vegas or bust

This past weekend I hopped a plane to Vegas for the quintessential girls weekend. I had never been before, and when my friends asked me to join them on their trip I bought a ticket faster than you could say "Viva las vegas!" (which, incidentally, was said quite a lot).

And boy, did we viva. In four short days that quickly turned into four long nights, and in no particular order (there's no way I can remember everything in order anyway), we ate gelato at the Venitian, danced in public in our bikinis while day drinking at the Flamingo pool, saw amazing ariel and water acrobatics at Le Rêve, watched the dancing fountains at the Bellagio, closed down a Vegas nightclub at 4am, toured the Neon Museum, stumbled down the strip in heels at 2 in the morning, got our money's worth by eating everything that the Wicked Spoon Buffet had to offer, crashed Ryan Lochte's birthday party, embraced the chain restaurant nature of Vegas and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, ate cereal in a cocktail at the Chandelier Bar in the Cosmopolitan, watched Wine Angels at Aureole, played video poker and won a couple of bucks, played the slots and lost a couple of bucks.

My feet still hurt from three straight nights of heels, but that, my friend, is how you start to wrap up a summer of yes.

#1 landing in Vegas  #2 drinks at Tao

#3-5 Neon Museum  #6 desert palm tree

#7 Flamingo pool party  #8-9 - more Neon  #10 Chihuly ceiling at the Bellagio

#11 looking down at the Wynn  #12 Bellagio selfie

#13 nightclub confetti  #14 Bellagio fountains

#15 Paris in Vegas  #16 how Ryan Lochte celebrates his birthday

right now

anticipating an awesome girl's weekend in vegas next week

but nervous about the bikini I bought to wear at the pools

excited for the frozen pizza I'm going to make for lunch (it's the little things in life)

apprehensive about a show I have to run later today

and so relieved that rehearsals are over for a while

realizing that I need to dye my hair before next week

stressing over the how and where I'm supposed to fit the rest of my worldly possessions in this one-bedroom apartment

yet loving this cohabitation thing we've started

needing to do some serious laundry

pinteresting like crazy for storage solutions (shoes, jewelry, purses, herbs and spices...the list goes on and on...)

so geekily excited that instagram lets you straighten your pictures now

watching Orange is the New Black and reading At Home (by Bill Bryson)

...and guilty pleasure watching Project Runway ;)

giving myself a little (and much needed) pedicure

slowly sipping my coffee on my couch, in front of the tv, from something that's not a to-go cup

365/photo-a-day - July wrap up

rain halo - bagels on the balc - bryant park - beach day - goodnight sun

csa mushrooms - greenmarket cherries - bathing suit - movies in the park - summer sun

wash.sq.park - on our way! - paparazzi - sunset beauty - vintage filter

girl's day - mr. ice - hudson river view - would you like to dance - mad.sq.pk.

dinner of champions - lost in booklyn - hazy sunday - soup's on - sooo hungry

picnic time - rainy ballerina - empty n train! - heatwave - little pink flower

Sooo...July happened. And as I write this, I'm realizing yet another benefit of this project: taking roughly one photo per day every day helps you to remember what the heck happened over the past 30 days. This is especially necessary when said past 30 days include beginning/ending/beginning two separate work projects, surviving my last (hopefully) un-air-conditioned heat wave, starting to pack up and sell four year's worth of furniture and tchotchkes in preparation to move three blocks away, planning an obscene amount of travel to take place in the next 30 days, beach-ing it up with some girlfriends for the 4th of july, catching up with old friends, making new friends, buying my first non-Ikea furniture ever (making me officially an adult...at 29...), and generally summerofyessing my face off.

Admittedly, I did not do too well on the photo-a-day thing. It was another one of those months where entire chunks of time were spent in dark theaters and sweaty subways - nothing that begs to be photographed. As a result, I embraced the handful of really awesome, out of the ordinary events I did attend, and used multiple pictures from single days. Is that cheating? Kind of. Do I care? Not really. I mean, let's be honest - I stood outside for five hours in 95 degree weather just so I could get pictures of myself walking through the rain - you'd better believe I'm using more than one picture from that day!

August is looking even more insane than July. As it stands, I'm already a picture behind. BUT I'm still going strong. I've officially moved beyond the halfway mark in my year-long project and can. not. wait. to see how well I adhere to my own rules in the future.

July by the numbers

Photos of my feet: 0!

Photos of food: 7

Photos of the sky: 6

Photos with people in them: 10 (a personal best!)

Photos taken by someone else (not me): 4 (I wasn't going to chance the rain room pics to a self-timer)

365/Photo-a-day is a personal undertaking to capture one photograph per day in 2013. All photos were taken by me and processed with Instagram, Snapseed, PhotoToaster, and/or the new A Beautiful Mess app. The images were compiled using Picture Collage Maker Lite. What to see my pics as they happen? Follow me - @maspad on the Instagram!