Vegas - continued

As I've said before the hotel was HUGE, rows and rows of slot machines, all playing different games which I hadn't a clue what to do with. At one time I watched Debbie and Becky play and I just was like 'huh?!' - hadn't a CLUE - so it was a very good job I didn't even try and win anything, I'd have been bankrupt!

The hotel had two entrances, one from the cabs, and one for the shuttles - so I was told. Very organised. Reception was to the right of the main entrance and then you went towards your room, past the Gift Shop (aka Stalkers Corner, affectionately - hey, it had a seat, use it, and if an Osmond happened to come by, good for you! LOL!), and then onto the swimming pool, gym etc. and then you turned either left or right depending on where your room was. There was a very nice security guard who said good morning or afternoon everytime you passed (he was also supposed to check your keycard, but I am, I suppose, once seen, never forgotten!).



Anyway, also downstairs were loads of places to eat, a liquor store, the gift shop, the hotel also had a cinema and a bowling alley, which I didn't investigate - darn! It also has an arena (where the concerts SHOULD'VE been, but that's just my little old opinion). There were also lots of tables for roulette, canasta and all that stuff, and a bar, where you could also play games of some sort (as well as a get a drink - I spent a LITTLE time here, as you will hear later on!).



I ate at the breakfast place, TGIs, the French Buffet (all you can eat place) - and only ate one full meal other than breakfast all the time I was there! I got addicted to Iced Tea and Canada Dry (both of which we can get in the UK, but it's just not the same....).



From 12.30pm on Sunday was Registration. Well, with over 800 people attending, what on earth were we doing in such a small room?! No air conditioning. Three round tables in the middle. I don't fault the people doing the registering, or the merchandise. But I ended up joining the merchandise line four times because it just wasn't going anywhere. And, bless his heart, but it wasn't exactly helped by Jared coming in part way through the afternoon and placing himself (or being put more like - he's such an amenable chap!), where he was, it slowed everything right down, as he likes to chat - well, he IS an Osmond! LOL! It was a very stuffy room and many people found it uncomfortable, so I left a couple of times to go and find a drink - in the liquor store - exciting stuff - LOL! I ended up buying some tomato juice, Canada Dry and Coke! Went back upstairs and shared my CD with Gina, who was feeling the heat. Whilst I was away, she'd been sharing my programme with people - didn't mind! Ended up joining a line and eventually buying the 50th programme, which I think was worth the $40, but I didn't buy anything else - I'm not the best person to try and tempt into buying things, but there were some great things - bags, t-shirts, all kinds of pictures, DVDs, all sorts of stuff. There were different auctions from the seven performing chi.... Osmonds (sorry!), and I thought that several people were going to win each of the items (but one person won all), and I put one ticket in the picture with the Osmonds thing as I thought that was fairest (which was I probably didn't win a flipping thing!).
The 50th bag had nice goodies in it, but not earth-shattering, and they are still in my suitcase. I will use the mousemat. The bag will be useful too. I wasn't too sure what one or two things were, to be honest!


On my fourth time in the line, jumping in because someone took pity on me (Noriko had tried earlier but the line just didn't move, so I left!), I managed to talk to Jared and had a picture taken with him (another reason it was slow - people like me doing that! LOL!). Paige was with him and she was really cute. Apparently, she had a little play area under the table (probably the coolest place to be - in both senses of the word!), and every now and again this little hand would come up to hand her daddy a CD for him to sign! Too funny. She sometimes popped up and sat on the chair, but, for her, underneath the table was best!



Now, I'm not sure if it was this day or not (they all kind of run into each other!), but, some of you will know that I've been a bit 'concerned' (you can use other words if you like!) about a certain Mr MDO not making himself available to people as much as he normally does. Well, someone came up to me and said that he'd been seen sneaking out the back way from the showroom with three of his younger siblings, and I'd also had reports of him 'hurrying' through the doors of the casino, not stopping to talk to anyone, looking very, well, I don't know, as I wasn't there! And I decided 'right, that's it, no more Ms Nice Gal' and then stormed off down the corridor, and ended up in the bar. Jackie Gray took advantage of a poor, harassed Merrill fan and plied me with drink (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!). I had a not too large glass of wine and ended up announcing to the world 'I AM A JAY FAN!' Why poor Jay I have NO idea, but he was IT!

Oh, prior to this, I also chose my Film Festival time, and chose the first one - this was on the Tuesday.

Can't remember what I did after the Registration but at one time, Janette, Sheridan and I went to the all you can eat French Buffet (which didn't actually feature ANY French food - hmmmm...), and Janette saw Jimmy ahead of us, and we debated whether we should still be there. Consensus of opinion was, yes, it was a big place, he could go his way, we could go ours and never the twain meet. You could choose from BBQ, Chinese, US, Salad, Indian (which looked Italian to me, but never mind), and a couple of other choices. Sheridan bumped into Jimmy at one choice, and they briefly chatted, but we wanted to eat (so did he, obviously, duh!). He ended up choosing US btw - not that we were spying!). Very patriotic.