Funchilde

So….uhm. I have some news. I was diagnosed last week with a colorectal cancer. I am shocked, stunned, scared, anxious and all those other things. But, I am also still me and so of course there’s a story behind it (butt pun #1!).

I met up with a bunch of Semester at Sea staff folks from my 2009 voyage for an alumni meet up weekend in Vegas on Thursday, August 4th. It was my first time to Sin City and it didn’t disappoint. Stacy picked me up from the airport just in time for me to avoid bursting into flames, it was 105 degrees and I had on a sweatshirt, jeans and anti-embolism stockings with tennis shoes (can anybody say “Sexy!”) since I was coming from New Hampshire where it was in the 60′s the morning that I flew out.

After a much needed amazing lunch of Mexican food at Rio Grande, I met her parents, grandparents, their dogs and then proceeded to crash head-first into a siesta. The next three days saw us greet Nikki, Lissa and finally Lissa’s husband Matt, in that order, in a series of flintstone-esque revolving door-like, airport pick-ups at all hours of the day and night.

We settled in at Matt and Lissa’s awesome timeshare suites at Tahiti Village. First stop, the Lazy River. Okay, I’m lying, that was the third stop. First and second were the grocery store (Save-a-lot, which we did) and the liquor store. Then, we hit the lazy river. Which looks like this:

But…you need to add, about 45 more adults of various colors, shapes, sizes and soberness and about 3,234 kids who behaved as if they’d been plied with red bull mixed with a frappucino, spun in circles for 2 minutes and then fed raw sugar before being released into the Lazy River.

Anyway, I spent the majority of the next three days floating along the lazy river. This was supplemented by: grilling, pancaking, french toasting, napping, a trip to see Divas on the strip, Bingo at Suncoast, slots at the Golden Nugget and the Bellagio, a trip to the Freemont Experience and photos with Fake Elvis, Fake Rick James, Fake Cat Woman and sighting of (possibly real) Big Bird under the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign.

We wandered around Vegas at night and someone started uttering the hilarious phrase “What what, in the Butt!” and we kept saying it over and over….little did we know how apropros it would be to the adventure that was to follow.