5/28/09 This lesson is done.

SO the second reason I am grateful my trip got completely upended was because on the morning of the 28th I was with my friend Ria when she went to court.
Ria had a stalker. It was a guy who asked her out and she went on like 2 dates with him, got bad vibes and said "no thanks". He persisted in contacting her and harassing her so she pursued a restraining order through the courts, and when she got a temporary restraining order he backed off..... until it lapsed. Then there was more e-mails and letters. So Miss Ria finally asked for more help. She got a lawyer and asked if her friends would help her cover the legal fees. http://riamegnin.chipin.com/anti-stalker-legal-fees She was kind of amazed at how many people donated.

I had been planning to arrive on the 28th just in the afternoon after court. It kind of gave her something to look forward to.
But Miss Ria was still scared.

Ria is over 6 feet tall and has a black belt in a martial art. I've seen the video of her blackbelt test in which she disarms people with various styles of weapons. but somehow this man and this process made her afraid. Recently I spoke with one of our friends who was expressing his amazement that anything could make Miss Ria afraid because she is such an impressive person in so many ways. However I think everyone has that space of doubt and insecurity, and when someone else goes to the personal place and they prey on that insecurity and doubt, it can make it harder to find that center and hold ones ground.

I'm 5'5" on a good day. I'm in slightly better shape from yoga and bellydancing, but physically I'm not exactly intimidating to anyone.
However when it comes to my friends I am fierce. I have known Ria for almost 13 years. We lived together for a year in college, and so whenever my dear friend loses sight of who she is, and what her strength and heart make her capable of, I'm a very good reminder, or as Ria has said it's more like a swift kick in the butt reminder.
Besides I had let it be known that whatever lesson the universe was trying to teach my dear friend through this man's crazy actions was done. So if I had to show up and be the support in person... so be it.

Ria's friend Kate was there for court too. She'd helped Ria deal with court days multiple times before. This is Kate.
She and Ria have been supporting each other all year through their own various challenges. I'm so glad Miss Ria and Kate have had each other for support.
We both gave Miss Ria as much support as we could before going into the court, and once in the court she sat in front of me and I literally had my hands on her back until the case was called up front.
Ria's laywer was very good, very precise. It is always nice to watch someone who is good at what they do and does it for the right reasons. Ria's was the first case. the restraining order was granted for three years, with relative ease. There is a possibility he will ask to make it shorter, but that will be an issue for another day.

At the end I wanted to walk up and look that man in the eye. I wanted to give him the serious look I get when a person has really crossed me and tell him "no more" and tell him in person this was done.
But the laywer had done her job, and ours was to leave, and go have breakfast at a diner in celebration and support of Ria.
Ria said she felt empowered. I am very glad.
We went back to Ria's after brunch, hung out a bit with Kate took some deep breaths, let things out, talked about stuff and things and then and took a few pictures.


(tired Liz picture, but also good Keira the cat picture)

Then Kate had to go, so Ria and I wandered to the pond that is right near her house.
They have paddle boats there. Ria in all her years of living there had never been on those paddle boats. We decided to remedy that, and had a lovely ride around in the paddleboat.

We spent that evening at the movie Wolverine. Ria the writer wanted to rewrite the whole thing, but I figure after a stressful morning, action eye candy without much plot is just fine.
What I remember most though is the conversation we had on the way home.
Ria and I typically have good conversations, this one was again about angels.

I think this was the night Ria made the really good food, but it might have been the night before. I can't remember. I just remember that I wasn't really hungry but then the stuff she made was so good (and reasonably healthy) that I had to try it. nummy.
It was a good day, and like I said before it me being with my Ria that morning was EXACTLY where I was supposed to be.

5/27/09 The shaping of a new adventure

Wednesday morning I woke up early to go to the UPS store and use internet there. I still needed time to process, and think about what had happened a little. I took the shuttle to the store and spent a good two hours there writing and checking internet andsorting things out for myself. My parents and I were planning on taking a cab back to the airport around 10 so I was doing my best to get back before 9:30. I got off the shuttle and realized I would be a little later than expected so I went to call them and realized my phone was gone. Also in those two minutes searching through my purse I realized I didn't have my camera card or the reader that allows me to put it in a USB port. Not having the phone was bad, but the thought of not having my pictures made me want to cry. I couldn't figure out if I had dropped my phone on the monorail, but I figured I had left my picture reader hooked up to the computer at the UPS store.
I think I managed not to be hysterical and my parents were just like "hey we will go back to the store in the cab on the way and you can run and check."
We had a really good cab driver who was incredibly nice, and spoke about how some cabbies will be rude to people, but he thought in his job you get to see a lot and you should enjoy it and the people. I think it's a good theory.
I beleive his name was Johnny Kako, and if you are in Vegas, see if you can get his cab. Listening to someone who enjoyed his job made me calm down. Then when I got to the UPS store the girl there too one look at me and handed me both my picture card reader with card inserted, and my phone. She said she saw that I left the reader connected, and then saw that the phone had fallen under the chair. SO i got both back, and was incredibly relieved and grateful.
Even more grateful because if I hadn't dropped my phone I might not have realized I had lost my picture card & reader until it was too late.
Sometimes things work out really well for me in ways that are completely unexpected.

