Less than 24 hours to go!

Call me a nerd, royal watcher, whatever, but I've been excited for this wedding long before the couple were even engaged. My parents weren't even married yet when Charles and Diana got married. I can't wait to see what all goes into a royal wedding. Plus, I have actually been to London and have been inside Westminster Abbey. Its gorgeous and its unreal knowing that I've actually been there.

I think what is most amazing about this wedding is that is every little girls' dream, to one day marry a prince. Heck, I even grew up thinking that one day I will be marrying one of the princes (although I always preferred Harry).  The long distance relationship thing didn't quite work out. But Kate Middleton seems to be the perfect girl (who isn't me) to do that. She's beautiful, fashionable, smart and seems to be into charity as much as William is.

I can't imagine what is going through Kate's head right now as she is only one sleep away from becoming a princess. I'm nervous for her! I'm sure everything will go swimmingly and she'll look as gorgeous as ever.

Of course, I'll be up early tomorrow to watch it on TV (damn you, Atlantic Ocean...why can't I live closer to London?). While watching the coverage, I'll be making British style scones from scratch to bring to work with me in honor of the wedding. I attempted to make clotted cream last night to put on the scones, but failed miserably. The recipe I followed said that you could use un-pasteurized or pasteurized cream, but not ultra-pasteurized cream which is how most creams in the US are made. I had a hard time finding pasteurized cream, but I eventually did at a local Whole Foods. However, its seems as if even pasteurized cream doesn't work well for making clotted cream as it didn't "clot" at all, but rather just created a burnt film. Hopefully, the scones turn out better, but I feel like its harder to mess those up. I'm still kinda disappointed. I loved the clotted cream that we had in London, and there's no where to purchase it pre-made in the US.

My prince and I at Buckingham Palace

Our Royal Wedding

Happy Easter and happy really nice day in Boston!

Benny and I went for a 32 mile bike ride today. It was my first ride outside. It felt so good to not be on the trainer any more. And it feels even better now that its not 40 degrees anymore. It was in the 60's and sunny for our ride today. We had a strong head wind on the way out, which also so happens to be a gradual incline as well, but it made it that much easier on the way back.

And I got my first sunburn of the season. Very mild, but it will be nice to not be pasty white going to Florida in three weeks. Although, it will be a solid farmer's/biker's tan.

It felt so good to finally be sweating it outside finally. Its hard to want to stay on a bike or do a run for a couple hours inside, or to even go that hard for that matter. I burned 1230 calories on my ride this morning opposed to the 600ish that I have been burning indoors.

Finally, it feels like its really triathlon season soon.

Again, hope you all are having as enjoyable an Easter or Passover as we are! And as Twitter folk put it, hope you get the egg with Lady Gaga in it.

With two and a half weeks until the first triathlon of the season (New England Season Opener Sprint) and just about two months until the Patriot Half Ironman, I have started upon my least favorite part of training. The building up of an endurance base and the focus on quantity of miles is now wrapping up (hooray!), only to segue (I spelled that right on the first try!) into a quality of miles focus. This means I'm doing a lot more sprints, hills, etc.

On the positive side, I must say I really love how much I am sweating these days. Makes me feel like I'm getting in a really good workout. I also feel like I am getting stronger and faster instead of just putting in the miles. The recent running of the Boston Marathon has also inspired me to work harder. It has reignited my desire to qualify, for reals. I already have my victory dance planned out and it goes something to the tune of this...



Anyways, my weight continues to fluctuate and have in general been stuck at a plateau. I have determined that I might be doing a tad much snacking so I've put my jiggly tush back on the calorie watching bandwagon. Maybe I can finally take off those rascally last three pounds.

Also, to help me to eat healthier in general, I am going to go a week without refined sugar starting Sunday (really, who stops eating refined sugar on Easter?) and I am currently attempting to go 30 days without soda of any kind and limited caffeine. I have successfully survived to day four!

I am proposing that a new holiday be instated in North America. It will be similar to Passover or Hanukkah in that it will span multiple days. I am proposing mid-April to early June. Here is how I propose that it be celebrated.

