Being Peculiar

I don't know if I've mentioned yet that I've gone back to work.

That could explain in part why my blog posts have been cut pretty drastically. (Probably no one has noticed but me.)

Luckily, my boss is pretty dang awesome and I can work whenever I feel like it. (He has to be nice or I will make him sleep on the couch.)

Anyway, this was a pretty good weekend to choose to go to work, as Layne took the whole office to Las Vegas for some staff training.

For the most part, we repeated what we did in Vegas a couple of months ago (without kids this time). Stayed at the Palazzo. Went to see Blue Man Group and Phantom of the Opera. Ate too much. Saw WAY too much on the Strip.

It was interesting this time because, as my mom works for Layne too, she and my dad (along with our other audiologist Jeana and our other front office tech Sharon) came with us. My mom had never been to Vegas before.

She was dumbfounded. On the night we got there, a drunk guy in the elevator used the "f" word and shocked my mom. She'd never heard that word used in real life before.

I like to think that I've been places. Really, though, when it comes right down to it, the whole Vegas thing dumbfounds me too.

Take last night, for example.

The closing dinner for this convention was at a nightclub called Tao in the Venetian. This is a pretty exclusive club-- people line up for hours to get in. The plan for the group was to have dinner from 7-9 and at 9, it switches over to a nightclub.

I got pretty gussied up for the evening. I wore a red and black dress that comes to my knees (as opposed to my mostly shin length skirts.) I wore black high heels and shaved my legs. I made my hair big and even wore eye shadow AND lipstick.

I asked Layne if I looked too slutty. He said no, but he also looked at me like he hadn't met me before. (Maybe I should wear makeup more often?)

So, we walk into the night club-- Layne and I along with my parents and two other 50+ women and I really had to laugh at myself.

You see, in spite of my best efforts to not stand out, we definitely did.

It could have been that no other woman in the room had sleeves.

It could have been that most skirts hit mid thigh. Maybe.

It could have been that everyone else was taking advantage of the open bar and doing their best to get sloshed before 9:00 pm.

The six of us sat in a corner eating our Kung Pao chicken and drinking our fruit punch (which the waiter brought with a noticable smirk on his face) and looking about as out of place as a rock star would look sitting in sacrament meeting.

This is the stamp they put the inside of my wrist as I walked in.

It looked like a tattoo.

I hated it.

It took me about 10 minutes to realize that:

a. No matter what I picked out of my closet, I would never fit into this crowd.

b. I had absolutely NO desire to fit into this crowd.

c. I would rather be back in my room watching football and enjoying this view from the 34th floor:

We said our thank yous and good-byes, then walked our country-bumpkin selves past the beautiful people who were drinking and gambling and laughing too loudly. We were out of there before 7:30.

Honestly, the whole experience made me thankful for standards and for a sheltered upbringing. When we went to leave this morning, all of those party people looked like death warmed over.

It was so great to fly into the peaceful Salt Lake airport and drive home to my family and kids.

I've decided that, if dressing modestly and not drinking, swearing, or gambling makes me not cool, then so be it.

I'm okay with that. Actually, I'm proud of it.

I've also decided that next time we go to Vegas, I'm not even going to try to blend. I'll just wear my Levi's and BYU sweatshirt and walk around in my Reeboks. If I'm going to be uncomfortable, I might as well be comfortable, right?