Spring in Las Vegas

The plum tree is beginning to bloom, and I noticed the birds are back in a big way. Everything around here has the feel of spring to it. I finally got my hummingbird feeder back up, and I've had a few visitors.

A couple of weeks ago, we got surprise visitors. With the weather now warm enough to barbeque, my son and brother-in-law went outside one night to fire up the grill. They opened the lid and found two rats. (Cue the screaming and horror music.) I was glad they didn't have the gas turned on because they were ready to make flaming rats. Now we're keeping the grill cleaned up more diligently. Rats in Las Vegas! Who would have ever imagined.

But enough about that... I'd rather think about the beauty of a Las Vegas spring. It's so much nicer than flaming rodents.

_____________

My photo of my neighborhood.

Las Vegas Tells 2009 Good-Bye

Some years you savor the memories of the previous twelve months, and some years you're just glad for the hope a new year brings. For Las Vegas, 2009 falls in the latter category.

The economy shocked everyone in Las Vegas with its record-breaking drop in 2009. I hesitated to write about my own experiences until I realized I was far, far from being the only one. My wish for 2010 is that I won’t feel compelled to speak out about any collective financial hardships. For all those who were steamrolled by the economic collapse in Southern Nevada, I raise my glass with you to toast the end of 2009. Let’s look forward to better times in the new year.

What does 2010 hold for Las Vegas? Unfortunately, my crystal ball is in for repairs. I hope we’ll see a steady turn-around in the economy—more jobs, a rise in home values (hey, I’m an optimist), and a resurrection of our once-vibrant construction industry.

Tonight, Las Vegas does what she does best: put on a spectacular show. The Strip’s hotels will entertain the crowds with an awesome roof-top display of fireworks, and hundreds of thousands of revelers will celebrate in the street below. I believe New Year’s Eve on the Strip is evidence that while Las Vegas may be down, she’s not out.

Happy New Year, Las Vegas!
______________________
Image courtesy of Billy Alexander at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1245823

Las Vegas Hummingbirds: Unconcerned About Foreclosures

I went through my clippings file today, looking for something positive and uplifting to write about Las Vegas. The best thing I found was an article about a new History Channel reality show, “Pawn Stars,” set at Gold & Silver Pawn down on the Strip. Not exactly what I was looking for. I went over to Google, and found nothing but a collection of doom and gloom. Sigh. Around my house, I don’t need an extra dose of information about everything that is wrong with Las Vegas these days.

When I’m overwhelmed with stories about unemployment, foreclosures, and all the other associated ills of our city, I do my best to look for something positive. On the social networking sites, it’s heartening to see so many Vegas businesses getting creative in their search for customers. Khoury’s Fine Wines and the Las Vegas Hilton are spreading the word about their events through Twitter (both have events tomorrow). I recently found Duck Creek Studios through Facebook. If necessity is the mother of invention, those of us who are sticking around Las Vegas should get an award for innovation.

Sometimes the best way to find good news about Las Vegas is to avoid the news altogether. I like to sit in my backyard and watch the hummingbirds. They don’t care about any aspect of our current economic meltdown. They just want me to keep their feeder full of food and free of ants. In return, they give me something beautiful and inspiring to watch. I'd say that's a pretty fair trade.
___________
My pictures of the hummingbirds at my feeder.

The Vegas Girl’s Guide to Drinking

When you’ve lived in Las Vegas your entire life, you eventually learn that the things you accept as normal are often scandalous to people from the blander cities of our great nation. Billboards featuring mostly naked women don’t even register for me, but to a great many letter-to-the-editor writers who moved here from, say, Minnesota, a bare cellulite-free butt is very offensive. Another scandalous-to-others category is drinking, as in adult beverages. If you’ve just moved here from a more sedate state, please let me give you a native’s guide to what’s acceptable in Las Vegas.

Is it noon? Is it noon somewhere on the planet? Yes? Good. Are you working or driving? Responsible for explosives? No? Then you have permission to begin drinking. If you must begin drinking before noon (local time), a mimosa or a Bloody Mary (or a couple, depending upon the crowd) is perfectly acceptable. Downing shots of tequila with your brunch is frowned upon, unless you’re a night worker who has just gotten off shift. In Las Vegas, some people have worked all night and are ready for their daily quota of strong and highly alcoholic beverages at the same time other people are eating bacon and eggs. In our city, this is an acceptable loophole in the official drinking guidelines (which you only receive after living here more than thirty years, so don’t ask because you can’t see them). Also, during the holidays, a nice splash of Bailey’s or Kaluha in your coffee is allowed, as long as you’re not fixing your coffee for the morning commute to work (and as long as “splash” does not really mean “three shots.”)