1. Increased hair length or amount of hair will be how we honor the gods of this holiday. Therefore, no one, male or female, should shave during this time.

She's single, guys!

2. People can continue to go to work and attend school during the day, but all activities be ceased by 7PM Eastern Time (approximately sundown, but probably closer to dinner time...or tea time on the West Coast) in order to spend time with family and friends celebrating the holiday.

3. As the celebration may be too intense for some, it should be broken up into smaller periods of time with a "breather" in between each one. The suggested amount of celebrating time is 20 minutes, with about 17 minutes of rest time. Upon experimentation, 20 minutes of rest was too long, but 15 minutes was not quite long enough. Thus, it was determined that 17 minutes would be best. Each nightly celebration will consist of three 20 minute periods of celebrating.

4. Some may choose to celebrate longer and this will be permitted so long as they continue to follow the "20 minutes on / 17 minutes off" rule.

5. The celebratory food and drink is to include beer in large quantities, six pizzas (one to be consumed every twenty minutes for an hour...the other three are for those who would like to celebrate beyond the required time), and a pound of Skittles per day.

Mmm...rainbows...

6. Frequent prayer to the gods is strongly encouraged. Pray for the unbelievers. Pray for those who couldn't make it through the whole holiday. Pray for each other to stay strong and dedicated to celebrating the holiday every day until the end.

I like to picture Jesus in a tuxedo T-shirt because it says I want to be formal, but I'm here to party.

7. Those who fall away from their faith in the gods and discontinue their celebration of the holiday will be subjected to playing golf until September.

Worked out well for Tiger

8. The final day of the holiday shall be the holiest. After all, its a whole year until we celebrate again. In order to commemorate its most holiness, we shall all drink out of one giant chalise. This will also give much pleasure to the gods of the holiday.

I found this one antiquing today. Would serve its purpose until we could find a better one.

9. And all the people shall say, "Gretzky is Great, but BizNasty is Better"

Not sure if you noticed yet, but I do a lot of traveling. Hardly a month goes by without me taking a trip for one reason or another, with most reasons being for work. Most recently, Ben and I took a vacation to St. Paul, MN. It may not sound exhilarating or tropical, because its not. Although, in comparison to Boston, it did feel slightly tropical. Anyways, we went for the men's Frozen Four. My dad and I started going to the Frozen Four in 2007 when it was hosted in St. Louis. It is held in a different city each year with it being at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN this year. My dad enters the lottery for tickets each year. So far, he has gotten tickets in 2007, 2010, and 2011. It's in Tampa next year, so we're hoping for a three-peat.

This year, my dad and my brother, Alexander, attended the games. At this time last week, we were unsure if Alexander would even be attending with us. He was hospitalized with a spontaneous pneumothorax on Friday, April 1 (was not a very funny April Fool's joke). On Sunday, it recollapsed meaning it would take him that much longer to be released from the hospital. Fortunately, they let him go home Tuesday night without any complications. This was great news considering the semi-final games were on Thursday. The bad news is that my brother is the biggest nerd I know. My parents had to force him NOT to do homework on the day of my wedding. Missing school for three days obviously did not sit well with him, so he decided to stay in Kansas on Thursday and Friday to attend school and meet up with us for the final game on Saturday.

Thursday morning, Ben and I flew out to St. Paul along with a plane full of other Boston hockey fans. There wasn't a whole lot of time to burn before we had to head over for the games. We made our souvenir purchases as soon as we got there as they usually run out quickly. The first game put UMD against Notre Dame. It initially seemed like an evenly matched game, but UMD pulled away for the win in the third period. The next game featured UND against Ben's Michigan. Being an Ohio State alum, I was rooting for anyone who played Michigan. Also, UND had a solid team, so I just figured they would win the whole thing anyways. Turns out, after a lucky goal and solid goaltending for Michigan, they advanced to the final game.

