making friends in the vegas

once we got back to our room, we had about half an hour to get ourselves cleaned up and ready for our night out.  according to our tickets, showtime was at 7:30 and we'd also bought tickets for access to some VIP lounge that would give us open bar for an hour before the concert.  i couldn't get the hub to stand still long enough to take a selfie with me, so i just settled for taking a picture of my super sparkly shoes.

t-mobile arena is relatively new, and this was the first time there for both of us.

we followed the signage to get to our lounge:

only to find that they'd located it to a different spot within the arena.  when we got there, it was already pretty crowded with most of the seating already occupied and long lines for the two grumpy-looking bartenders.  there was no music playing inside, and the vibe was more like that of a pre-conference mixer.  fun.

the line moved slowly for the drinks, and then we we managed to find a couple of seats on a couch with a few other couples that had also noticed how weird it was in there.  not to mention, for a JT concert, the crowd in there was...old.  heh.  i'm definitely no spring chicken, but the average age in there was seriously like 55-60.  the folks we were sitting with were already a few drinks in and really funny, and we spent some time talking to what was probably the youngest couple in the room.  they were really friendly and we all got along fabulously, so much so that we invited them to join us for our post-show dinner at the cosmopolitan hotel.  after exchanging contact information and giving them the reservation details, we all headed off to find our seats.

i'd already seen this show about a year ago in l.a with my friend dailygluttony, but it was extra fun to see it again with the hub. he's never been a huge concertgoer, and with several vodka tonics in him it was quite the experience.  he had just as much fun as i did...maybe even more.

after the last song, we made our way out of there and headed towards the cosmopolitan for our 11:30 dinner reservation.  that's right...dinner at 11:30.  how very vegas of us.

the entrance to this restaurant is through a pawn shop.  we were invited to browse through the goods before disappearing into a nondescript door behind a counter that led to the main restaurant.  this was my favorite item for sale:

we weren't at all sure that our new friends were going to show up, but we took a table for four anyway and perused the menu as we made bets on whether we'd ever see them again.  surprisingly, they actually did arrive just a few minutes later.  we compared notes on the concert, giggled again over the fact that the average age in the arena was also about the same as in that "VIP lounge," and then got down to the business of ordering some food.  we ordered some fun appetizers - grilled cheese, bacon & tomato soup dumplings, beets & burrata on toast and thai-style shrimp.  all were super delicious.

because of his no-carb deal, the hub had us order the spaghettini he'd heard so much about and settled for living vicariously through us.  it was really good, and a true test of his willpower as he watched us eat it.

he made up for it with slices of the tomahawk steak, cooked perfectly and portioned just right.

these were the blistered shishito peppers, which i passed on but everyone else enjoyed immensely.

and then the dessert platter - butterscotch pot de creme, tiramisu, and fresh doughnuts with three dipping sauces.  all were so good, even though i was already stuffed silly.

we said goodbye to our new friends and then headed back to the hotel to collapse into bed.  it was past 2am, and we'd both gotten up at 5 the previous morning.  this is so unlike me.  talk about living it up vegas style. woohoo!

i want to get away...i wanna fly away

so while we were in vegas for cheer competition in january, the hub and i decided to plan another trip for just the two of us.  i'd spotted a giant picture advertising justin timberlake's "man of the woods" tour at t-mobile arena and jokingly suggested that we come back to see him.  and because the hub loves to keep me on my toes, he shocked the crap out of me when he said "that sounds fun, let's do it!"

you don't have to ask me twice.

well, actually, i guess he technically did because i stalled a little on actually buying the tickets while trying to figure out how to get coverage for the bean over that weekend.  the concert was on a friday night, and the old lady works on fridays and saturdays.  i decided to hit up my mom to see if she might be willing to hang out with the bean for a weekend of "lola camp," and after checking her calendar she happily said yes.  yay!

after a couple of twists and turns that aren't interesting enough to describe in detail, the hub and i found ourselves at LAX at 7:30 on friday morning, waiting to board an 8:30 flight to vegas.  we had enough time to stop here for some coffee and a breakfast sandwich:

and then we were on the plane, seated in the emergency row that gave us a pretty nice amount of leg room for the 45-minute flight.

before we knew it, we'd landed and were walking through mccarran international airport, heading towards the taxi line.

because of the early hour, we didn't have to wait very long and pulled up to the aria somewhere around 10:30.

you know that check-in at hotels doesn't usually happen till about 3:00, but the hub managed to chat up the guy at the front desk and not only got us into a room by 11:00, but scored us an upgraded view from the standard one we'd booked via priceline.

