Sunday, November 27, 2005

My Month of Adventure.

At a glance:

Viva Las Vegas.

* Hilton

* Running the strip in the morning

* The Bellagio

* The fountains there

* The Nightclub "Light" (which was almost completely dark)

* The Titanic Exhibition


* Pepper Mill Restaurant


* New York, New York


* The roller coaster there

* the guy at the $100 BJ table

* The U2 CONCERT

* Getting a better seat at the U2 Concert

The Setlist and Notes on the Concert:
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Mysterious Ways
Until the End of the World
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Beautiful Day
All These Things That I've Done
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet the Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride
Where the Streets Have No Name
One

Encore(s):
Zoo Station
The Fly
With or Without You
Happy Birthday
All Because of You
In a Little While
Bad

Mysterious Ways is played for the first time since Dublin in June and includes and Bono pulled a dancer out of the crowd to dance on stage. 'Sometimes' is dedicated to Vegas resort owner Steve Wynn. Mary J Blige came out to sing "One". Bono brought tour manager Dennis Sheehan on stage between encores to wish him happy birthday with cake and a crowd sing-a-long. Brandon Flowers (of The Killers) joined the band for "In a Little While".

When Brandon came out, I started screaming and flailing all around. I was so excited to see him. On the plane, I was thinking about people I'd like to see. Specifically, famous ones. I thought, "the Killers are from Vegas. Wouldn't that be awesome to, oh just run into them? Nah, they'll never be there. And how would I be able to just run into them?"
It was like a fulflled prophesy. Or wish for sure.
This type of thing happened once before a couple years ago too. I was flying to Nebraska and, on the plane, I was thinking that I wanted to either run into Jason Mraz in the airport, or Jars of Clay. I was thinking of all the Jars band members names. In Nebraska, ofcourse I didn't see anyone. (who goes to Nebraska?) but 3 days later, on July 4th, I'm walking off the plane in Ohare, through the hallway of American Airlines, and there sat Dan Haseltine against the wall. Alone. Listening to his walkman. He's the lead singer of Jars of Clay, and I was completely in love with him in High School.

I walked up to him and said, "Dan?" he said,"Yeah?" I said, "Haseltine?" and he smiled and said "yes?" The next 20 minutes were some of the best minutes of my life. I told him how I thought this was going to happen. He smiled and laughed, telling me that he had missed his flight and was just waiting for the next flight. It was definitely an appointment that I believe God scheduled in my life.

So, back to the Vegas story. Though I didn't really "run into" the Killers, It was perfect to just see and hear Brandon sing. It was an amazing moment. Especially since I didn't come to Vegas with a ticket to see U2. And I wasn't sitting in the seat that was on my ticket. Yet, I wasn't kicked out either. Though many around me were getting their tickets checked.
Once again, God was blessing me with an awesome night that would have never happened- had I not had faith. God really does care about the little things in your life. Even if you think certain things are too insignificant to pray about.. God really wants to bless you in those things. Giving Him credit for them is important to him too.

* The Sphinx Hotel


* King Tutenkamun

* Seeing where mom used to live

* Golden Gate Restaurant & Casino

* Fremont Street Experience

* Finding it humorous that everything in Vegas has to have the word "Experience" after it.

********************************************************************************

Black Friday in Chicago


* Train ride

* Dodging Crazed Shoppers

*Avoiding screaming babies

* Palmer House Hilton

* Cab rides

* Shedd Aquarium


* Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum

* Star of Wonder presentation there (that led the 3 wise men to Jesus)

* Regulus Star

* Navy Pier

* Popcorn Palace

* Starbucks

* Ferris Wheel

* Field Museum of Natural History


* Africa exhibit there


* Egyptian exhibit there too


* Sue the Dinasaur


* The Hall of Jade

* Shrinking down to microscopic size (honey, i shrunk the museum goers)

* Meeting a family from Lousiana who left Lousiana when warned about Katrina


It was a fun month.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Tick. Tock.

The clock ticks. 32 minutes left of class.
And counting.
This prof's teaching style is entertainingly horrible.

The West is calling.
And only the clock is keeping me here.
3 more days to glorious vacation freedom.