On Friday, my dad had to drive back to Kansas to pick up Alexander. Ben and I worked out in the morning and then spent the most part of the day at Mall of America and Ikea. We were told it was the largest Ikea in America, but I'm not sure it was that much bigger than the one in Boston. I love shopping, so I loved the mall. However, it wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be. Primarily, its big because it has two of every store that comes in a typical mall and there are roller coasters in the middle of the mall.

On Saturday, we all got our frozen custard fix (the rest of the country really needs to hop on that band wagon) before heading over to the MOA again. My dad and Alexander aren't as big into shopping as I am, so we went to the Frozen Four festival for a while before going to the game. As I had hoped, Michigan lost in overtime to UMD. Overtime didn't last very long, but you could tell from the get go that Michigan was tired. You knew it wasn't going to be a very long overtime. And unless there was a miracle, it wasn't going to end in Michigan's favor.



Our flight home wasn't until Sunday evening, so Ben and I just hung out at the MOA just to waste time. We got back to the great town of Boston and were greeted with a bustling T ride. We were confused as to why the T would be so busy on a Sunday night until we got closer to home and realized that a Red Sox game had just ended. They had just won their second game of the season. Unfortunately, its their eighth game overall. Glad I'm not a Sox fan...

...or this could be me every day.

Now, to wrap up social networking...for now. Lord knows that there will only be an infinite more to come.

I used to like Facebook back when it was exclusive to college students only. Recently, it has become too much like MySpace. Anyone and their mom can join. And they do. There are kids too young to walk, but apparently old enough to access the Internet and type up a profile. Pets can have a profile. And like I said, moms are on Facebook. Seriously, can you really have the full college experience if your mom can check up on you at any given moment with the click of a button? Forget drunk statusing.

But that's really the least of what irritates me about Facebook. If one more person invites me to play Farmville, Ima kill all their digital sheep. Seriously folks, I didn't move from the Midwest to Boston just to be bombarded with more dairy cows.

Is this what social networking has come too? What happened to good old wall postings and picture tagging? Do we need to plant fake corn and raise fake animals together to reconnect or stay connect to friends?

To continue on the Facebook tangent, I saw The Social Network for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Man, it really makes Mark Zuckerburg out to be a douche. Who starts a business with their friends and then runs away and keeps all the money for themselves? He then acts oblivious to what he did wrong when confronted by his friend. Granted, I have heard that he really isn't that much of a jerk in real life.

Regardless, you gotta give the man credit. He invented (and with the help of some friends) built Facebook from the ground up. That includes all of the coding and programming. I can't even imagine what a huge undertaking that is. He definitely earned every bit of the money he has.

Nonetheless, I am super jelly belly of him. I am not jealous that Zuck (yes, we're on a nickname basis now) can invent things. In fact, I have invented many things myself. For example, I invented the fashion trend of wearing a long sleeve shirt underneath a short sleeve shirt.

Not me, but I was this much of a fashion fail in middle school

I also recently invented a fun little gadget that one day Steve Jobs will be writing me 7+ figure checks for one day. However, my idea was shot down faster than a plane in a No-fly zone by my tech geek hubby. My idea was for wireless earbuds.

However, I have no technological savvy beyond the ideas, so I clearly couldn't build these on my own. I recruited the help of my husband only to be told immediately that its "too complicated". And besides, someone has already invented wireless headphones, so my idea isn't really all that novel. He still wouldn't help me even though I bitched about how big and bulky wireless headphones are and that us athletes/cool people would like something a tad more aerodynamic like wireless ear buds.

Anyways, I am super jealous of the fact that he could do all of the work to create his invention. If the next million dollar idea consisted of eating, sleeping and working out, my wealth would grow faster than Charlie Sheen's Twitter followers. I would host a show called "The Apprentice" and Donald Trump would be a contestant.

Until that time comes, I will go back to the studying that I should have been doing all along instead of writing a really long blog.

Oh, and follow me @RachelleRae. Its almost April and I only have 28 followers. 1000 by the end of the year is looking really far off right now.

Note: I will be MIA next Friday for Famous Friday, but in two weeks, check back for "My Family: The Movie"

Note: This was intended to be posted yesterday, March 28.

