I’m back from Las Vegas. Sort of. To quote my roommate for the weekend, Carly : “My heart wants to stay but, my body wants to go“. My heart is still very much in Vegas with all the wonderful people I met this weekend. My body on the other hand is very much back in Toronto and suffering. My big toe has turned into one giant blister, I’m walking with a limp, I have a case of “Casino Cough”, I’m exhausted and I’m pretty sure my boss gave me a concerned look when she saw the number of empty red bull cans on my desk. As for my brain, I think its also still somewhere in Vegas, probably at the bottom of a sparkly pink shot glass. Was it all worth it? DEFINITELY.
This weekend was MAGICAL.
Originally, I was going to do a play by play recap of our weekend in Vegas but, I’m not the person to write that post. I met so many amazing, talented bloggers and many of them have written awesome re-caps of Bloggers of Sin City. They were able put into words things I am not able to articulate. Instead I’m going to tell you about one of my favorite moments from the trip:
THE MAGIC GUITARS.
While in Vegas I wanted to do at least one thing that was completely over the top and ridiculous because…its Vegas. On Thursday afternoon, Carly and I were walking around the strip when she started to tell me:
“There’s this bar here where you can get your drink served in a plastic guitar”
A few minutes later we walked by the bar that makes this infamous Guitar Drink. It was a sign. We looked at each other and said:
“WE NEED TO DO THIS. WE NEED TO DRINK OUT OF GUITARS”
When we told Almie about our plan her response was something like:
“OMG. GUITARS. YES”
Friday night after seeing Absinthe at Cesar’s Palace (Awesome show. Acrobats + Sex Humor + Burlesque = MORE YES!) we organized a group and headed off into the night with a mission locate plastic guitars and drink very large drinks out of them.
Within a few minutes Almie, Ameena, Carly, Kelly and I went from being just a couple of Bloggers….to a BAND (a band that lacks a drummer, keyboardist and singer and instead exclusively plays crazy white plastic guitars)
This photo was taken by Kelly, who although guitar-less took on the role of our fearless Manager. Pink fedora = total rockstar.
With the guitars strapped to our bodies and our straws in our mouths, we walked down the strip. We realized pretty quickly that not only were 4 girls walking abreast down the Vegas Strip with plastic guitars a spectacle, it was also a total hazzard. The Strip is very crowded and these Guitars were a bit tricky to manoever – mine especially, since I was having issues with adjusting the strap and the neck of my guitar hung at a dangerous “crotch level”. That combined with the fact that I seem to bump into everything and anything even when sober – well, let’s just say:
Men who walked past me on The Strip on Friday night: my apologies.
Eventually, we made our way back to the hotel where we settled in to party like plastic rock stars.
We also ate Pop Chips…you know, like how Axl Rose probably does when he’s partying in a hotel room.
The funny thing about the Guitars was that despite being 78 ounces of “booze” – they didn’t seem to actually be all that alcoholic. Once we were about halfway through, I remember we looked at each other and were like:
“Are you buzzed?”
“Not really. You?”
That’s when Almie came up with the ingenious idea of “tuning” the Guitars with a bit of Skyy Vodka.
In the morning, we all woke up feeling fine. Over a champagne brunch at the Mirage, Ameena remarked:
“I don’t have a hangover. THE GUITAR IS MAGIC!”
Saturday night everything came full circle. Carly and I were walking through the doors of the Flamingo when I felt something funny brush against my leg. That’s when I looked down and saw the neck of someone’s plastic guitar between my legs.
Me: “WHAT THE?”
Embarassed stranger: “uhhmmm err, sorry ’bout that”
Carly: “YOU JUST GOT GUITARED”
I figure my “Guitaring” was pay-back for all the guys I may have accidentally knocked in the nuts on Friday night. It’s also proof that those Guitars really ARE hard to manoever down the strip safely. It’s not just me!
After a crazy night out on Saturday (which involved Pure, a Beattle’s themed bar and late night Hamburgers), Sunday morning the band said goodbye to the rest of the group and made our way to the airport in our tour bus (the Flamingo hotel airport jitney) As each of us got off the bus one by one, we said our goodbyes, hugged and promised that the band was not breaking up, we were merely going to be working on solo projects for awhile*
*My solo project will involve me drinking out of this guitar as much as possible. With this bad boy strapped to my chest I’ll finally be able to blog and drink AT THE SAME TIME.
I was the last one left on the shuttle. Once the girls were all gone I realized something: the guitars really WERE magic. Not because of their amazing ability to not give us a hangover but because they managed to bring 5 very different girls together who had never met before and turned them into friends.
{I feel like the last two photos really need to be enjoyed while listening to THIS because that was totally playing in my head while I was walking through the airport}After a very long journey home that involved an unplanned overnight lay-over in Chicago, me & my Guitar arrived home in true rockstar style: in last night’s clothes, vaguely hungover with dark sunglasses on, longing to be with my bandmates.
While writing this post I noticed something: This isn’t really a post about plastic guitars. This post also isn’t about 5 girls – there were so many awesome people at #BiSC that it feels wrong to single out a few.
This story is just an example of the kinds of things that can happen when you take a huge risk and fly across the country to spend the weekend with 56 people you have never met before. Crazy, amazing, hilarious, wondrous things.
Guitars become Magic. Strangers become Friends.
I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE REUNION TOUR.
Till we meet again, ROCK ON BISCUITS! ROCK ON.
Love,
Simone
