2005-01-04 - 3:15 p.m.

New Years in Vegas was better than I ever could have imagined. Dean and I arrived at the Mirage on the 30th late in the night, and had some of the hottest sex of my life -- I guess the tension had been building since we'd just spent a week with his family and getting it on in the family home can feel wonky. We were going to go out and gamble after that, but after such a hot encounter, we were wiped out!

On New Year's Eve, we were just waking up when La arrived - and then the 3 of us went exploring. This is one of my favorite things to do in Vegas - wander around and check out the architecture. We went to the Venetian, a hotel I had not been to before, and now it is one of my favorites. They actually have a river with gondalas running right through the building! And the gondola drivers sang in Italian - So beautiful! I would really love to go to Venice forreal someday.

We then went back to our hotel room and commenced the drinking. This went on for about 3 hours, and during that time Tom arrived. Then the 4 of us went out to party in the streets and trek to the Tropicana to meet up with Tom's friends.

Outside, the strip was like Mardi Gras (with plenty of beads but no boobs!) Everyone was in a terrific mood -- There was such a postitive vibe to the crowd, I was so surprised and pleased. We made our way down to the Tropicana, giving out beads and noise makers and wishing everyone a Happy New Year - The crowd was definitely celebrating, thickening, and full of expectation!

We made it to the Tropicana about 2 minutes until Midnight - When the clock struck midnight, the crowd went wild, fireworks went off, and there was lots of kissing! We thought this would be the peak of the night, and if it had been, it still would have been a fabulous new years, but little did we know how great things would become . . .

Inside the Tropicana Dean and Tom did some gambling, and I'm glad they did then because we didn't end up getting another chance. La and I didn't have any money, and we wanted to catch up with each other anyway, so we hung out in the ladies lounge for a bit before rejoining the guys, then we all went upstairs to meet Tom's friends.

Tom's friends were really friendly, fun, and as it turned out, they were burning man people. They offered us some magic fungi and Dean and I took them up on it! Tom did E. Larissa didn't add anything to her evening, but she was such fun and stayed up all night partying with us anyway!

So then we were tripping down the strip, looking at the lights, vibing on the start of a great new year, on how beautiful the lights were, on what good friends we have in each other - it was just the best place to be! The excersize of the walk also felt really great --

When we got back to the Mirage, we hung out in the hotel room, ordered room service, giggled, listened to oldies on the radio, just had the best time!
Dean gave me pink furry boots for Christmas, and we brought comic books and mini cocktail mermaids with us, so we all had alot to have fun with. Dean was hilarious and sweet and great to trip with as usual - and he was so beautiful with rainbows in his hair.

Tom and La hit it off as friends and they ended up vibing with each other too, which is how it oughta be on new years. (La called Tom her Koala the next day and that cracked me up)

New Years Day we went to Quark's bar in the Las Vegas Hilton, as is our New Year's tradition, and there was a Star Trek wedding happening and so the bar was full of people in Star Trek uniforms like the one I was wearing! Hip hip hooray! We played with the replicators and geeked out and felt great.

Then we dropped Tom off and drove 6 hours back to LA, which was an uneventful trip, a nice rest after all the excitement.

We dropped Larissa off in LA and were headed home, but then Dean and I popped in at Leslie & Chrissy's and they invited us to stay the night -- and so it was that I got to see ALL of my best friends on New Years Day!! It was the best New Years Ever!!

I have to say that I particularly appreciated the opportunity to get to know Tom, He was so complimentary to me and so positive towards me the whole night, I really felt like he considered me a friend -- so this whole Christmas break, and move to Santa Cruz, has been so touching to me as all of Dean's friends and family have let me in to their lives and made me feel so welcome - It is such a good feeling.

I cannot recommend a better time for what we did than New Years -- It was just such a charge -- Dean compares it to refilling your "Manna" like when you play a video game, and that's also what it feels like to me, being spiritually re-charged, an opportunity to energize oneself with positivity and rainbows, and a great chance to drop unhealthy habits (like smoking! I haven't smoked since New Years because I tripped out a bit on all the smoke in Vegas)

On the way back from LA, Dean and I listened to Coast to Coast AM, and it was an exciting night of Open lines -- one caller from the International line said that he was immortal, and that the reason Yushenko (sp?) in the Ukraine was poisoned was that the European Union was trying to expose or kill all of the immortals in the world, of which there are a few, and the poison was meant to expose Yushenko as immortal because anyone else should have DIED. - Of course this may not be true, but it's something very interesting to note, and worth investigating.

I also heard of EVP for the first time, which is the process of electronically recording white noise or blank air and playing back the tape to reveal speaking from people "on the other side", "beyond the grave" etc. It's just one more method of communication with people in the afterlife, but I hadn't heard of it before, and I looked into it a bit today and it turns out that it is a very real phenomenon, another way for people who have died to communicate with the living, which leads to deeper questions about what happens to us after we die . . . I love this stuff!

Anyway, I'm just in the best mood about the new year -- and everyone around me has been treating me so positively, I just feel like my mission in life for this year and beyond is to spread positivity and joy and love as much as possible - and I am so excited by having Fridays off this year and having the opportunity to write and make all of my dreams come true. On top of all of that, Dean just makes every day a blissful one for me --

It is so exciting to look ahead to this year knowing that everything is already in motion for me, everything is already happening, I am already happy, I am already with Dean, I have no harsh roads ahead (except being there for my Dad) nothing ahead but a year of doing whatever I please -- and that leaves me feeling so creative!

2005 will be the year that I make art!!

Ok, I'm off work now, and I'm off to buy the rainbow striped wool scarf that matches my rainbow striped knit cap! You really should see me in this hat - it is so *me* . (I love it so much that I wore it when Dean and I made love/lust yesterday)