Surviving Sin City

Late Monday night, I returned home unscathed from a whirlwind trip to Vegas. When I arrived in sin city on Saturday evening, it was to an airport filled with large screens of dancers and performers amidst a slew of slot machines filling every corner with flashing lights, bells, whistles, and the occasional gambler. A van wrapped in gaudy advertisements transported me to Bally's casino hotel, and I stumbled into a smoke-filled lobby armed to the teeth with, yes, more slot machines. Smoking in a hotel lobby? Really? When I finally made it to the hotel bed, (after using my hotel room key complete with an image of a half naked woman on it) there was a letter on the bed informing guests that the Las Vegas marathon would be happening the following morning at 6am (9am east coast time), and the strip would be shut down to traffic. Now Seth was really jealous of my trip. He had spoken longingly of the infamous Vegas buffets, and now there just happened to be a marathon going on as well...

So on Sunday I woke up, suited up in my running clothes, and folded in with the marathoners. What a great way to see the strip! In my five mile run (and five mile return walk), I concluded that Las Vegas is the gaudiest city I'm likely ever to see. Along the street, music is piped through loud speakers, and there are pools of unnaturally blue water hosting large pirate ships. There is no silence in this part of the city. The streets were littered with the previous evening's baseball card sized porn, spewed all over the streets, sticking to side walks even as they were diligently cleaned by crews of people and machines. On more than one occasion the thought crossed my mind, this city's really not for me. Still, there were fascinating sights to see. Like two Elvis look-alikes running a half marathon, and the three young people (who looked like they could have been rounded up at Greenlife) hoisting large felt signs with slogans like "You're going to hell! Jesus saves."

For the next day and a half I attended a fabulous training with women state legislators from all over the country (one of whom was younger than me). I do love my work! When I arrived home close to midnight on Monday evening, I couldn't resist creeping into Myles' room to pick him up and hug him in his sleep.

Last week was filled up with preparation for a core group meeting we hosted on Thursday night for the new church start, and my trip to Atlanta on Friday and Saturday. What a whirlwind! My inbox is overflowing and I haven't been able to weed through all my emails, so if you sent me something and I haven't responded, I apologize. Will update the blog again soon, so stay tuned! It's good to be home in cool, green Asheville...