1. The 1957 Christmas Broadcast
   Queen Elizabeth
2. Auld Lange Syne
   The Lonesome Travelers
3. The Christmas Song
   Frank Sinatra
4. Another Rock And Roll Christmas
   Gary Glitter
5. Christmas In Prison
   John Prine
6. Christmas Time
   Bill Cosby
7. Winter Wonderland
   Tony Bennett
8. Merry Christmas (I Don’t Wanna Fight Tonight)
   Ramones
9. Dancin’ With Santa
   The Trashmen
10. A Christmas Song
    Jethro Tull
11. Twelve Days of Christmas
    Mexicani Marimba Band
12. Last Christmas
    WHAM!
13. Linus Christmas Monologue
    Peanuts
14. This Christmas Girl
    James Pants
15. The Coventry Carol
    Mediaeval Baebes
16. Another Lonely Christmas
    Prince
17. Christmas In Hollis
    Run-DMC
18. Blue Christmas
    Elvis Presley
19. Christmas For Cowboys
    John Denver
20. No Christmas For Me
    Zee Avi
21. O Holy Night
    Sufjan Stevens
22. Slower Than Christmas
    The Boxmasters
23. Fan Club Christmas Message
    The Beatles

For example, in the master bathroom the toilet is in its own separate little room. There is a toilet, a light switch, and a phone jack. This is luxury. There is a cable jack on the kitchen counter, also luxury. There is a fireplace (remember, we’re in Las Vegas. It’s over 100 most days), luxury. I am remembering when these kinds of things were a big deal, and am date stamping this building between 1988 and 1993.

As Wylie was hooking up the TV yesterday and trying to figure out how best not to overload the electricity outlet, I decided that current “luxury” details probably include lots more cable hookups (for computers and modems and TV”s and whatnot), lots more outlets, and multiple showerheads. This last one is based on yesterday’s trip to Bed Bath and Beyond to see if we could find one that might give us a little more pressure than the one we have now and all of them had at least 2-3 heads. Pretty crazy.

In other news, we needed some cereal this morning to help us use up the milk we got before we head out to graduation, and tried out the local Von’s. Very nice store, friendly people, and–of course–Video Poker! I LOVE THIS TOWN. It’s hilarious! Also, tried this place last night and am SOOOOO happy it is less than a mile down the road! Whoop!

All over Las Vegas I have been seeing these tiny blue windmills. They are about 12 feet high and are located mostly in parking lots so people can pull their cars up to them. Inside these windmills is something people need here in the desert… Water! You can refill water jugs here at the windmills. It’s very odd, but also kind of neat. Our tap water, after going through a Britta filter, tastes pretty good, so we don’t think we will be taking advantage of the windmills, though we may need to at least once, just so we can say we did it.

Here are some highlights from the trip out here:

Friday, July 30, 9pm: We had been driving for about 5 hours on small country roads and were finally on the interstate, in the distance we see a giant storm with some amazing lightning. We keep driving, and never seem to get any closer to it. We toy with the idea of stopping at the last town before we get off the interstate and onto a Texas State Highway (it is dark in the middle of nowhere in Texas, all 4 of the back tires on the moving truck are bald (Wylie noted this to the woman renting it to us and questioned the safety, to which she replied, “If I don’t give it to you I will give it to someone else. The mechanic said they are fine”), and he is not crazy about the idea of driving in a thunderstorm—gorgeous as the lightning is. Thrill seekers that we are, we go for our original destination of Snyder, TX. We get an amazing lightning show with a million colors and drive along through a sea of red flashing lights—later we learned that they were giant 300 ft windmills (apparently the same ones that some Texas politician a few months ago was against because “we might run out of wind”—that is not a direct quote, but the gist of what I remember hearing about it). We see Snyder coming up, 30 miles…20 miles…15 miles…8 miles…5 miles…and BAM! Sheets of rain come out of nowhere (er, well, the giant storm we have been watching for over an hour, but basically nowhere). We are struggling to see the white line marking  the side of the road, Olive is whimpering beside me (she hates water) and it is very scary. Happy ending: We made it to Days Inn and the rain subsided in less than 20 minutes total, and we were eating Whataburger breakfast sandwiches in no time. Whew!