At the airport I talked with my mom more. Over the course of our vegas trip she had told me some things about herself that I didn't know, or didn't fully realize the impact of certain things on her. I want to say this in a way that is respectful to my mom's privacy, but it is also a really important part of the story for me. My mom has had seizures do to medical issues, and they have caused her to lose long term memories.
I have had this lingering feeling that mom doesn't really know who I am, and what is important to me. For a long time it made me frustrated, and at times it made me sad, but ultimately I figured it was just a holdover feeling from adolescence.
It's not.
My mom doesn't remember my life growing up.
She doesn't know who I am because she doesn't have the context I expect her to have without those memories. She didn't know whether or not she was a good mom, and she didn't know how much I can handle things because she doesn't have those memories. She worries a lot about me anyways, so mostly she has just been responding from worry.
It's sweet and it's sad and it gives things a whole new perspective.
But what my mom said at the airport is that, seeing me deal with everything that happened to mess up my trip impressed her and made her understand how well I deal with things. She also said the trip gave her a chance to really see me more, and understand more of who I am. This is the thing I am most grateful for out of the whole trip. If I had to have two of my friends essentially bail on me when I was flying out to see them to get this, it was totally worth it.
My parents flight left about an hour before mine.
I had time to wander around the airport and grab a sandwich before getting on my flight to San Fran.
I flew on Virgin.
I believe Virgin is more expensive on cross country flights because it is direct, but if you can get a short cheap flight on Virgin or if you have enough money so you don't care FLY VIRGIN.
the guy at the Vegas flight desk was hilarious. The flight attendants were nice. They sold headphones that go over your ears instead of ear buds which I prefer headphones 1000 times more, and they have this things in the seat in front of you.
They call it red. It allows you to order sandwiches from flight attendants, allows you to personalize your TV and movie watching with a certain selection free and a cetain selection paid movies. THEY HAVE FREE VIDEO GAMES (they are old school and simple, but they are built into the seat in front of you.). They also have a good selection of the Virgin music catalog programmed into the Red system.
I spent the first part of the flight playing majong, then I got the headphones and started making a playlist. I didn't get even halfway through the playlist before we touched down. I could totally lfy Virgin across the country and be completely comfortable and distracted and not even notice I was on a plane. The only thing they could fix is I couldn't figure out how to listen to music and pay video games at the same time. Oh and by the sumemr they are planning on having internet.

When I touched down in San Fran I felt like it was exactly where I was supposed to be. I felt light. I know I was probably made happier by my flight on Virgin, but it was more than that. It felt right.

Ria had arranged for a shuttle to take me to Monterey because she didn't feel up to the drive. I met a woman there who teaches at Esalen. She was just coming back to the country after doing a workshop i beleive in Bali. She was a very nice woman with a lot of wisdom. When I looked her up online this is what I found. http://www.movingventures.org/
It's her company, and it gives a good description of the good she has been doing there.

We had a good conversation about culture and people, and she gave me two practical pieces of advice, one of which I used on the trip, and one of which I will use in the future as the need arises. The first practical piece of advice is when traveling by plane wrap breakables in a good bit of fabric. The other of which is to as much as possible when looking to fly somewhere deal directly with airlines and try and find someone who is feeling helpful to check into tickets, because you might get a good deal.

The ride was peaceful. After the conversation died down I read and felt calm and good. Ria picked me up and then she had to go almost directly to a women's group she is involved in. Her group is a closed group because women are processing more personal issues, but I was just as happy to sit on Miss Ria's bed and go online and rest and relax.
I ended up calling my friend Meg (See Michigan from last year's trip) at one point and we talked for I think hours.
I made friend's with Ria's cat Kiera, so much so that the usually skittish kitty was all over me by the end of the night.
Ria came back, I think made late night good food and we talked and then crashed.
I was VERY glad to be at Ria's.

5/26/09 Liz's surprise extra vegas day.

So Tuesday was my surprise extra vegas day. I had brekfast with my parents and then since i had a surprise extra vegas day I decided I would see a show.
I really enjoy Cirque du Soleil, and I've only ever seen them once in person, so they my first choice. I wandered to the half price tickets place and got tickets for Mystere which is the Cirque show that has been running the longest on the strip.
After getting the tickets I spent the rest of the day walking the strip back to TI where the show was and seeing hotels I hadn't seen prior to that.
I went to the Bellagio.
This is the ceiling inside the lobby.
The Bellagio also won my heart over with a giant sunflower ferris wheel. I did not go on, but admired it from afar. On the other side of this garden were some indoor hot air balloon replicas. However the main reason I went to the Bellagio was I heard they had a chocolate waterfall. Again visions of Charlie and the Chocolate factory sprang to my head. It was not quite that grand, but still mass quantities of dripping chocolate is quite a sight to see.
From their I wandered back up the strip seeing some rather unsurprising vegas sights
Like statues commemerating Sigfriend and Roy, and some unexpected
This little mediation shrine to Brahma I believe was in between the Bellagio and Ceasars palace as one was walking. I stopped to look and meditate for a moment.
It was quite unexpected in a town where there are certain sections where the street is littered with cards with women topless. Vegas has a lot of variety and I think they are still working on making it work.
Oh and on Tuesday President Obama was in town. He was giving a speech at the convention center, and people were commenting on how Vegas had been hurt by the presidents comments about CEO's taking flights to Vegas on private jets. I would have loved to have seen the president, but I was too busy trying to get to Cirque du Soleil. Still I had to walk through protesters. Primarily they were protesting Harry Reid, and Democrats in general, but there was some Obama protesting as well.
I walked by TV crews near the protestors. They weren't especially rowdy protesters, and I figure wherever the president goes there are probably protestors. Most were upset about the ecomnomy, which I can understand, but personally I think it is a little early for the railing against what Obama has done, as at the time it hadn't even been 6 months in, and the problem is kind of enourmous. However I appreciate people exercising free speech even when I don't agree with them.

I have no pictures from Mystere. Cameras were not allowed. It was a good show, but I was a little wanr out and I think nodded off into my own dreamland a couple of times. On the way back I got to see the Mirage's "volcano" show which is fire and water and lights every hour at night.
I pretty much crashed when I got back as walking the Vegas strip made for a long day.