10:17p

yummmmm!!!
just had the yummmiest nilaga ever!
my mom gave me and my bf her old pressure cooker, so I used it for the first time tonight.
it only took 30 min. to tenderize the beef and oh my gosh...it melted in my mouth like butter!
topped off our meal with Mrs. Field's hot cocoa with a shot of peppermint schnapps.
mmm...mint chocolate w/ a kick!!!

vegas continued
started out saturday evening with dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.
it was really neat. our little "niece" was intrigued by the 3 mechanical gorillas
on top of the rocks near our table.
they would move about and make noises every 15 minutes or so.
the first time it happened, my poor little niece got freaked out!

it was a neat environment. as if you were in the rainforest.
it was complete with swinging vines, a waterfall, elephants, monkeys...the works!
I was suprised we didn't see Tarzan swinging from one of the vines!
everyone was lookin' fly in their party clothes...even our little niece
had on a cute little outfit!

for some reason, i was feeling kinda hyper/excited.
'couldn't get myself to calm down. it was really wierd.
I finally had to just sit there and take a deep breath for a moment.
it was probably a mixture of excitement and over-stimulation from the whole
rainforest theme in the restaurant. I mean, it was really like a rainforest!

it was great to have everyone there together. I, of course,
sat at the "50 yard line" so that i could be in the middle of it all.
I took a moment to look around the table and felt a little veklempt...
I was really the happiest girl for sure. I couldn't ask for anything more than this.

unfortunately, one of my friends got sick from the food. dunno for sure, but
perhaps it was food poisoning. I felt sooo bad for her.
luckily my "niece's" parents are a doctor and nurse, so we got good advice.
our friend, the doctor, came for a house call to make sure she was ok.
we were able to get a wheelchair to take our friend back to her room.
she was ok by that time thank goodness. a few of us went upstairs to make sure
she was ok.
Big FAT BUMMER!!! You should've seen her, too! She was dressed
in leopard print and velvet!!! something she never wears! the girl
was ready to paint the town.

out on the town we went
my first stop after seeing our friend to our room was
the lounge downstairs. our little party crew waited for me, my bf and our doctor friend.
they felt bad going ahead (which I suggested they do), so they had drinks in the
lounge while they waited. soooo thoughtful.

then off we went in two cabs to Hard Rock Cafe.
We wanted to see more stars, so this was apparently the place to be according to our waitress at
Rainforest Cafe.
'Got to the front door and sure enough, out of ALL of us, i was the only one that got carded.
Bless that doorman's heart!
What was even funnier was when I pulled out my ID from....my "Hello Kitty" picture wallet!!!
My friends clowned me big time! haha!

Anyhow, Though we didn't see any stars, the place was jumping! It was definitely the place to be.
D bought all of us a round of shots. I got to take two cause one of our party crew members
wasn't a drinker. 'got a nice little buzz out of that one!

Since the bar area was pretty crowded, we took a walk around the place.
It was so packed!
almost ran into a girl in a chiffon-like blouse...with no bra!
ok..HELLO! There was like arreolas all UP in my face! gross!
It was like two iris' staring me in the face. yuck!
Then, I passed by some girl and her boyfriend. I smiled cause they caught my eye and I'm polite.
Then the bitch says, "Damn she's short!"
eh, she was lucky i was buzzed....anorexic-looking freak!

Anyway, everyone there was dressed to impress. everyone also looked the same to me.
no standouts. no originality what-so-ever.
all cookie-cutter-wanna-be-sexy style.
i'm telling you...our party crew looked better than everyone there! ha!

the all-women cab ride and Venice
we didn't stay for very long at Hard Rock. 'decided to make use of our
buzzez and get our groove on, so we headed for club C2K at The Venetian.
we took 2 cabs again. we split up the girls and the guys.
oh my god...it was like having a mini 10 min. girls night out.
lemme just say that 5 drunk women in a cab makes for nothing but pure comedy!
the guys had their own comical experience. apparently their driver was a Rex Navarette look-alike.

