Tis the Season.... to be stabby

I generally do everything I can to avoid Black Friday shopping because people are crappy, and the traffic is crappy, and even though the deals are great, there is nothing that really makes me more stabby than standing in an hour long line to be told something along the lines of:

"We just sold out."
"I realize you purchased this online and selected store pickup, but we failed to do this for you. Whoops my bad. So, we're out. Anything else I can get you?"
"I'm sorry, I can't actually help you with this issue, but did you find anything you wanted while you were waiting upwards of an hour for my attention?"

Or the inevitable bitching that comes from other stabby people around me during the Christmas shopping season. You know the ones.... the ones that stand behind you in line and bitch about you and everyone else in a tone that you can hear them in, but they think you can't. (Read: hypocrisy. I, apparently, am the only person allowed to be stabby in retail stores this time of year.)

Since I try to avoid Black Friday shopping, it's only fitting that I've been out shopping every day this holiday weekend. True, I got good deals. And I managed to hit up stores that either are in a not-so-busy location, or early enough to beat people. Matt and I have a good amount of our Christmas shopping done, or we have an idea of what to get those that are left, with only a few stragglers. Which is nice, since there are, clearly, more important things for us to do this month.

Like, our anniversary!

December 4th is our special day, and so on this Friday we will head out to Las Vegas to celebrate in Sin City together. Since we "live in sin" and all, this is appropriate.

Matt has never been to Vegas, and I LOVE Vegas, so we are both very excited. Along with the fact that we get to spend 5 days alone together without the worry of work, school, or errands. That makes me happy. Sometimes it seems that both our lives get so busy and we don't ever get to see each other outside of the few hours that we are home before bedtime.

PS: It's gonna be freaking cold in Vegas while we are there.
PPS: It's also the Rock 'n Roll Marathon. Which means an extra 30,000 people on the strip. Yay?

We will be staying at Treasure Island, which I've never stayed at, and has been recently renovated (I think?). It's in the center of the strip, so that makes everything super convenient. Plus, it's a fun hotel. We both planned surprises for us while we are there. I've never been able to see the Sirens show outside the hotel, because it's always been canceled for wind when I'm there. Matt has never seen a Cirque du Soleil show, and I've only seen Zumanity (which I think means that basically, I've never seen a real CdS show either) so I bought us super-good seats for the Mystere show.

My sister and brother-in-law saw Mystere when in Vegas for their honeymoon a few weeks ago. My sister LOVED it. Since she's the ballerina, I'll take her word for it's goodness.

Matt had a surprise for about a month that I had no idea about, but last night he decided to tell me what it is, so that I can plan my outfit appropriately. The surprise? A hot air balloon ride at sunrise. I can't wait! I've always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon, and the surprise is a perfect one for our anniversary. I'm beyond excited!

I'm in a balloon! Everybody look at me I'm in a mother fucking BALLOON!!!!!!!

In other news, so that Matt and I can properly document our fabulous trip to Vegas together, we decided to buy ourselves our Christmas present early. Last week at Target we saw a Panasonic Lumix compact system camera on sale for $599, but it came with a FREE 45-200mm lens, which retails at $350. This was like, a $1000 system for $600. I stood there and lusted over it for a bit, but decided to not spend that money right then and there and went home.

Tuesday I found the same deal at Best Buy, with a memory card for free too at the same price and decided it was meant to be. So, we bought it for ourselves, and called it Christmas. It's simply beautiful, and our new camera makes me happy. I just wish I knew how to use it better. It's super sensitive to movement, and almost every picture I take comes out blurry. Clearly, I shake more than I thought I did. Makes you glad I'm not a surgeon after all, doesn't it?

Isn't she beautiful?

Isn't she lovely?

I seriously don't really know what the hell I'm doing when I use this camera, except that we now have lots of pictures of our Christmas tree and the cat. And that when I try to take long-distance shots of the Christmas lights on the houses beyond the canyon, they come out with neat little light effects. Which is my nice way of telling myself that I can't hold anything still for even 2 seconds. (2 seconds has never been so long!!) If you, dear reader, know your way around a DSLR or a Compact system camera, please feel free to leave a comment.... I can use all the help I can get!!

To wrap this up, Matt and I will be outta here Friday night until Tuesday night, and I couldn't be more excited. I can't wait to spend some quality fun time with my man, and couldn't think of a better way to celebrate us. <3