Retro Vegas and Animals with German Accents

The Vegas trip in December was great – but it must have really been good beside I decided to go back last night with all of my girl friends from high school. It was a pretty amazing job considering who was there and the last times that I have seen most of them before this:

· Amy was the one I thought would absolutely positively be around forever, but just a few months after a really emotional holiday together where I was so glad we could still talk like that, she stopped talking to me when I told her that Noland and I were getting married, so it’s been three years since we’ve exchanged more than a polite greeting card.
· Beth and I remained great friends spending much time together when I was home for the summers during college right until graduation – but once I moved back to Des Moines to find a real job after that graduation summer I don’t think I ever saw her again.
· Tami and I had a great time at our 10-year reunion (more than 7 years ago now) but that was the last time I’d seen her after we drifted apart sometime during our college years.
· Neither Rebecca nor Stephanie was at that reunion – there have been occasional emails or random bumping into when visiting our folks over the holidays – but we began our drifting apart process once we were off at college so the visits were few and far between.
· The other Amy was part of a grand in-fighting drama and a bit of an exile from our group just before graduating high school.
· Robin, Tanya and LaNelle were part of ‘the love bunch’ as we were known – but a bit more on the periphery – although I did enjoy catching up with Robin a bit at that reunion.

So needless to say, the 10 if us getting together in Vegas was a pretty amazing feat! The weirdest thing was that other than my Amy – I’d been to Vegas with all of them in the past at some point. Unfortunately we didn’t get to go very far or do very much. As we were standing around gathering everyone up just gabbing, someone noticed that I had weird spots on my skirt. Looked up and they were all over my shirt as well. Oh, and hey, there was blood running down the side of my head from just above my ear. And for it to have traveled all the way down my whole body like it did it had been flowing for a while – so off to the emergency room we go.

So when I wake up, I’m at home resting and the dogs are totally freaking out in the back. I get up to check on them and of course they have no water or food, so I feed them and water them and toss the ball a bit. But they are still just going nuts at something. I look around and don’t see anything, so I go back inside. A day later I go out and check things again – this time I see it – and while I didn’t see it before I know it was there. A big shiny gold birdcage with this tiny little yellow and white bird inside. I think I should get the bird some water and some food so I go back in to do so, but somehow get distracted and don’t get back out again until the next day. By the time I get over there, the bird is just laying down in the cage – it looks like it might still be breathing, so I toss in some breadcrumbs and try to figure out how to pour water into this tiny little container that seems to be the water dish – when the bird nibbles on the bread – and just pops right up. It’s asking me – not talking, but somehow I know it’s asking – for water. But I just cannot seem to get anything into that tiny dish. So I open the door of the cage to let the bird out to drink from the pitcher I’m holding – which it does.

Now this is where things get a bit sketchy. Not only does it take a drink of water. But then it proceeds to transform into a human being – and dude – he was pissed that we’d left him in the backyard with the dogs, no food and no water for so long. I think that must have been when I decided that I was out of there.