Hey all long lost blog readers,
Today is my birthday! I share this day with the likes of Keith Tkachuk and Lady Gaga. I know a few other non-famous folk who were also born this day, but I won't go into that. I already got a great present from Benny. He gave me a Nook Color. I have already put it to good use and purchased "My Horizontal Life" by Chelsea Handler. I love her books. They are so real and funny. Definitely makes my day. My parents are also giving me money towards souvenirs from the Frozen Fours.

Speaking of the Frozen Four...

As many of you know, BU women's ice hockey went to the Frozen Four last weekend for the first time in team history. They had to beat Mercyhurst in the quarterfinals to do so, whom they lost to in the quarterfinals last year.  They pulled off a 4-2 victory to clinch a trip to Erie, PA. Not much about Erie made it an ideal town for any Frozen Four, other than the beer bar next door to the hotel. And despite the fact that there were at least 10 high end hotels in town, all four teams were placed in two adjacent hotels. It made for many awkward moments.

So much happened that weekend, I'll just go in chronological order.

Wednesday: We practiced at our rink that morning and left that afternoon for Erie. As our cross town rivals, Boston College, were also participating in the Frozen Four, we had to share a charter flight with them. It was quite humorous to see them sitting in the far back of the rear plane and our team sitting in the front with at least 10 rows of seats separating each team.

Thursday: This day was really slow. We practiced early in the afternoon. We also received our tournament gear (zip up hoodie, baseball cap and hockey pucks). That night, we attended the Frozen Four banquet where we also received beanies. The food was tasty, especially the dessert. There were a few speakers that included the hosts from Mercyhurst. They made it extremely clear that they were none too pleased that Mercyhurst was not participating in the Frozen Four. Sorry? Jennifer Botterill also spoke on her Frozen Four experiences.

Center Ice logo at practice

Our own athletic training room

Friday: Friday was the longest day of the whole weekend. Our game wasn't until 8PM! There was an optional morning skate and the rest of the day was spent just relaxing at the hotel. My dad got into town in time for the 5PM game featuring Wisconsin vs. Boston College. I went over to the rink early with him to watch the beginning of the game. It looked like from the get go that Wisconsin would win easily. Much to everyone's surprise, BC came back to make it a close game, but ultimately Wisconsin pulled off the win. Our game couldn't have been any more stressful. Even though the scoreboard showed that we were outshooting them, every shot they took felt like 10. Cornell scored first. I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me. I thought, "This is better not how this games turns out. We tried so hard and had such a great season, only to lose now." But it didn't take long before we answered with a goal of our own. By the end of the second period, we were winning 3-1. In the past two seasons, we are undefeated when leading after two periods. That thought kinda comforted me, but I knew that 20 minutes is a long time in hockey and anything could happen. We ended up winning 4-1 to earn our first trip to the National Championship game. I got so many congratulatory texts that night that I just had to turn off my phone for a while so I could really enjoy the moment. I had so much adrenaline going that day, that I didn't eat much, so I went out for dinner with my dad that night. Unfortunately, not many places are open at midnight in Erie.

Motivational poster made by the team

Pre-game vs. Cornell

Saturday: Saturday morning, I went with a group of the staff to Tim Hortons for breakfast and went to the grocery store to buy ice cream cake. The coaches had promised the girls that they could have ice cream cake if they won the semifinal game. While we were at the grocery store, the girls were at a banquet to announce the Patty Kazmaier award winner. That afternoon, they had another brief practice. The coaches allowed the girls to spend the rest of the day with their families, so I spent the evening with my dad. We had dinner and went to the mall and Target to waste time while waiting for Benny to arrive.

Sunday: The big day that we had been anticipating all year was finally here! I have never been so nervous. I kept telling myself that it was ok and that just making here was a great accomplishment, but at the same time, I still really wanted to win. Being from Wisconsin, I had hoped all year that we would be playing Wisconsin in the NC game and now here we were. We left the hotel to a pep rally put on by the band and fans.

The fans!