we got to C2K but,
unfortunately, one of our party crew members left their ID at the hotel,
so we waited for her to get it. hung out at the lounge across from the club.
I tell you....they played wayyy better music.
I would've been happy if we partied there all night instead.
Once we walked in, the music automatically took over and I couldn't
stop moving. I eventually pulled one of my friends and we danced right there.
there were only 2 other people besides us dancing.
eventually the rest followed.
sorry man, but when there's good music playing, I just can't let it go to waste, you know!
Oh, and the jack-n-coke that Nico got me helped keep my buzz intact. Thanks, man!

before we knew it, our friend came back with her ID. unfortunately,
we lost one of our friends who accompanied her to the hotel. we lost him to Mr. Sandman.
poor guy. 'guess he was pretty damn tired!
C2K was dead, dead, dead. It was a shame that we paid $20.
Thank goodness they played R&B/hip hop the rest of the night, though.
There was a big fat cage in the middle of the dance floor.
Mz. Bern, of course, made her debut in it. Go Bern! She had the cage all to herself, too.

When they started to play hip hop, I made my way into the cage too.
I had to share it with these two other women. they were pretty nice about it.
I swear, I thought I was gonna slip... there wasn't much traction between
the cage floor and my boots cause my boots are kinda crapped out.
Anyways, I had a great time being in there. 'never danced in a cage before either.
Heck, it beats dancing in front of the mirror! hehehe!

The coolest part was getting our doctor friend to dance in the cage.
Since he's a dad now, too, he and his wife don't get to party often.
But i tell you man, their freaky-deeky side is still in there somewhere waiting to come out!
And, thankfully, it did!
It's probably been at least 8 years...that, I think, was one of the
highlights of my birthday weekend!

and then there were 6
So, we pretty much closed the place down.
By that time, there was only 6 of our little party crew left.
We headed across the hall to the lounge again.
The DJ was still playing dope beats, so of course i indulged
and danced with my 2 other girlfriends.
It was just us 3 again.
the 3 guys rested on the sofas. my poor bf, his feet were killing him!
eventually, I was the only one dancing by myself. I seriously could've
gone on for hours like that...all by myself.
But, I could see the tired faces begging me to stop so we could go home.
so i did. but before we left, i thanked the DJ....I swear, he played everything i liked!
nice guy. he gave me a nice nod of "you're welcome".

taxi-cab confessions
the final six made our way home. that cab ride was like heaven,
especially since I was tired out of my mind by this time.
I dunno who started it, but we got into a conversation about
how someone should build another hotel casino in Vegas -
one with a Pilipino theme!
hhahaha! This was the funniest conversation of the weekend.
We came up with sooo much stuff.
I'll write about it in another entry, but man...we were dying of laughter
the whole cab ride home!

finally ended the evening (er, morning) at 5am after
having some breakfast at MGM. I could barely
keep my eyes open as I was eating my eggs benedict.
I'm surprised I was awake enough to make my way back to our room.

one last hoorah!
somehow, we all got together again on Sunday morning.
we made our way to a Pilipino restaurant off of the strip (Pinoy Pinay), which
my dad had told me about.
I didn't expect much from the place and then we walked in....
HELLO! They had EVERYTHING!!!! and everything was GOOOD!
Dude, they even had itlog na maalat and balut!
Damn, overstimulation again!!!!

I ordered their lechon, pancit, a bowl of sinigang and cantaloupe juice.
also bought a couple siopao's for the plane ride home.
D said it best when he moaned, "Oh my GOD!" he startled us, "...this is the best lechon ever!" (or something like that)
Everything was amazing! I'm telling you, this place beats all the pinoy restaurants
i've eaten at in the Bay Area. The quality, selection and price is unbeatable!

through our foodgasms, we continued our Pilipino-themed hotel casino conversation
and came up with more ideas.
finally, it was time to part ways.
it was like a final episode of The Real World or something.

winding down
We had about an hour or so to kill so, my bf and I
walked back to MGM from Paris hotel where Nico and Bern dropped us off.
It was a nice walk.
it actually didn't take as long as we thought.
we were so full from all that pilipino food, so this helped.

walked past Studio 54 on the way to the MGM lobby and noticed
that they had a red carpet and velvet ropes set up in front of it.
they were probably having a pre-Billboard Awards party there
that night (Sunday).
The Billboards was on tonight (monday).
I got that star-struck feeling again. I sooo wanted to stay one more day.
but it was time to go.
made it home safely.
crashed for about 14 hours and woke up around 1p on monday.

What a great b-day weekend!!!!!