The day after getting home from our Yellowstone trip, it was time to leave again for another Phoenix trip! Whew..
Day 1 - 5/12/16 (Naked Magic Show):
We got to our first Phoenix-area event just in time, a little before 8pm. The event: the Naked Magic Show at Symphony Hall in Phoenix. It was a comedy magic show with some adult content performed by two Australian guys who started fully clothed and ended up naked by the end. They didn't spend a lot of time naked and covered their penises with magicians hats so we never saw more than buttcheeks. They were also a little hard to understand because, despite being plenty loud enough, their accents made them hard to understand and they spoke a little fast. A lot of their props were kind of small too so it was sometimes hard to see everything. Still, it was fun and we had a good time!
After the show, we drove down to the Wild Horse Pass hotel and casino to meet up with my cousin Serena who was coincidentally in town for work at the time! She was staying at Wild Horse Pass for the night and had a spare bed so she invited us over to hang out and spend the night! Even though she needed to be up early in the morning, we ended up chatting with her for HOURS about everything from running to shopping to traveling to family and beyond! We felt bad for keeping her up so late but we all had a great time catching up.
Day 2 - 5/13/16:
Serena was busy with work all day and friends in the evening so we got ready and headed out in the morning.
We had a Tropical Smoothie Groupon deal we'd bought awhile back so we drove to Tropical Smoothie next and got fat with a smoothie and a wrap each!
Then we drove to Riverview Park for the second time ever and jogged (~1.18 miles for me) around the lake there a bit. It was pretty hot at the time so we didn't stay too long but it was nice just to enjoy some scenery while giving our legs a little stretch.
We worked our legs even more at our next stop, actually. We drove to Main Event nearby (in Tempe) and played about 1.5 hours of PIU.
Having scheduled a race for the weekend, it was time to go to packet pickup then. Fortunately for us, we were only 6 or so minutes from packet pickup at a place called Sole Sports. We went in, got our packets, looked around at all the cool running gear, and picked up a bunch of race and fitness center flyers and cards left by various companies. Serena had registered to run the race with us as well so we ran into her at packet pickup just before leaving!
A few more minutes from there was a Play It Again used sports equipment store location. We stopped in but didn't find anything worth buying for us.
We were hungry after all that so we went to Genghis Grill to use a birthday coupon I had. Yum!
I really wanted to do a little shopping at the Goodwill Clearance Store in the area so Sean drove me there after Genghis. Google had said they closed at 8pm but they actually closed at 7pm so they were just closing when we pulled up. :(
We made the most of driving so far out of the way by getting a free drink refill at Pilot, filling the gas tank up with some super cheap gas we spotted, and going for a dip in the outdoor pool and hot tub of a nearby hotel we saw. We were obviously supposed to be guests there to use the pool but we got away with it!
Finally, we drove to the closest QuikTrip to the race location, Kiwanis Park, to sleep. We got very broken, terrible sleep in a very hot car in the very noisy parking lot where people kept coming and going.
Day 3 - 5/14/16 (Hope Run & Second Chance Prom):
In the morning, it was really hard to get up. We reluctantly got ready though and made our way over to Kiwanis Park for our race, the Hope Run. Sean and Serena were running the 10k there. I was just running the 5k. It was already hot when we arrived and only got hotter. We met up with Serena and warmed up a bit. Then I watched the start of the 10k race just before starting my race. I'd forgotten to charge my bluetooth headphones though and they died just before I started. Noooo!! I ended up having to run without music. I hate that but I managed. The route was a little hilly and with that, the lack of music, soaring temperatures, poor sleep, a leg muscle I ripped in high school that has been very rarely bothering me since but was acting up due to our recent road tripping, and not having run as much as I would've liked during the week prior, I struggled a bit. I did alright though. I finished in 24 mins 37 seconds. I placed 16th of 206 overall, 4th female of 128, and 1st of 26 in my age group and got a 1st place age group medal in the awards ceremony that followed. Serena got back awhile after I did, finishing her 10k in just 1 hour 1 minute 47.9 seconds, but I'd expected to see Sean much sooner and was worried. We were looking and asking all around to find him when finally an ambulance brought him back over to the race location. He'd apparently been in 2nd place overall in the 10k, had been right near the finish line, and had been misdirected to start a 3rd lap. (10k runners were only supposed to do 2 laps.) He ended up running much further than he was supposed to, getting heat stroke, and finally falling over and resorting to cooling himself in the nearby canal. Tons of people had run by him without stopping but finally a few ladies had stopped to assist him and get help. The medic had taken the ambulance to rescue him and bring him back. When Serena and I spotted him, he was shirtless and shoeless, putting ice packs under his armpits and looking pretty shaken up. I was so freaked out yet relieved that he was at least alive and conscious! Wow.. I haven't worried that much many times in my life! Anyway, the medic took really good care of Sean and a race organizer, I believe she was, came to check on him and bring him much deserved finishers and 2nd place medals. He may not have crossed the physical finish line but he'd sure as hell earned those medals and I was really grateful they'd acknowledged that! Once Sean was feeling a little better, we thanked the medic and left the ambulance, headed back to the race festival area for a few of the fruits and muffins they still had out as well as to buy some quite appropriate slushies to cool us all down a bit. Then Sean, Serena, and I chatted for a good while longer before heading out.