BU hockey's biggest fan (One of the assistant coach's nephew)

The girls arrived at the arena and did everything that they have been doing all tournament for their pre-game activities. The whole warm-up and game went by so fast. We kept it close for a period, but then Wisconsin ended up just being too much and we lost 4-1. I'm feeling better about it now, but it hurt initially to think that we had had such a great season, and no championships to show for it. No Beanpot Championship. No Hockey East Tournament Championship. No National Championship. But it was such a great accomplishment be have had such a great season and to even make it to the NC game. After the game, the team went to a local restaurant to have one last team meal. It started off slow and quiet, but then the seniors started toasting to their teammates and the season and the group became their usual rambunctious selves.

Pre-NC game warm-ups

Even the restaurant didn't expect us to still be around for the NC game

To top off the weekend, we flew charter home. But it wasn't just any charter. It was U2's charter (yes, the band). When U2 isn't using it, the Boston Bruins use it. It was definitely the nicest plane I've ever been in. It is going to be really hard to going back to flying coach on domestic airlines.

U2's plane

Interior of U2's plane...the seats reclined fully to be used as a bed

Each individual on the team and affiliated with the team received  a miniature version of the actual second place trophy

A year after losing to Mercyhurst in the NCAA quarterfinals, the BU women's ice hockey team beat Mercyhurst to advance to the Frozen Four for the first time in team history. I am so proud of this team and I am so honored to have been a part of it.

I first took an interest in ice hockey by watching the Wisconsin Badgers men's team on TV. Since then, I have watched and been to many men's Frozen Four tournaments. I never thought in a million years that I would actually be working with a team, men's or women's, who would be participating in a Frozen Four tournament. Sure, I thought it would be cool, but I never thought it would actually be real. And I definitely never thought it would occur in my second year as a certified athletic trainer. This is all so surreal.

I think what I'll remember most about the game is not necessarily that we qualified for the Frozen Four, but how excited everyone was. The team was so happy. The coaches were so happy. The fans were ecstatic and loud. I was proud to be a part of it.

The Frozen Four is this weekend in Erie, PA. We definitely have our work cut out for us. We play Cornell in the semi-final round. Wisconsin and Boston College are competing in the other semi-final game. If we played Boston College in the final game, it would obviously be a big deal as there is a big rivalry between the two teams. In terms of the season series, each team has won two games, so the title game could easily go either way. Wisconsin is quite possibly the best women's ice hockey team, although their most recent games have been tight, so they are definitely beatable. Personally, I would love to play Wisconsin. It would be so bittersweet, growing up a Wisconsin Badger fan, only to face them in the National Championship game. Don't worry. I am 100% BU now, but I still have a tremendous amount of respect for the team and especially Mark Johnson. I didn't really know much about women's hockey until I worked with this team, but I have known who Mark Johnson was for a long time. It would be so unreal to be working for a team who was competing against Mark Johnson's for the national championship.

I am so excited and can't wait for this weekend to be here. The first game will be Friday evening. My dad is even making the trip up to watch the games. Ben will also be attending the final game, assuming we make it that far.

Go BU!

P.S. The BU men's basketball team also clinched a spot in the NCAA tournament by winning their conference tournament. Of all teams that they could possibly play, guess who they are playing in the first round? That's right. Kansas. Normally, I wouldn't care, but my brother is a freshman at Kansas. Its on like Donkey Kong!

Hey all,
I bet you didn't know that March is National Athletic Training Month? Well, now you know, so you have no good reason to lose at Jeopardy.

In celebration of this great holiday, the NATA is having a video contest for athletic training students. Needless to say, some students here at Boston University have put together a part cute, part funny video about what athletic trainers do to help promote the profession. It has recently come to a head that people are confused as to what athletic trainers actually do (they frequently confuse them with personal trainers), so clarifying it for the lay person has been a big initiative for the profession.

The video contest winner is based at least partly on how many people watch the video. Now, you don't need to watch the whole video. All they need are lots of hits. So please, please follow the link below. The video is about 7 minutes, but just clicking through takes 3 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8h5VzIXZ1A

Sorry, folks. I haven't posted in a month! I wasn't kidding when I said the past month would be crazy. On Friday, I turned in my big graduate paper. The hockey team also wrapped up the regular season with 10 games in three weeks. Thank goodness they had a bye week before the playoffs to recover from the intense season finish.

