who hurts more, me or vegas?
hold on a moment, let me catch my breath. This weekend was wicked by every meaning. Friday morning packed 10 of us into 3 cars to caravan to Vegas, lucky me being chosen 'fearless leader'. Despite what Heather tries to say, I was NOT going 95mph. 6 hours later we rolled into Sin City and met up with sensei to check in to the hotel and register for our tournament (there had to be a point to going to Vegas, right?)... which explains why a couple hours later found us training on the carpeted floors of The Flamingo. Right around that time, chili fries caught up with Ji, and we left her in the hotel room while Heather, Yuki and I went off to find Kinko's. 2 hours later, we were done there (ugh.), only to find everyone else had hit the buffets in town. We were about to opt for In-N-Out, but hit a casino called "Terrible's" instead, off of Yuki's friend's opinion. I've never seen 2 girls so serious about buffet-ing, especially when they gave us a time limit when we walked in. Heather must have eaten a pound and a half of shrimp, which made her go a little loony in the cabeza, if you know what I mean. The 3 of us wandered about the Strip, catching the Bellagio water show (set to "Proud to be an American"??? We got gypped) and I won $5 twice on 2 tries, and another $2 for Heather.

Saturday started off way too early (hello, NO SLEEP!) and only lulled from there. We cheered on our black belts in the morning (no fair they get to go first) and then sat around for another 8 hours until it was our turn to go. Tami was one of the judges in our ring; i usually prefer to see a friendly, trusty face. Good thing, too, because the judge in the corner was SLEEPING and gave 4 girls in a row the exact same score. Unfortunately I was victim to that judge, and am still perturbed that she gave me the same score as a girl who fell. That's messed up. Kumite wasn't much better, though I did manage to strategize and get a girl knocked out of the brackets by playing up an injury. She already had a warning for punching me in the nose, I figured her attempt to kick me in the face, resulting in her toes going into my MOUTH and NOSE was at least worth a half point to me. Tami was trying not to laugh. Unfortunately, the brackets were set up in such a way that Amber and I were on the same one; the way it should have stacked up was 1st and 2nd going to Amber and I, 3rd going to the girl who got 4th place, and 4th going to Ms. 2nd place. It was all jenky, and unfortunately Ryuei Ryu now has in its possesion video of me going "What?! this is bullsh*t!" to Tami during the match (thanks, Hazael!). I don't deny it.

After team dinner on Sat. night (where, surprise surprise, everyone seemed to have a britt story, with Tami leading the way) I hung out with the boys, and the usual trouble ensued. Actually, more than the usual, but everyone made it out alive and walking (barely), so that's all I'll say about that. What's the phrase? "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas... unless hotel security got it on video and you end up on the Internet." Ehem, right.

Sunday I lost my voice and my head running around taking care of everybody (I'm about to put "Assistant" down on my resume) and screaming my head off for our people at the Finals. We kicked ass, took names, and pretty much stamped our reputation across the place. After that, we just wanted to get home, and Flora, Pauline and I zipped back to CaliCali, having a great talk, and making great time.

And now I want to sleep. And maybe go back and get my voice.
PS - love the new car. Love the gas mileage. Love it.