Last week, Amanda (one of the techs I work with) said, "Hey! You like country AND you have Sunday off!"

Why, yes, yes, that was true. So she invited me to join her at a free concert in Vegas. The headliners were Big & Rich and Montgomery Gentry, with some special surprise guests. With the Academy of Country Music in town, that meant anyone could show up. After a little hemming and hawing (I was a little afraid that there were going to be people there that I didn't know, and I didn't want to be ignored) I decided to go.

We followed her to her boyfriend's house, and headed from there to Fat Tuesday's. Oh, MY gawd. There are probably a dozen frozen drinks you can get there, all well-overpriced, but quite tasty. I settled for whatevertheheck Amanda was drinking - pinYA colada mixed with strawberry daqueri. Yummy! After that, we headed to Fremont Street, where the concert was being held.

We stopped at Hennessey's (I think that's how it's spelled) where I drank another daqueri and ordered another to put in my Tuesday's cup to carry around. Gotta love that about Vegas - no open container law. After that, Amanda and I left the guys and went to check out the stages to see who was on. We caught one or two songs before the band went off. I don't even know who it was. The stage was obviously going to be quiet for awhile, so we wandered down Fremont.

We came across this little (oh, what a great gimmick!) temporary tattoo booth. The guy airbrushes temp. tattoos for a fee. Amanda and I each got one done for about $15 each. Just a fun, silly thing to do. Corey's a dork. He just sat and said that it wasn't "me". WhatEVER. The whole point of a temporary tattoo is that it's TEMPORARY. Sheesh.

ANYway. Amanda and I filled our cups again at one of the bars - pinYA colada for me this time - and headed back out to the stage. It was much more crowded this time. She helped me push through the crowd so we could get closer to the front (we abandoned the guys again, since neither Corey nor Keith are much for country music). There were people pushing everywhere, and it didn't bother me until people were being rude about it - using elbows to push, or giving dirty looks. That didn't happen too much, though, and I got over it. There were only a couple of people near us who were smoking, and they had the courtesy to blow the smoke up, instead of in our faces. We got to see Music Mafia, which doesn't even come CLOSE to sounding like a country group, but whatevah, and Rascal Flatts, and of course, Big & Rich. They crack me up. What cracks me up more is that so many people don't understand that they're seriously making fun of country music. Anyway. Gretchen Wilson even made an appearance, and she's just as cute in real life as she is in videos. It was cool to see her, since I like singing her songs in karaoke so much. *grin*

At the end of it all, we went out to grab a bite to eat (Amanda and I were both hungry, and Corey was peckish, as usual), and then headed back to Keith's house. Corey and I said our goodbyes and headed back to town around 2:30 in the morning. We had to be back to get the kids off to school, otherwise, we could have stayed on Keith's futon.

All in all, I had a great time. Amanda's a lot like me, I think, as far as her outlook on life and such. She's a lot of fun to be around, and I hope we get together again, and SOON!

the last trail...the next path