My View of 2002! :)

I guess you could say DLV started for me on Saturday, when Densie paged me to ask where I was. I was still at home. :)

I arrived Sunday the 28th. early evening. Flight took off on time, but arrived late due to a strong headwind. Anyway, I picked up the van, and checked into the Sahara. Even though I paid the lower rate, they put me in the Tangiers tower, which is what they usually give to those paying the higher rate. I was in room 18-something, facing north with actually a nice view.

Picked up Densie and Tony and we went off to the San Remo to play a bit and see the Showgirls Of Magic show. "Tiny Bubbles", one of the performers in the show, had invited us to see it, and to my surprise when I picked up my ticket, Tiny had a large box of Peeps waiting for me at the box office. :) We met Tina and Michelle (NZ) before the show, and Monique came in just as the show was starting. (Hmmmm, am I forgetting somebody here, I thought we had one more person there ...) Anyway, SOM is a very low-key but very entertaining show. It's not all magic, and I laughed so hard I hurt at times. Definitely recommended. :) We had a few drinks at the San Remo and then early breakfast at the Sahara.

On Monday morning I picked up Ginger at the airport, which was uneventful except for the fact that I got majorly yelled at by a cop who was out there directing traffic and pedestrians. We had just picked up Ginger's bags and were walking across the drive to the short term metered parking, when I thought he was motioning to the traffic to stop, but he was actually telling the traffic to proceed. I kinda walked out right in front of a van that was just taking off. I think his words were something like "HEY LADY, YA WANNA GET YOURSELF KILLED OR SOMETHING!!!" At least he did not use the s-word. :) I was embarrassed.

On Monday evening Densie and Tina wanted to do Karaoke at Flex, and I and several others showed up there as well. I guess you could say that DLV actually started then, since we had more DLV people there than we had total in 1997. :)

Tuesday was really when DLV officially started.

Milano's dinner: In 2000 we filled the place. In 2001 we overwhelmed them. In 2002 we totally blew them away! Overload! Great food, as usual.

This one does mark DLV's first Rubber Chicken Banquet. :)

I about $#!+ when I found out how much they paid to bribe the waiter to serve me that thing. :)

Seriously, as good as the food is, I think we've outgrown Milano's as a group dining place. We'll probably use it as a recommended place for people who want to grab something good and reasonable to eat.

Pre-DLV, Flex: Nice place. Largest crowd ever for a Pre-DLV thing. I tipped the bartender and told him to not serve me anything that had Galiano in it. Actually, I was drinking beer that evening, and it's kinda hard to disguise Galiano in that. :)

I was loaded with Peeps (Densie and Tony gave me a couple boxes as well) so I passed them out at Flex that night. Yeah, people thought I had totally lost it.

This DLV sure didn't have a slow start like the first ones did, people were there and ready to go at the first activities, even before them.

Hidden Woman Open House: I was a bit concerned that their staff might not be able to handle the wig styling thing, the crowd, and the usual business, but they did it quite well. Got made-over as a blonde, and some people did not recognize me. :) I did feel the effect immediately. I had to ask directions out of the parking lot.

Hamburger Mary's: Good food and service. Light was inadequate in our area. They tried to get more light, but for some reason could not. Crowd wandered to Goodtimes before any socializing happened. I was a total ditz, as a few of the people working there will attest to. :) I passed out Peeps again. The DLV group would definitely not make it at the Annual Peep-Off! :)

Goodtimes Karaoke: Saw only bits of this, since I was drafted as shuttle driver, but I did see Densie do Sweet T. (At night I'm a WHAT? What kind of a mechanic?)

Slumber party: Came very late, was very tired when I got there. I though it would be cute to have Tony crash the thing in boymode, but when he entered screaming "Panty raid" people just looked around with that "what the f*ck" look. Oh well ...

Glamour Boutique Open House: Good crowd. Standing room only! They reported they did a very good business that afternoon.

Swim party: Dropped in briefly. I wondered why nobody was swimming, but I guess it was COLD! They offered me food, but I was still STUFFED from the buffet a couple hours before.

Boardwalk reception: Got there, had a drink, wandered into the gift shop, watched the show for a few minutes, and then it was time to go to LaFemme.

LaFemme: Great show, pure class! My seat was off-center, but still a good view. Show was more artsy and not as bawdy as I had expected. I know some people did not like this, but I found it entertaining and enjoyable. I laughed very hard at "Micro Jackson." :) They had said that they enforced a dress code of "business dress at minimum", but some of the latecomers seated to our left were very casual. They looked like they were setting up for N+I (Nortel shirts and such).

