Vegas: Cast of Characters

In order to provide a background for our Las Vegas trip last week, I feel it is important to first dedicate a blog to our main characters. Joe and I both invited some friends and family to come along with us, and only a few brave couples responded. They include:

Brain Tumor Girl & Cerebral Spinal Fluid Man

Brain Tumor Girl was diagnosed as such shortly after the birth of her first child.  All things turned out okay and she is now the proud mother of two terrific sons.  Her husband, Cerebral Spinal Fluid Man (CSFM), was diagnosed with a leaky brain last year which manifested itself through a runny nose chronically misdiagnosed as "allergies." Now if you think I'm being a tad insensitive about all this, I'd like to point out that they laughingly agreed to their blog monikers (that is after several pina colodas they did). One married couple with two serious brain anomalies?  I'd be calling Erin Brockovich if I were them.

Brain Tumor Girl gamely played along when I asked her to pose looking "brain-tumory."

We tried to coax Cerebral Spinal Fluid Man to fake leaking his brain into the ice bucket, but my camera's batteries started to fade, so I had to act quickly.

Milwaukee Friend & Chandler

Many loyal readers are already familiar with Milwaukee friend who introduced me to the concept of there being no bad experiences, just wasted story opportunities.  Her husband is some kind of technology manager who talks a language I don't quite understand. We're going to call him Chandler because nobody really seems to know for sure what he does for a living.  They are two very fun people with a couple of young sons. They eat sushi and think that Joe is a real-life version of a "Da Bears" superfan from Saturday Night Live.  

Milwaukee Friend: There's something slightly Mary Tyler Moore about this pic.

Chandler on the Strip

Sister Mary & Lemonade John

Mary is Joe's only sister in a family of 7 kids.  Growing up with six brothers, she is a rare kind of no-nonsense and low-drama girlfriend. The perfect woman. Which leads us to Lemonade John (who built the boys their lemonade stand this summer). Lemonade John is a coin collector who understands a woman's need for chocolate as it relates to the tides (I'm trying to be innocuous here). The perfect man. Why these two perfect people can't throw me another wedding to attend is beyond me. I mean, really? They were in Vegas. Elvis chapel, anyone?

For some odd reason, Mary wouldn't email me a pic, so I improvised.

Boston Bob & Anti-Swimwear Annie

Boston Bob used to go to school with Milwaukee Friend and we all traveled around Europe together some years back.  His wife, an annoying size 6 after just having a baby, refuses to wear swimsuits in public due to post-baby body issues.  I'll be sure to send her the blog about the wonders of the swim dress another day.  They have an adorable son, easy-going personalities, and apparently scorpions since they've moved to Arizona.

Once again, no photo.  Thank goodness I'm virtually Picasso.

As you can see, it was certainly a fun bunch that would be greeting us upon arrival in Vegas for dinner that night.  That is if we actually made it in time with our 7:00 AM flight out of Chicago.

So did we make it?  Did we miss our flight? Did we end up on Amtrak?

The answer to those exciting questions and more up next on tomorrow's edition of Las Vegas: the Mini-Blog-Series.

To Be Continued....