The following is just my ramblings about DLV2002
I first meet Annie when she picked me up at the Sahara to go to
Milano's on Tuesday night. She immediately endeared herself to me when
she said "I saw you standing over there but I was not sure you were
with us as you were just blending in with the other guests" Of course
it helped that the Ukrainian woman's weightlifting team was getting off
their bus at the same time!
The food at Milano's was great, since I went with Annie we arrived
early and the DLV people kept coming and coming until we took over the
whole place, and they still kept showing up. Tables were shifted and
shifted again, and again. I was sitting there overwhelmed by the other
girls and how great they looked and how well they just fitted into the
setting.
Then Lea (no H) sat down next to me, she is tall, thin, great hair and
she totally intimidated me, I could not even bring myself to talk to
her. She is a TS from Calif that just went full time. She asks me
about the food, I recommend the lasagna, and 20 minutes of silence goes
by, Then, oh horrors, I look out the window and Annie is leaving to go
to Flex and I am trapped in the corner. I am about to have a stroke,
Here I am dressed, in a strange town, at a restaurant I know not where,
my hotel is somewhere I don't know, I have no idea where Flex is, and I
have no transportation!
Just before I lose consciousness, I manage to croak "oh, crap my ride
just left", Lea turns to me, smiles, and says "Don't worry I have a car
and I will give you a ride"
We start to talk, and over the next number of days we keep talking and
talking, and finding out the number of things we have in common and as
Lea said "we were destine to meet"
Flex was fun, noisy, smoky, but fun. The drag show started too late
for me to enjoy it fully as my body was still on east coast time. I was
talking to one of the performers before the show and it turn out s/he
comes from the next town over to where I live, before s/he moved to Las
Vegas.
The next night was Hamburger Mary's and it dawned on me too late that I
had not arranged for a ride. I went down to the hotel entrance to see
if anybody was there and no such luck, so I sucked it up, went to the
cab station, and took a cab to the restaurant. What a change just from
the previous night! I had never gone to any gender event before that
was not held in a "controlled environment" and here I was taking a cab
from my hotel to a public restaurant by myself!
The hamburgers were good, but they were just not prepared for 50+
people to show up a once, and it was as dark as a tomb.
Goodtimes the karaoke bar was interesting, I had never been to one
before and I was just standing there gawking like a tourist from Iowa
for the first time in the big city!
Now Thursday morning was really weird, I have always wanted to have my
ears pierced, but never had the courage before to do it. Before I left
work to come to DLV I had laid the groundwork for a cover story to get
it done in Las Vegas. But, I could not find a place on the strip to get
it done and I was backing out. I mentioned it to Lea and she says "let
go do it".
So we drive to a mall in Henderson where there was a Piercing Pagoda,
of course they are right in the middle of the mall, right there in the
open. So there I am hugging the Teddy Bear they give you to hold, snap,
snap and the deed is done, I have pierced ears! I'll just say they were
stunned at work!
The Boardwalk reception was kind of a non event and slow to get going.
Ginger and I walked across the casino floor to get players cards for
which we had to show our drivers licenses. That was fun, NOT, but the
staff at the player's club desk didn't even blink. So there I am
playing the slots in the middle of the casino, dress for the La Femme
show, and nobody is paying me any mind. Since I had the player's card I
went back the next day to play the slots, won 2 fifty dollar jackpots
within 15 minutes, and of course generously donated it back to the
casino over the next hour.
I liked that hotel as it is a Holiday Inn at the middle of the strip,
has good access in and out. It would be a good hotel for DLV2003 if
they come up with a good room rate. Lea was staying there and she had
no problems and liked it.
La Femme was an interesting show, weird but interesting. Strange stage,
I think if we were up closer it might have been more involving but it
was like watching a television from 20 feet away. The stage was wide
but only as tall as the performers. After the show Lea and I had dinner
at P F Chang's china bistro.
Friday Lea had to leave and I was so depressed I could not get out of
boymode all day, did not go to any events. Understand I missed a great
time at Sashas.
Sat I went to the mall crawl, great outlet mall, lots of woman's
stores, so guess what was the only thing I bought, a boy shirt! Hey,
Hawaiian shirts are hard to come by in Boston !
LaCage was a great show especially as someone said to see it enfemme. I
went in Annie's car and on the way back she dropped me at the Sahara,
but not at the side entrance but the front casino entrance. This being
the weekend the Sahara was very crowded especially with yahoos, I was
considering a dash thru the bushes to the back, but somehow in my
really dressy clothes it just didn't seem ladylike.
Sunday I went to the Valley of Fire trip, quite a sight, well worth
the trip. Then we all went to the Palace station for the brunch. There
I was Miss Casual wandering around the buffet with Mr and Mrs Middle
America. Not too many showed up, but those of us who went enjoyed it.
We especially enjoyed terrorizing the ice cream guy.
Sahara:
Hotel was ok, only had the breakfast buffet and it was adequate, the
Nascar theme seems to attract a yahoo crowd, especially on the weekend.
The timesharing hucksters were annoying.
The only real problem for me, as I didn't have a car, was that the
hotel was at the end of the strip, not much near it, and a ten dollar
cab ride down the strip to anywhere else. I would vote for a midstrip
central host hotel for 2003, a single very small meeting place for
people to post notes, look for others to go places, but not a closet,
and no rubber chicken dinner! DLV must match to the beat of a different
drummer and not be a cloistered gender event!
I have lots more stories but this is already getting too long!
To say it was a great trip is not to do it justice, it was a life
changing experience. I met so many wonderful people, too many to
mention here, and I am so bad with names. I owe Lea a lot for
befriending me during the event, and giving me the courage to grow.
Annie, Cat, Monique, and the other organizers deserve a Noble prize;
you have not been to a gender event till you have been to Diva Las
Vegas.
I was so depressed when I returned from DLV2002, not that I didn't have
a great time, but that is would be a whole year before DLV2003. A whole
year of getting weekly/monthly bulletins about 2003 and knowing how far
off it was. I joined the 2002 hunt in January and at that time it
seemed that the end of April would never come and now I am facing a
whole year before DLV2003. Sigh!
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