This weekend was one of ups and downs for the team. We were defending Hockey East tournament champions and we had just won regular season champs only to lose in the semi-final round of the Hockey East tournament this year. There was a lot of stress and nerves going into the NCAA selection show last night. We didn't know how much losing in the semi-final round would hurt us in our placement in the tournament. We were all ecstatic to find out that we were ranked third and will be hosting the first round. Even better yet, we will be playing Mercyhurst in the first round. This is a big deal as we lost to Mercyhurst in the first round last year. The team is excited to get another chance at playing the Lakers in the tournament.

The game is Saturday at 3PM. I am already bouncing off the walls with excitement. The weekend can't come soon enough.

Super Bowl means commercials. Here are my favorites as I see them.

Imagine Facebook without apps or a 10 page profile or pretty much anything except for the status, and you have Twitter. Twitter has made it cool to update the world in 140 characters or less. It has also made it possible for us lowly $9/hour human beings to "hang" with our celebrity idols. So many celebrities are notorious for their Twitter use such as the Kutcher couple.

Growing up, we rarely had snow days. Wisconsin was always prepared (too prepared, in my opinion) for the snow. I finally started getting snow days when I attended undergrad at Ohio State. But this year, I have gotten more snow days in the past month than I have the rest of my life combined. Not that I'm complaining.

Back when I used to have a car that I would have to keep parked outside, I would be one of those moaning about more snow. Now that I don't have to worry about cleaning up a car or shoveling a driveway, I have no problem with the snow. The more snow the better. I love time off from school. Although, I will have plenty of time off from school in 3 1/2 months. I like to think of it as practice. Anyways, I love being able to truly enjoy the snow, particularly before the cars start to abuse and pollute it. I feel like a child again when I kick up the fluff or toss it in the air.

Yet again, Hollywood wakes up to another Charlie Sheen story. This time, it turns out to be a hernia. But how many more times does this many have to be arrested/hospitalized/rehabbed until he gets his act together? I would hate to see one of my favorite TV shows, Two and a Half Men, go away because the star actor overdosed. Many people say addicts need to hit rock bottom before they realize they need help, but when everyone around Charlie Sheen coddles him so much, will he hit rock bottom before its too late?

Of course, he isn't the only celebrity who is resorting to drugs. Lindsay Lohan has been in and out of rehab many times over the past few years. Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson have recently died due to their drug addictions. How many more people need to die before agents or producers start making harsher consequences for celebrities?

I have never really been a big fan of award shows until my recent obsession with acting. I take that back. I was obsessed with teen award shows when I was, well, a teen. This was the first awards show that I DVR'd and watched from beginning to end.

To be completely honest, I was most excited about the fashion. I wish I could say I was more excited about the awards show, but I haven't seen 95% of the shows and movies that are nominated. Its hard to be like, "Oh yeah, I definitely agree with that win," or "WTF? That show/movie sucked!" Of course, any movie with Mark Wahlberg in it automatically has my vote. It has two of my votes if Christian Bale is in it too. I always think I am watching too much TV until I watch an award show and hear about all of the TV shows I have never seen or worse, have never heard of. Regardless, I am hugely biased against Glee or Twilight or anything hideously teenie-bopper terrible. Are people really so simple minded that movies or shows made for teens are far and away favorites?

Now, the fun part...a few of my favorite dresses:

Julianne Hough: Very Greek goddess. Ryan Seacrest did something right.

Eva Longoria: So simple, but so gorgeous. I wish I could rock curves like that.

Natalie Portman: That hump, That lovely baby bump

Worst dressed:

Angelina Jolie: What's with the shoulder pads? I was hoping we left the 80's in the 80's.

Anne Hathaway: Again with the shoulder pads

Helena Bonham Carter: Great actress, terrible dresser. You can get away with mismatched socks, but not shoes.