Saturday, July 31: We started early and drove and drove and drove. Through Texas and into New Mexico, onto I-40. It was wonderfully cool and the skies were bright and clear and blue. Wylie and I began playing a game via walkie-talkie where you take turns naming famous people: For example, I say, “Sarah Palin” then Wylie could say, “Paul Rudd” and I could say, “Ralph Macchio”—basically, you have to say a name that starts with the first letter of the last person’s last name. It was pretty fun and kept us entertained for a few hours Sat. and a few on Sun. What was most striking was how much brain space we are using keeping famous people’s names in there…On a side note, S names, M names and B names go quickly!

In the afternoon, just outside of Albuquerque, we ran into more big thunderstorms, so we pulled over and waited them out in the car. Olive was happy that all 3 of us were together and we weren’t moving so she got some undivided attention. The storms were really cool to watch because there were these massive black clouds, bookended on either side by gorgeous crisp blue skies. Very amazing job, Mother Nature! We stopped on the West side of Gallup, NM and had dinner at a truck stop. I always enjoy some people watching at a truck stop.

Sunday, August 1: Hooray! Last day of driving! We thought we were going to make it no problem, then, pulling into Kingman Wylie saw the sign that said “No Rental Trucks on Hoover Dam.” In a panic, I called my dad, Master of All Things Map-ish, and he advised us to go through Laughlin, and warned us that “there is a hill.” He wasn’t kidding! A 3000 ft. rise and fall in elevation, and then another huge and never ending hill made the moving truck tired and hot. So hot that Wylie had to pull over and let it rest, and put the heat on…He is a good man, and was rewarded with beers later that night. We made it to the Holiday Inn in Henderson around 5pm, and had a lovely dinner at Sunset Station—a place I had always seen from the highway but never ventured into. We were so tired we had no interest in gambling, and more interest in the 10+ kinds of salsa and the amazingly flavored (and vegetarian) black beans!

Monday, August 2: Hooray! Our apartment! We got the keys around 10am and made our way over there, via Einstein’s Bagels—something we both had been missing in College Station. I was pleased to find that the apartment (“condo” I guess, but it is an apartment) is big and spacious and has central heat and air! Whoohoo!! I think I will be amazed and feel blessed by tiny things like this for the next few months since our place in Bryan—wonderful and lovable and full of character that it was—lacked some of these amenities that I am fond of. By the time we got to the apartment and snooped around a little, it was too hot to unload much, so we ran some errands to sort out some key troubles, found some basic necessities, and made a nest of blankets on the floor, rented a movie (DO NOT see Percy Jackson and the Olympians) and got a pizza from Marcos, the greasy pizza shop that is less than a hop, skip, and jump next door. Olive thought it was perfect, all of us on the floor in one giant bed.

Tuesday, August 3: Unload. As happy as Olive was, the nest of blankets wasn’t so comfy, so we woke up early and started unloading the truck around 7:30. We finished around 11:15, so we were happy we started early, as it is H to the O to the T here. I think my time in the hot and humid South has weakened me to the hot and dry…I think about my days at Girl Scout Camp where I was out in it all day and I can hardly believe it! Maybe I am getting old? We did a few more errands, returned the truck, and found the Whole Foods that is less than a mile away! Huzzah for expensive salad bars and delicious Organicness! I am excited to be back in a place where these things are available!

It is easy to forget that “vacation destination” Vegas is just to the East. There are lots of places for doing dental work, which I find a little strange. Overall, though, it seems like it will be a great year!  I intend to be better about updating this thing more often, and for longer than just the first few months… Be sure to visit us this year!!!

Anyways, enjoy the next three days, and hopefully a ton of posts direct from Sin City! Wooh!

The great news is that we have a destination! It was pretty stressful with both of us looking for work and a slight sense of panic was creeping up through the floorboards, but I accepted a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Nevada Las Vegas counseling center and we are off! Should be  a pretty great place to spend a year, so get ready for more updates and adventures…at least for the first few months!

This week we started the goodbye festivities at the SCS in order to have  enough time to say goodbye to everyone…you can imagine with 30 therapist-types what happens. It really was sad though…and then thinking about being actually graduated on top of it! Whew! I literally won’t know what to do with myself…

Well, have a happy and safe 4th of July!