He and I went on our first vacation together. I've taken my daughters away to places in the past. We've gone as a family to visit other family. There is value in doing those things and I enjoy them immensely. However there is something completely different about going away with the person your love, your best friend, (oddly for the first time in my life, that is ONE person...ha ha ha) and leaving the children at home!

We chose to go to Las Vegas, Nevada. Yeah....not me.....not my kind of vacation at all. In fact, if I focus on the concept of gambling, the tossing away of money whether you can afford it or not, I can almost vomit. Physically vomit, no kidding. Made even worse when you realize that most accounting systems cannot handle the income of Heinz Oldach (owner of a few Canadian casinos) and he's not even a big fish in the global casino market. I'll stop there. I think it's pretty clear how I feel about gambling and casinos. I will resist the urge for a tirade.

He is a big fan of poker. Not solely for gambling, he enjoys the game. Much like he enjoys chess. He has often dreamed of sitting down in a Las Vegas casino and playing poker. In fact, he's dreamed of seeing Las Vegas since he was a child. He's talked about it and it's clear he would enjoy it. When he spoke of Las Vegas he'd get the same look in his eye that I get when I talk about NYC. In fact, NYC is a whole other post, for a different time.

We wanted to get our feet wet in the world of traveling. Neither of us have traveled outside of Canada. We have a number of grand plans for traveling with the children this year. He has never been on an airplane though. Everyone else in the family has been on a plane except for the 6'6" 270lb man. Great, that's all I need is to have his first flight be one going across the pond only to find out he's bad at flying! You can see it, can't you? He'll be the guy that gets claustrophobic, airsick and is running up and down the aisle screaming and vomiting!! Clearly we needed a short trip, a weekend getaway. We had one weekend that would work. Just one; it's in the middle of my extremely busy season at work, the season where NO ONE gets a day off.

I should mention that I have a great smile.....and long eyelashes.

I got a shift change AND a day off.

We booked a flight to Vegas and didn't sleep properly for weeks!

In our research we learned the layout of the Strip so well that we knew which hotels were where. We knew the names of all the hotels as soon as we saw them. We knew where the best buffets were. We knew what attractions we wanted to see. We knew the bus route. We looked at photos, watched videos, read reviews and almost burned our retinas out staring at the monitors. Something odd happened along the way. In researching things to help him live his dream.....it became my dream too. I fell in love with the nostalgia of Las Vegas and the history of it. Some things about it are so campy and ridiculous it's delightful! We stayed at the Flamingo....because it's old school. Ok, it's also pink and we all know that I wouldn't turn down the chance to stay in a room with a hot pink bathroom!

He flies very well, even with the violent turbulence we experienced. We had an amazing time. We did the things we wanted to do. We saw the things we wanted to see. We cried tears of joy. He played poker for 6 hours and didn't lose a dime. He didn't win big, only a few bucks. I found $160 on a casino floor on Freemont street and used it to buy souvenirs for the children. Oh....and I used it at a slot machine and won $540 while he played poker! Surprisingly we didn't indulge in the boozamahol much. He stood on the four corners, with the Las Vegas Blvd sign above his head and thanked me for being his teammate, his lover and his best friend. He thanked me for insisting that he (a recovering workaholic) take a few days off.

My life has changed drastically in the years since I stopped lying to myself. My opinions have changed, I feel more relaxed, I love more and living is easier. I feel like I'm finally growing up. The dreams that are part of my marrow are all coming true. I'm even getting brave enough to dream new dreams.

My first vacation was to the last place I thought I'd want to see. I realize now that when you put your own opinions aside and try seeing things from a different viewpoint not only do you gain understanding (duh, we all knew that) but sometimes you can share a dream.