Jennifer Lopez: I liked the dress, but the shawl made her look more middle-aged than she is.

My favorite dress *drum roll*

Megan Fox: I'm not a huge fan of pink, but the pastel pink, the criss-crossing straps up top and a spritz of bling make this dress really beautiful.

Anyone else have any other favorites or glaring fashion faux pas?
Any thoughts on the award winners or who should have won?

I am a Mypoints.com member and have been happily for a couple of years, but recently they have been pissing me off.  For those of you who don't know what Mypoints.com is, it is a website through which you can do various activities or buy things online and earn points doing so. Once you have accumulated a certain number of points, you can redeem them for a gift card or you can donate them to one of the charities they support.

About a week before Thanksgiving, I redeemed my points for a $50 Express gift card. Now, they have had Express gift cards of other amounts, but not $50 until recently and I was holding out for it to become available. I cashed in the minute I saw it was available. They say on the website that it takes 3-6 weeks for the gift cards to arrive. Eight weeks (and much frustration) later, I finally received my gift card in the mail...well after all of the holiday sales. Thanks My Points!

I took my "winnings" and pranced right over to the nearest Express store. I try on a handful of dresses, take forever to make up my mind and finally decided on the dress of my dreams (it was the absolute last one in that store AND it was the perfect size...I never have that kinda luck) and another more casual spring dress. I stroll up to the register only to find out that my gift card is being declined due to a $0 balance. Keep in mind that I am a poor college student and don't exactly have $50 lying around to make the purchase anyways. I call the customer service people to find out that Express can't do anything for me until MyPoints can prove that they put money on the card. I put my precious dresses on hold and leave the store disappointed.

I called My Points twice when I got home just to have them tell me that the person that I need to talk to is "in a meeting" and "gone on lunch". I left my phone number and e-mail address only to receive not one, but ZERO emails or calls from this mystery person whom I need to talk to.

Ben called them today because frankly I was way past my boiling point with these people. It took them two weeks longer than they said it would take only for my card to not have any money on it anyways and now they are giving me the run around for their mistake. Not to mention that it took me like a year to accumulate enough points for a $50 gift card and I was afraid that I would be out all of the points and all of the money.  They tell him that they sent me an email with instructions. After re-checking my inbox and junk box, I state that I indeed did not receive any e-mail from them. They tell me that I have to mail my gift card back in so they can reload it with money and they will mail it back. Ben told them how disgusted I have been with their service thus far and how slow they have been and that I have dresses on hold. I kinda wanted to yell at them to overnight the card back to me.

Well, Ben and I went back to Express tonight as they were only going to hold the dresses until close tonight. We bought my dream dress and left the other one.

With any luck, I will have my gift card in time for 2011's holiday sales.

Welcome to the inaugural Famous Friday! In this section of my blog, I will be discussing different aspects of fame, some of which I will attempt to use as I strive for stardom myself. I always wanted to know how people went from nothing  to Kim Kardashian, so I will attempt to do it myself and write about it along the way. If all else fails, this section will at least be successful as a satire of fame.

To start, I will be discussing social media. More specifically, I will be discussing my use of them and my opinion of various social medias. I will also talk about how currently famous people use social media. I will go in chronological order starting with Myspace.

I had intended to update my blog daily while in vacation. I'm not sure if any of you have been to Las Vegas, but Las Vegas is different from any other vacation destination. While you are there, there is no time for anything, not even sleep. It is normal for Ben and I to actually sleep less on vacation than we do during a normal week, but our lack of sleep was a bit excessive the past couple of days. And let's not forget the travel excitement that marked the end of our trip.

We got into Vegas late Wednesday night. We spent our first three nights at the Mirage, where we lost a bunch of money. The last two nights we spent at New York New York where we also lost a lot of money. What amazes me about the hotels and casinos is how much detail they put into the architecture and decorations. They spare no expense to have the fanciest or coolest or grandest hotel. Aria is one of the newest casinos and is really gorgeous and modern. The Wynn and Encore are also fairly new and also have a very fancy and high end feel. Places like New York New York and Paris put a lot of detail in the architecture to make it feel like you are walking through New York or Paris. Other casinos that spend a great deal of money on expensive details include Caesar's Palace, Bellagio, the Venetion and Palazzo. The Luxor and MGM bring in the cool factor with the pyramid structure that is synonymous with the Luxor and the giant lion enclosure that is located within MGM's casino.

