Diva Las Vegas Baby

Okay, there is a Freeze Warning out here in Las Vegas, in effect until tomorrow morning. I've never even heard of a freeze warning, and I'm a northeasterner. And I think the warning is a little late, because it is FREEZING right now. I just looked at the current temperature and it says 35 degrees but the chill factor makes it feel like 29 degrees. Meanwhile, I look up New York's weather and it says currently 59 degrees, more than 20 degrees warmer. What is that about?!?! More reason to look forward to Christmas in NY - the warm weather.

My fiance and I were running errands, which took us through the mall area in the Alladin Resort and Casino - the Alladin has an Arabian desert theme, and the mall is called the Desert Passage. Inside is a maze of stores and vendor stands - all of it complete eye candy. I found the walk actually comforting because it brought back a flavor of NY - albeit the completely overpriced and gaudy flavor - but I'll take what I can get. So, in the middle of this maze of shopping euphoria stands a pond - typical tourist fare with coins in the bottom. But I see that not only are people taking pictures, but they are also just standing around waiting. "For what?" I wonder to myself. I notice that there is a schedule - it is a Rainstorm Schedule, and the rainstorm happens every hour on the hour. Well wouldn't you know, it is 8:00 on the dot. I look up and notice that we have been sheltered all along by a nebulous, sky-blue landscape painted on the ceiling, to give that "outdoor...

I love that the glitz permeates everything out here - including good ol' mainstay, McDonald's. Let's hope their fries stand up! Speaking of which, I finally found some decent fries at a place called Wing Stop - because I KNOW that was everyone's main concern about me living here! (see "Do Fries Come With That...Never Mind." 11/2/06). So, my fiance arrived safely and we are having a good time adjusting to life out in the desert. The weather is particularly gorgeous today and keeps us on our toes, because the winter chill does rear its nippy head every few days or so. We've completed our first week of learning new material and I am very excited. The new material is FUNKY!! We are using old props that have been taken out of the show years ago, but we are playing new music with them. It's good to be learning again. A lot of work, mentally and physically, and I have the blood blister to prove it - no joke! In the mornings, I am still training the new perfo...

Well folks, feels like I've completed strapping myself in for the rollercoaster ride that is "my year in Vegas," and we are now making the initial climb towards that first stomach-wrenching and simultaneously thrilling drop that will be the show. I have finished training the new performers; the director is in town and he spent all day yesterday working them out, evaluating where they are and how we did in training, and overall, I think it was a good day. He seemed genuinely pleased. I may actually be supervising the new performers in the mornings after he leaves, while the veteran performers are learning new material, which would give me afternoons to catch up. But I am a quick learner, so I'm not worried. Tomorrow, I begin learning NEW material! Back to square one (sort of). The love of my life arrives tonight, and I am sure that it will really start to feel like a home once he gets here. Other familiar faces have arrived, and that adds a layer of comfort that I wa...

For the record, I do not enjoy exercising. I didn't grow up "exercising" in the sense of purposely keeping in shape; I danced, and that kept me in shape without my having to think about it, because I was just having so much fun. But, strapping my legs in some giant contraption and proceeding to have them swung apart to and fro, causing tiny sweat beads to drip from my nose, hardly has the same appeal as doing, oh, I don't know, double pirouettes in ballet class. Or having a root canal for that matter. I couldn't help but look at myself in the mirror today (an old dance class habit) as I was attempting to master the "weight loss" cycle of the "arc trainer" machine, and I looked absolutely ridiculous! And I couldn't imagine what part of my body was losing weight with my legs swinging like that. Okay, when I managed to hop off the machine, my legs did feel like I'd been up some stairs, a bit. But still, is this what I have to look forward ...

Well, last weekend I met up with my cousin who has been living here in Vegas for six years now (time flies!). We had a great time, she is such a cool woman. Growing up, we've only seen each other previously on three occasions, and the last time I saw her, she was a high-schooler (I'm 14 years her senior). Now she's an adult, and she is just really cool! It will be nice to reconnect and to have family in the area. She seems to have a free-spirit, which makes me nostalgic for my college/early post-college days, when everything seemed possible. That was such a great time in life and a great perspective from which to enter the "real" world, and who says we can't keep that perspective as we get older?! Vegas is a whole new world to me, and with the new comes a host of possibility, right? Amen! So, my cousin took me to see Red Rock Canyon, and yes, ladies and gentlemen (all three of you who are bothering to read this blog!) this is what I am talking about. ...

I made my first trip to the Target store EVER, here in Vegas the other day, and it was HEAVEN. I love Target! I'd even done a commercial for Target years ago, not knowing firsthand the beauty that is Target. I guess the closest thing we have in NYC would be Kmart, which is nice, but this was like super bargain stimulation. And I hear this particular Target wasn't even a "Super Store," which is just too much for my mind to wrap around, because it looked like it had everything I'd want. For our production manager, the absence of Target in my life history was more a marker for being a native New Yorker than the phenomenon of us non-driving New Yorkers. Forget hitting the casinos! Hit the Target!

This is the view from the parking lot of the rehearsal studio. I think it may be kismet.

So, I'm leaving my apartment to go to dinner the other day when I am greeted by an older gentleman walking the halls, wearing a suit and tie. Immediately my NY radar turns on, and I manage to remain cordial, but brief and alert, in responding to his questions: "How are you?" "Fine." "Are you new here?" "Mm-hmm." etc. Of course, it is exactly when he is right in front of my apartment that my top lock starts to stick and I can't get the key to lock it. He asks if I need help, I tell him no - immediately my mind is flushed with images of "missing women" flyers, and crime scenes, and I hear that generic, inner, adult voice that keeps you from doing stupid things, telling me that I don't know this man, don't let him get too close to me. Somehow, in my momentary panic, I manage to get the door to lock. Which is a good thing, because then the gentleman, who I see from his jacket is a security guard, whispers to ask, like h...

How hard would you think it is to make a decent french fry? Well, okay, I have failed at some attempts in my own kitchen, but I chalk that up to lack of proper cookware, not to my culinary instincts, of which I have many. But I have to say, if you are looking for some tasty fries, then Vegas is not your place. Even if you were starving in the desert, which you could be since we are in Nevada, I wouldn't recommend the fries out here. Let me back up and say that I am talking about fast food french fries (maybe the fries at, say, the Bellagio, are out of this world, julienned and oven-roasted by the next Top Chef runner-up). But fast food fries are the ones you WANT to be good. I mean, it's fast food for cryin' out loud! Grease it up, yum! These fries we had were so dry, and they weren't the sunny, crispy golden yellow you associate with piping hot, salty, deep fry goodness. They were paper-bag-brown. It was like eating stale, fried Crisco sticks (as opposed to F...