big following in vegas so everyone was pretty into it even though they’re technically just the opening band… until i notice some random guy walking up onstage. I didn’t think much about it at first since it was a charity show as well, so i was thinking it’s just some guy from the charity who’s going to make an announcement or whatever, and it must be part of the show…

but no. it was just some older, completely drunk guy that managed to get past at least 10 different security guys with no identification, no stickers, no laminates, nothing. so he walks up there during a song and starts grunting into the mic, vaguely getting about every fifth word of the song right… pretty damn funny. they pulled it off and made some good jokes about it, letting him grunt along for the chorus, before security pulled him off the stage and out the venue… and all the security guards working my side of the stage were replaced, and one would assume, fired.

show ended and we headed back to the dressing room… saw mc hammer and tiger woods hanging about (it was a tiger woods charity show)… and the jovi getting warmed up in the hallway. started drinking up a storm in the dressing room while we tried to suss out the plan for the rest of the evening… there was an end of tour party taking place after the show ended, but it was also jason’s bachelor party of sorts that night, although there weren’t any set plans other than 20 of his friends were out and hanging around. robby made a few calls and next thing you know, we’re off to the ghost bar on the top floor of the palms, hanging out in a private room with our own bartender… more drinking, and a few trips out to take in the view.. the outdoor patio gives you a pretty tremendous view of the strip.

Kept drinking, but 20 guys and three girls (all of them either wives or girlfriends) does not a bachelor party make, so the guys decided to head out to a strip club, while those of us with our girlfriends there opted to head back to the boardwalk for a little shabby 3am gambling. Did that for a bit but luck wasn’t with us; although, we did get to catch the last number of the prince cover band. excellent. grabbed a cab and passed out in bed.

sunday was pretty tame - everyone had flights at different times so everyone pretty much kept to themselves, packed up and made their way to the airport. wendy and i chilled in the room and had room service for a lovely easter brunch (lines would have been way too long everywhere else), and hopped on a chartered van with whoever was left for our 3pm flight back to la.

that’s pretty much it. a great time as per usual with that crew…