Another aspect of Vegas that I enjoyed very much is the shopping. The casinos like to keep your hopes high by placing many high end designer shops within the casino. I didn't spend much as we wanted to save our money for gambling, but it was nice to dream.

Unlike The Hangover, we survived Vegas. We successfully limited our booze intact. We survived the bombardment of "Girls of Las Vegas" trading card hand outs. We walked miles a day without serious injury.

Each night, we spent some time hanging out with Ben's friends playing slot machines. We won some. We lost some. We laughed a lot! We all went out to eat to Samba, a Brazilian BBQ restaurant, on Saturday night. It was the first time I have ever been to a Brazilian BBQ. I highly recommend it if its time for a splurge day in your diet. I do not recommend it if you are vegetarian.

On Saturday night, Ben and I went to my first ever fashion show. It was only about 15 minutes long and wasn't quite as exciting as we thought it was going to be. We were told it would show clothes that contained multi-colored and/or blinking lights in them that illuminate with body movement. In some clothes, the lights pulsate to the rhythm of music or sound. Two outfits were part of the new lighting line. The other outfits were standard clothing while the models carried hi tech objects such as iPhones. Following the fashion show, we went to the Xbox party where Benny played poker with Shannon Elizabeth. He literally talked her ear off. I'm sure he'll be posting pictures on his blog soon enough.

During the entirety of our trip, I really wanted to see Peepshow starring Holly Madison. I live and breath the original Girls Gone Wild. I am addicted to Holly's World and Kendra and never miss an episode. I have never met the girls in person, but I feel like we are BFF's. As the weekend began to draw to a close, I grew disappointed as we were running out of money and we had not yet gone to the show. At $56 for the cheapest ticket, it did not look like we would be able to go. When I had finally given up hope on being able to go to the show, we found out about a deal where we could buy tickets for $30 a piece if we took a tour and listened to a presentation about buying a time share in Vegas. They are amazingly gorgeous condos and may be a possibility in the future. Better yet, I got to see Holly! The show is about how Holly's character (Bo) can't find love. One night, she falls asleep and wakes up in a Peepshow fairy tale land. The Peep diva is trying to get  Bo to break out of her shell and be a little bit more "naughty" in her love life. She does this by taking her through a series of fairy tales. The characters in the stories strip, pole dance and sing remixed pop songs. In the end, Bo finds a man and even dances and strips herself. It was very Vegas-esqe.Overall, it was a really great show and I am so happy that I could go.

We were scheduled to leave early Monday morning. We wake up, check out of the hotel and arrive at the airport only to find out that our flight had been canceled due to weather in Atlanta. They tell us that we will not be able to fly out until Thursday at the earliest. They also told us that they could not refund us for our flight and that we may be able to receive credit towards a future flight, but that is not a guarantee. Also, due to the economy, they wouldn't transfer us to a flight with a different airline. To make matters worse, we did not have enough money to buy tickets for another flight or stay at a hotel three more nights. Fortunately, JetBlue had a direct flight to Boston late that night. My parents saved us and lent us money to buy the tickets home.

So we had 15 more hours in Las Vegas with very little money. We spent that time walking up and down the Strip going into each casino to say we have been to them all. Then I remembered that my cousin, Nicole, whom I hadn't seen in about a year and a half was in town. She works with Disney on Ice and they had just arrived for a couple of shows. We met up with her and talked and walked for a couple of hours. Then we went to a casino to watch some of the BCS championship game before she had to head back to her hotel. So in a sense, it was nice that our flight was canceled so I could spend some time with family.

And now, the best part. The pictures!

Wynn and Encore

The Venetian

Sugar Mountains

Mirage lobby

Bellagio lobby ceiling

Caesar's Palace

Bellagio Fountains