we unpacked and flopped down onto the bed to relax for a bit, and promptly fell asleep.  we'd gotten up around 5 after around five hours of sleep, and the bed was nice and comfy.  when we woke up, we were both hungry and so we got ourselves up and went downstairs in search of some lunch.  with most of the restaurants closed until dinnertime, we ended up at javier's.  my first cocktail of the weekend was a pepino margarita, light and refreshing.

the hub opted for a carne asada plate while i ordered their shrimp & dungeness crab enchiladas.  both were super delicious.

we decided to walk off our lunch and headed back outside.

a quick taxi ride brought us to caesar's for a little shopping, gambling and cigar smoking (for the hub).

while he was at the cigar lounge, i went off in search of a drybar in the hopes of getting a blowout so my hair would look pretty for our evening out.  too bad i couldn't find one, and the salon inside caesars wanted some ungodly amount for a basic blowout.  boo.  i ended up feeding a few slot machines before meeting back up with the hub in the lounge.  he'd befriended a fellow cigar smoker, and we sat there and chatted together for awhile before heading back over to the aria so that we could get ready for our night out.

not a bad start for date weekend in vegas.  and we still had at least another day and a half!  we've really gotta make time to do this more often.

JT fan 4lyfe

we all know of my love for justin timberlake, yes?

so when he announced that he'd written his very first book, i knew i was totally gonna get it.  i don't even care what he wrote in there...hell, for all i care he could have typed out the phone book and inserted a bunch of pictures and i would have still wanted that thing.  anyway, he posted a video on instagram where he snuck into barnes & noble in new york city and signed a bunch of copies, and so i hopped right onto the website to order a copy to pick up at my local store.

while the old lady and her special friend took stevie dog into petsmart to pick up some supplies, i scooped up my book and then promptly took this:

i posted it on instagram, because you know stuff doesn't count unless you share it on social media.  heh.  i got a few likes here and there, i know the hub totally side-eyed it, whatevs.

the next morning, i went to look at my instagram feed and just about shit myself when i saw this:

i thought maybe it was just one of those fan-created instagram accounts...but when i clicked on it i found that sure enough, it was his verified account with the blue checkmark.  woohoo!  i went to my post and totally swooned when i saw this:

i know, i know...it's really silly.  but damn...i was really excited!  it's probably the closest i'll ever get to meeting him.  i've been a JT fan since his *nsync days, so me love him long time.

later that evening, while we were at the bean's school fundraiser my phone buzzed with a text from a friend who excitedly told me to go and check out justin's instagram story.  and when i clicked on it, i saw what she was so happy to share with me:

he'd compiled a fun little video of posts from people who'd bought his book...and of course, most of us took pretty much the same exact picture.  ha!  i don't care though.  i was excited to have a tiny part of his book release promo, and now i'm going to hunker down and actually read the thing.

he's got one of his "man of the woods" tour stops coming up in anaheim in a couple of weeks, and while i already got to see him with my friend dailygluttony when he was in l.a. earlier this year...i kind of really want to go.  and a friend of mine from my running days has a couple of tickets she's trying to unload.

hmmmmmmm.

he brought sexy back

my friend dailygluttony and i bought tickets to justin timberlake's first l.a. stop on his "man of the woods" tour what seems like forever ago.  i haven't seen him live since about 2013, when he toured with jay-z in their "legends of the summer" tour and played the rose bowl.

it seemed like we'd just barely gotten home from our vegas trip before it was time to hoping the car and head down to inglewood and see our guy perform at the fabulous forum.

we picked up our tickets from this check-in desk:

and checked out the VIP lounge area, where there were comfy spots to hang out, games to play, and merchandise and drink kiosks with minimal lines.

we made our way to our seats to check out our view.  it doesn't look all that great from this picture, but trust me - we were a hell of a lot closer than we'd been at the rose bowl.

the official "man of the woods" logo was hanging above the stage we were closest to, and it lit up in different colors and at various times during the show.

there was a dj playing lots of great music and getting the crowd all hyped up, and then around 8 he introduced the opener - a band i'd not yet heard of, the shadowboxers.

they played for probably half an hour, and then we waited about that again until JT finally took the stage around 9:30.

he really did his best to make sure that everyone at the show had a chance to get a great view as he sang, danced, played guitar and did his usual JT thing.  he was fantastic and we loved every minute.  you'll have to pardon my grainy, crappy photos that i'm sharing anyway, because why not.

he played a great mix of songs from his current cd (which i'm admittedly not a huge fan of, don't throw things at me) as well as all of his familiar songs from his successful solo career.  he closed it out with a bouncy, happy performance of "can't stop the feeling" before taking one last lap around all three stages and waving at us all as he disappeared for good.

and yes, of course i picked up something from the merchandise tent.  i happily wore it to my next barre class:

ah, JT.  till we meet again (november, maybe, when he comes back to the l.a. area).