So I booked a hotel for my trip to Las Vegas this weekend to go to the NASCAR race. I’m leaving on Friday coming back on Monday. This time around I booked my reservation using Hotels.com. On Hotels.com they put the “Guest Reviews” feature right up front on each hotels profile page, so it’s very tempting to read what people who have stayed at a particular hotel have to say about their stay. Whatever you do, don’t read these things!

Because people are crazy and they complain about stupid stuff. They complain about not having a coffee pot in their room or the fact that when they came out of the elevator and onto their floor it smelled like urine. Crap like that will seriously freak you out. I’m staying at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and it’s a 4 star hotel. Now, if you read the reviews that some people have left you’d think they were talking about the HoJo near the airport. It’s crazy… Although I will say that you can get a good sense of what a hotel is like based on the reviews.

I stayed at the Stratosphere back in 2001 when I went to see Fingertight perform on tour with 30 Seconds to Mars. I read the reviews after I booked the room and I was so freaked out that I decided to book a room at The Palms just in case it lived up to all of the crappy reviews I’d read. I had a “Casino Suite” and it was big, with a separate shower and tub, plus a living room area, but you could tell it was shabby. The bed was old and flat. So it turned out to be not that incredibly bad, but it wasn’t good enough to make me not want to check out The Palms. My room at there was awesome. The decor was modern and the bed was so incredibly soft and fluffy and wonderful. Room service was great and when I left they tried to tempt me to stay with the offer of a free massage but I had to get back home because of work. ech.

Anywho, I hope the Rio doesn’t disappoint. I keep telling myself that I’m not going to be in the room that much while I’m there, but still it matters to me that the room is comfortable and nice. When I went to Vegas back in November for the Blog World & New Media Expo, I stayed at the Renaissance Las Vegas which was literally right next door to the convention center where the event was being held. The room was great, although the walls were a bit thin. I could totally hear the woman in the room next me and her entire telephone conversation. All in all I wasn’t in the room very much but when I was it was super relaxing. I’m definitely staying there again for this year’s Blog Expo in September.

If I’m addicted to anything it would have to be coffee and new music. I just heard the new song from Dave Barnes called “Until You” and it’s so good that I wish I could live inside of it. I’ve said that about other songs many times before and I guess what it really means is that the song makes me feel good and I never want it to stop. There are some voices that just make me melt. Like John Mayer’s on his song “Slow Dancing In A Burning Room.”

Needless to say I am looking forward to Dave’s new CD which comes out on April 1st.

Even though I’m back living with my mom, I feel like I’m on the right path, finally! Oh and for the record, my mom is absolutely wonderful. I owe her everything. I am lucky to have her. So it’s not about having to live with her, it’s just about the fact that I don’t have my own place.

Everything feels right for right now. My racing blog is growing and I’m going to two, not one, but two NASCAR races in the coming weeks.

I keep thinking about this idea — or it might have been a dream, I’m not sure — I had when I was younger. I saw myself living in my dream home (a big house with a wrap-around porch) that was situated out in the country, far from other neighbors, but still close to city stuff. I was married with children and I worked from home the majority of the time as a writer. At that point in time I didn’t know what I would be writing.

There have been times when I strayed from this idea, well yea many times. My problem has been that I’m passionate about a lot of different things. I’m very curious and when something intrigues me I’ll come up with an idea for it, like that whole Superficial Clothing Company thing and then of course The Playground. But I’ve always loved to write. Through writing I could make my own world. I remember writing those silly & naive love stories when I was in junior high. I loved reading them and imagining it all coming to life. It’s funny, my formula has stayed the same, I always meet the guy in some random situation, and he’s never someone I already knew through family or friends. It was always some chance meeting in a music or book store, or outside my house. ha.

I always wrote for myself and not necessarily for other people. I kinda stepped out of my box in high school when I was the co-editor of the newspaper. My idea to go around to the other local high schools to interview the kids there about what their campus was really like was freaking brilliant, if I do say so myself. I got to get out of school and check out the hot dudes at other schools.

Anyway, with The Fast and the Fabulous and now this magazine deal I really feel like my fantasy of working from my dream home is totally possible.

I think there’s a big misconception of me out there amongst the people that know me personally. Because I grew up being the bookish, shy person nobody thinks that I want the spotlight. But I do! I mean, I love public speaking. I welcome it. And the idea of having my own show thrills me to no end. Don’t get me wrong, the idea of interviewing people freaks me out, but in a good way. I know I can do it, that’s not the issue. I just want to do it right and do it well. So the question isn’t about if I can, it’s really about can I kick ass and take names when I do.

My mom’s dog Spencer is pretty picky when it comes to watch he watches on television. He won’t tear himself away from his favorite bone for just anything. Project Runway? No way. But American Idol passes the test. This is Spencer watching the top 12 men sing last night:

Here is the photo I promised of my new purse.

I needed a new one desperately because I’d had my old Coach one for like 4 years. It was definitely time to move on. The number one reason why I love this bag is because I can put stuff in and take stuff out of it without having to move a buncha crap out of the way. The mouth of the purse is wide and there’s a ton of space. I’ve been trying to think of stuff that I should be carrying with me so it’s not so empty.

I’m usually not a big fan of gold accents but it works in this case. Plus there isn’t a lot of it. Everybody knows I love plaid and while this purse doesn’t have that it does have a great green, yellow and blue lamb print. Gwen Stefani is a genius!

I must say that I had a pretty awesome weekend. I went shopping for a much needed new purse and ended up buying one plus a new car! I had been thinking about getting a new car for some time now. It came about mostly because I was thinking about how I could do the NASCAR road trip and I didn’t want to attempt it in my old car because it was getting older. So there was that plus the fact that I really, really wanted a car with a navigation system and an outlet for my iPod.

I checked out the 2008 Volkswagen Eos online and found that it met my base criteria and then some. It has a convertible hardtop with sunroof, butt warmers (heated seats), leather interior, digital displays, power seats & windows and Sirius satellite radio. It doesn’t stop there either! I’m not going to list all the stuff, but let’s just say I love this car a lot! It also signifies a step-up for me, I think of this as my “grown-up” car. Just looking at me people think that I’m still in high school and I don’t think my old Matrix was helping to combat that impression. I was driving the Eos today and I actually got looks from dudes — guys my age! So that’s a step in the right direction.

Oh and about my purse, I love it too! It’s by L.A.M.B., Gwen Stefani’s fashion line. It’s super sophisticated and chic. It’s also super practical — it’s sooo much easier to get stuff in and out of it. I might post a photo of that later. Until then enjoy photos of my new “baby,” I still need to figure out a name for her. I’m leaning towards Aurora only because Eos is the greek goddess of the dawn and Aurora is the Latin name for Eos. But I dunno. In my Google search I found this: “Eos had an unquenchable desire for handsome young men, some say as the result of a curse laid upon her by the goddess Aphrodite.” That’s high-larious! This is the perfect car for me! haha.