So, what about the rest of the day? Well, are you having a meal?  Yes? Of course you may drink! (We're not talking about a meal break at work, by the way, tsk tsk!) In Las Vegas, any meal increases the alcohol-consumption acceptability quotient. "Meal," by the way, might be defined in several ways. Is there food available in the general vicinity that might be eaten? Yes? Then you've met the "meal" requirement. And a nice glass of Merlot goes with almost anything and is allegedly good for you. Of course, if you've already indulged in two or more mimosas/Bloody Marys (refer to the section above on whether it's noon or not), then you must subtract points and adjust your drinking downward. The Vegas Girl recommends a non-alcoholic beverage at this point, actually, unless there are extenuating circumstances (death, divorce, etc., in which case disregard everything I’ve said here and drink at will). If you are in the tequila-swilling group that worked all night, you won’t need to worry about the rest of the day because you will be asleep.

During the afternoon and evening, you’re on your own. It’s Las Vegas, after all, and we’ve got booze and slot machines at every corner. Does this mean that Las Vegans drink all day long? No, although I must confess I’ve known several who did. What it means is that if you’ve just moved here from some staid place and you’re shocked to see your Las Vegan neighbor drinking a beer at 3:00 in the afternoon on a Saturday, you’re likely to be shocked quite a lot. Really, though, if you’re shocked by anything, Las Vegas probably isn't for you.
_______________
Picture courtesy of Roger Kirby at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/812039

Keeping Those Vegas Vibes Positive

Finding positive things to write about Las Vegas these days requires concentration. Here are a few of the topics I considered for posts and then discarded as too dreary and depressing: “Dear Credit Card Companies: We Hate You, Too”; “The Bill Collector’s New Approach: Just Don’t Speak English”; and “CraigsList Las Vegas: The Scammers are Alive and Well.”

Before you conclude that the Vegas Girl is steps away from a tent on Foremaster Lane, let me assure you that’s not the case. I don’t actually hate all credit card companies, only the ones who have decided to penalize their best customers before those customers are even late with a payment. I don’t have any bill collectors after me personally, but I had to pitch a huge fit (on paper) to get one of them to understand that the person they were looking for is dead. (Which really hinders your ability to return phone calls and repay bills, by the way.) And the back-and-forth exchanges on CraigsList Las Vegas between unscrupulous would-be employers/scammers and ticked off job seekers can be entertaining.

What’s the good news around Las Vegas? Well, if you believe the growing trickle of we’ve-hit-the-bottom stories, that’s actually a good place to start. Buyers who have funds can get terrific deals on houses; heck, anyone who’s got cash or available credit can get incredible prices on just about anything these days. If we’re sliding backwards in terms of population, does that mean less ugly traffic? Since so much commercial space is open, can we get a Cracker Barrel Restaurant in town so I don’t have to drive to Utah? I admit these are very small points within a larger picture that still needs much improvement. But since we’ve got to start someplace, pick something: Shorter lines at almost every store. Vegetable gardens coming into vogue. Sunny weather. Come on, you can do it. Get your Vegas Vibe back on track.
___________
Illustration courtesy of jaylopez at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1108723

Las Vegas Twitters

Have you discovered Twitter? Good grief, it's addicting and frustrating, all at the same time! It's the new micro-blogging phenomenon that kept me up late last night figuring it out.

Here's the idea. You create an account and then search by whatever trips your trigger--Las Vegas, politics, gossip, pets, whatever. Other micro-bloggers (twitterers?) who match your keywords will appear. The big names are in on this--you'll find CNN, The New York Times, etc. Once you find a twitteree (I know I'm slaughtering the Twitter-ese here, but I'm still learning) you click on the "Follow" button under that person's name. Now when you go to your home page, you see all of the bloglettes you are following in one continuous list.

Why Twitter? It's a quick way to get updates on a huge variety of topics, for one. If you are promoting anything, Twitter allows you to broadcast to large numbers of people simultaneously after you've become twitter-rich with followers. If you have a blog, Twitter's gadgets enable you to create your own little sidebar news-feed with your Twitter posts. Twitter subscribers can also opt for updates on their mobile devices, with the Twitter-limited posts of 140 characters arriving via text message.