Sean and I had to hurry home then. We'd bought tickets to a Vegas event called Second Chance Prom through Groupon and we needed to hurry back so we could get ready for it! It was a long drive and we were tired when we got home but we mustered up the energy to dress all fancy and drive to the Orleans Arena for the prom! It didn't end up being what we'd expected at all. We'd known that the music would be a bit before our time but we didn't know what the atmosphere, decor, theme, etc might be or whether there would be any beverages, snacks, photographers, etc available. It ended up being fairly concert-like with people sitting in the stadium seating around the arena, people gathered on the floor in front of the stage (where we were), a stand selling beers and such, no real theme or decor for the event, some people dressed in formal prom wear from various eras but more people dressed in casual clothes, nothing specifically romantic about the event. Sean and I made it romantic for ourselves though and had some help from the artists occasionally playing slow jams. Most importantly, we had lots of fun! Sean had never been to a prom, as that's not so much a thing in the UK, and I'd only been to proms at my own school when I was in high school (and those were from a very different decade than the artists at this event). I'd never had artists perform live at our proms. It was always DJs. We'd always had food or hor d'oeuvres and non-alcoholic beverages (since we were minors) too and there'd always been a photographer to take and sell us our pictures. I wasn't disappointed though. The main things I'd wanted I'd gotten ie: getting Sean to dress up with me and have the prom date experience, boutonniere and corsage and all! I'd actually asked HIM to this prom and had made the corsage and boutonniere myself! Not exactly typical but so what? :D Now that we were old enough to drink, we got a bit of booze in us before the show too. Then we enjoyed a good few hours of Tiffany, En Vogue, Exposé, Taylor Dayne, and others live! I'm pretty sure it was our first time seeing any of them in person before. We only knew a few songs and didn't know how to dance to any of it but it was fun trying and singing along as well! Oh and best of all, they played the NKOTB song I'll Be Loving You (Forever) during intermission!!!!!! Aahhhhh!!!! <3
After the prom, I did what any awesome prom date would do. I took Sean back home with me so we could eat, cuddle, and sex all before cuddling up and spending the night together! Grown up proms are awesome!
Back in Vegas:
The next day, we cleaned house for several hours. Danny brought home pizza for us to munch and bought a bunch of waters and a few other bits for our evening event: Gordon's going away party at our house! Our friend and dance game teammate Gordon had recently informed us he'd be moving to Iowa so we'd decided to host a going away party for him two days before his departure. Initially, I'd scheduled the event for 4pm but Gordon couldn't make it til 8pm so I had to change the time. Julie Murphy, the owner of Gemini Arcade Palace when it was open, hadn't seen that we'd changed the time though so she arrived early. She couldn't stay long but she came with beers for the party, an amazing DDR arrow necklace as a belated birthday gift for me, and a going away gift for Gordon which I gave him later. I'll never get used to her generosity and thoughtfulness!! Obviously, I'll have to find a way to thank her now!! (My necklace is REALLY awesome. :D) Anyway, after catching up for a short while, Julie headed out and it was a couple of hours before anyone else arrived. We got a decent showing when people started coming though! A good number of people such as Remy, Reggie, Bobby, Afro, and others brought snacks and beers and stuff to help with the party too. We have some damn good friends! Thanks you guys!!!! <3 We spent the rest of the night goofing off, sipping drinks, trying to play dance games despite all being rusty as hell, playing darts and silly games like Beanboozled (the jelly bean game with gross flavors). Pretty sure I'd only played one song on ITG this year til this party. I didn't even play much at this party but I got in a good few songs including Dreamer (15)! When it got late, Bobby even showed us the ReRave program he uses to make charts for Kyle (well, for the game)! Too cool. :D By then, it was just Afro, Bobby, Reggie, Sean, and me left and we were hungry!! We all decided to hop in Bobby's car and he took us to Pepe's Tacos (24 hour taco shop/restaurant) on Boulder Highway to be fatties! Then he dropped us back home and they all headed out so we could all sleep off our food bellies. Lol
The next night, Sean and I went to Mandalay Bay to use a Groupon voucher we had for a place called Minus 5 Ice Bar. We'd never been and didn't quite know what to expect. It was incredible though! The whole place - bar and seats and glasses as well as an assortment of ice sculptures - was made of ice! Unfortunately, they would let us bring our phones inside let alone take any pictures whatsoever so I guess we'll just have to try harder to remember it. It was REALLY neat though. We each got a pricey, unique drink at the bar there and sipped away as we admired the sculptures and the room itself. We were the only customers there at the time and it was pretty great having it all to ourselves but we'll definitely have to take my sister Liz and maybe some cool friends to check it out sometime.
A day or two later, Sean and I used another Groupon voucher we had to visit a place on the strip, just a bit south of Circus Circus, called Luna Hookah Lounge. We'd tried to go there with my sister, Kyle (her husband/fiancé at the time), and Kyle's friend Jacob a couple of months back but had arrived to late. This time, it was just before 7pm when we got there and was fairly quiet. It was a really nice place though, as far as hookah lounges go, with better atmosphere than others we'd recently visited. We didn't realize it was included til they served it to us but they brought us a pot of delicious tea and bread with hummus along with our hookah. We hadn't even paid that much for the Groupon either! I think we might have to go back there with Liz and/or friends sometime too!
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