Limo tour: Again, I think this was my favorite activity of DLV! I thought it was a major trip driving 5 limos into the Delmar. :) Of all the feedback of this year, this seems to be the biggest hit of all activities. I can't believe we were asked to leave the Delmar. :) Looks like Slim and None were both with us, Michelle. :)

SBS Social: Small crowd but still a good time. I was still very tired from the night before. Yes, it was starting to catch up with me.

Sasha's dinner: We didn't totally bury the place, but ... Good food and great entertainment. Michael Cagle put on a very good show for the group. Billie Lee passed the hat for Michael, and I think he appreciated it. :)

Annual Mixer: Good crowd. High level of enthuiasm. Even though this is very simple, I think this is one of our more important activities, as it is usually the single largest gathering of our people, and really allows a great number of us to get acquainted and to get to know each other better. I know everybody always grumbles and complains about being forced to pose for those group photos, but logs show that those are the most downloaded of all of our photos over the past few years. Again I passed out Peeps, with the resulting strange looks.

Some net.friends dropped by, so I left before it broke up, picked up a couple others, and had early breakfast at the Sahara.

Mall Crawl: Several small groups. No incidents reported. I just bought a few odds and ends and ran into a cow-orker. :) One of the groups was pushing a baby carriage, but I think they were using it as a shopping cart. :) I didn't see anybody getting any strange looks. :)

Saturday afternoon I had a makeover by Steph at Glamour Boutique. She asked me if she if she could try a few things different, and she ended up doing me as a blonde, again. I actually liked that look, but it's gonna be almost impossible for me to duplicate it myself. Again, several people did not recognize me at all, and I got many compliments.

La Cage: I drove a whole vanload to the show, and the front valet park was full. Fortunately I was able to talk the valet into parking it anyway. :) I guess he could not resist a blonde sweet-talking to him, or maybe it was the help that Mr. Lincoln gave me. :) :)

I think this is the fifth time I have seen this show with the DLV group, but it had changed enough so it was fresh and interesting. Again, thanks for the cooperation in posing for the group photos, and thanks to Monique for arranging that.

Sasha's afterwards: Parking was IMPOSSIBLE! We parked about 4 blocks away. Good thing I had a pair of flats in a bag in the van. :) Sasha's was mobbed! Tina, I, and some others went over to Milano's to eat when it was obvious that dinner service at Sasha's would be mega-slow.

Valley of Fire: Awesome scenery and good company. We did have a good crowd for this. Several excellent and unusual (for our community) photo ops. One of our people desparately needed a 7-11 in the desert.

Palace Station buffet dinner: Went directly there from VOF. Picked up a couple others waiting there, but we found out that there was another table of people who were seated before us. I think we were fashionably late. :)

Farewell get-together: Again, quite a few people stuck around for this. Flex is a very nice place for things like this. I understand that they now serve food there, but I did not have any. I forgot the Peeps.

On Monday after DLV we found several people made it up to Flex for Karaoke. Densie did Sweet T. again. :) I crashed early.

On Wednesday after DLV I attended the Club Girl Talk (Girltalk Magazine) thing at Sasha's. Both Michelles were there, and a couple others I have not met before. It seems to me that Sasha's is kind of a replacement for what Keys was, and I'm sure it will be a favorite of our people. Parking is a major hassle, but the doorman was telling me that they were making arrangements with one of the nearby rent-a-car lots to use it for valet parking, which should ease the situation quite a bit. Anyway, this is apparently gonna be an ongoing get-together thing every Wednesday at Sasha's, so if anybody's in town on Wednesday, drop by Sasha's at 7:30 or so.

Friday was the Pride Parade. I went downtown in the middle of the afternoon, visited Neonopolis (not much really there yet) and played at bit at a few of the casinos. Michael, Jason, and a few others did a pre-parade show on the Fremont Street Experience, which was great except the CD of Michael's accompanyment for one number malfunctioned so there was an unannounced break.

I had a very good vantage point for the parade, up in the parking structure opposite Fitzgerald's. I took quite a few pictures, but I was a bit disappointed by the way they came out. The flash on That Damn Camera doesn't really carry that far. Maybe I should try some faster film for that type of thing.

After the parade I went over to Sasha's to eat and have a few drinks. It was MOBBED and parking was again impossible. I didn't stay that late, cuz I had to get up early and shoehorn everything back into the 4 bags I came with.