The only problem, as far as I can see, is that it's habit-forming and has a bit of a learning curve. Twitter-addiction is next. With Twitteranon following soon after, I'm sure.

Spring in Las Vegas

Today has turned out to be a beautiful spring day here in Las Vegas, as you can see from these pictures taken in my backyard. I’m not sure what kind of bird this yellow fellow is (I think he’s a finch). He was busily snatching the blossoms from the plum tree, eating whatever it is he likes, then letting the pink and maroon petals swirl to the ground.

The lovely day helps make up for the fact that I didn’t make the Hamilton Island shortlist (See “The Aussie Job,” below). Now, all hope is not lost. One lucky person out of the 33,000+ who didn’t make the first cut will get a Wild Card spot based on votes received on the website. Here’s my link:

http://www.islandreefjob.com/#/applicants/watch/D8rOg45_hig

While you’re there, check out the short-listed applicants’ videos. I like my video, and I know I’d do a wonderful job for those nice Australians, but I must say that the 50 people they picked were pretty dang impressive.

I think I’ll go out and enjoy this amazing spring day.

Under Construction

Like many streets in Las Vegas, the Vegas Girl is under construction. I’ve re-designed the blog’s look so you can cruise thru categories (aka labels)—just scroll down and check on the right hand side of your screen. I’ll be adding more features, including links to other Vegas-based blogs, in the weeks to come.
_________________
Photo Information: Photo courtesy of Zern Liew at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/800090

Christmas in Las Vegas

Christmas in Las Vegas
Is the weirdest time of year.
You see Elvis in a Santa suit
And the elves are drinking beer.

Christmas in Las Vegas
Is only the opening act.
New Year’s Eve gets top billing
Booze and fireworks—THAT’s where we’re at.

Christmas in Las Vegas
Is unlikely to be white with snow.
But we’ve got neon lighting up Santa’s sleigh
And making Rudolph’s nose glow.

Happy Holidays!
_______________________
Photo courtesy of Chad Mathews at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/545561

Phone Scams Are Alive and Well

Last month I heard from my friend Valerie that she’d been taken in by a phone scam run by inmates. In her case, she was thrown off guard by someone claiming a loved one had been injured in an accident; read the articles below to check out the other common stories and tactics used to perpetrate this scam:

From ConsumerAffairs.com, “Arkansas Warns of Prison Phone Scam” at
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/03/prison_scam.html

From SNOPES, “Call Forwarding Scam” at
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/forward.asp
___________
Photo courtesy of Jay Simmons at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/864770

The Vegas Girl Confuses Google

Poor Google. When I signed up for their ad-generating program, Adsense, I felt certain that the title of my blog pretty much explained the content. If you don't know, the principle behind Adsense is that it examines your site and generates ads relevant to your content. I thought it would be a no-brainer (if we can even use that cliche in reference to some behemoth computing system) for anyone to deduce that I write about Las Vegas. What other city could I be writing about with a title like "Vegas Girl"? Events in Las Vegas, news in Las Vegas, and people in Las Vegas - I thought all those occurrences of "Las Vegas" in titles and posts would supply all the information that the automated, ad-generating gizmos needed. I was wrong. Today, my site is running ads for volunteers in Honduras, gun training, and personality tests. Not that anything is wrong with any of these things, and who knows, maybe loads of my blog readers have been waiting for more information on acupuncture and self defense. Can it be that even the automated web crawlers cannot compute "intelligent commentary" in conjunction with "Las Vegas"? That seems to be a problem no matter if you are machine or human.

__________________

Photo courtesy of Yaroos Konkret at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/669432

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone as we sail into 2008! The Vegas Girl has been on "vacation," but I'm back this week. The Christmas holidays slammed into me like a head-on collision on a two-lane moutain road, but I'm in recovery now. Now that we're officially past the season of joy, I'm happy to be back to sifting through my pile of clippings and personal notes. Check back with me tomorrow for a tribute to my old boss, Odis Willis, who recently passed away. Later this week I'll have a post on homeschooling in Las Vegas, since I recently jumped ship from the school district. Unless you have $10,000.00 a year for a private school, your options are limited.

Here's to a 2008 that sees stabalizing home values, gas prices that don't make us faint, and a drought-ending snowpack in the Rockies. Hey, what can I say - I think big!