I puked in a dumpster, don't judge me

For our last full day in Vegas, I had a full agenda planned.  I was looking forward to getting up, grabbing lunch and then hitting the town - starting with the pawn shop, featured on the History Channel show, Pawn Stars.  Notice the past tense that I used above.  I HAD a full day planned, I WAS looking forward, etc.  Unfortunately, I woke up on Saturday with a killer hangover, due to an over consumption of margaritas the previous night (approximately 4.5 ft of 'rita to be more precise).

So needless to say, my Saturday didn't start off on the right foot.  I overslept, waking up to Nick watching TV.  He said he was STARVING and had been up for a couple of hours, but was afraid to wake me up because of the inevitable hangover due to the previous night's activities.  I woke up feeling loopy, but functional, and proceeded to shower and get dressed.  Better late than never, right?  So I thought.

We headed downstairs to grab a bite to eat from an overpriced burger joint in the hotel.  Grease was just what the Dr. ordered.  I still felt and looked crappy, but was able to eat, which is more than I can usually do when I'm hungover.  I was feeling positive that I'd kick this hangover in no time.  I was eating, eating is good.

Once we were on our way, it was apparent that this hangover was going to hang on a little longer than I had originally anticipated.  The farther we went down Las Vegas Blvd., the more car sick that I felt.  Add a couple of wrong turns and u-turns and I was feeling downright green.  When it comes to touring and sightseeing, I'm a trooper.  I'd rather vomit in an alley than miss something (true story for another time).  We finally arrived and I reclined the front seat in order to collect my bearings and settle my stomach.  Nick sat patiently with me, glad that it was me and not him, since if it was him, we'd still be in the hotel room.  After a few deep breaths, I felt confident that the nausea had passed, so I got up and went to join the other fans in line to visit the pawn shop.  Side note:  How funny is it that there was a line to get into a pawn shop? 

I was in line less than 5 minutes and the nausea returned.  I didn't want to ruin everyone else's experience, so I looked frantically for somewhere to eject the cheeseburger, etc. from my still-recovering system.  The first spot I found was this dumpster, located directly behind the shop:

As the feeling continued to overwhelm me, I walked BRISKLY through the parking lot and just made it to the green dumpster as my overpriced cheeseburger and cheese steaks made their escape.  Me, being me, I also scoped out what was in the trash while I was there.  Unfortunately, nothing interesting, incriminating or sell-able on eBay.  While this is going on, Nick is holding our spot in line and also keeping his eye on me since I'm holding both my purse and our good camera in the back alley of a seedy part of a kind of a seedy town.  Seedy as in the shopping carts at the local Walgreens lock their wheels if taken too far off the premises.  That kind of seedy.

After blowing lunch (a DAMN EXPENSIVE LUNCH),  I headed back to line and didn't even think about everyone who had just watched that spectacle unfold.  I felt TONS better as we stood behind the velvet rope (not kidding, there was one) and waited for our turn to enter the shop.

So, overall, it was just a pawn shop.  I'm not surprised that it looks better on TV than in real life.  Nick and I went in, took a lap, checked out some of the high dollar items and left.  I did, however buy a t-shirt for my sister, who is a huge fan of the show.  So much so that she told me to go find a Vegas flea market or antique store, buy something and then try to pawn it.  Didn't happen - I tried to talk Nick into purchasing a wagon wheel for this purpose, but he refused.  My argument was that it was an antique.  He had no argument other than the word "no".  So, after our VERY quick lap around the store, we decided to leave.  I needed to lay down and Nick needed to go bet on some sports.  As we were walking outside, who do we see?  CHUMLEE!!!!!!

He had come out of the store and was attempting to get to his car, when people started asking him for photos.  He was super nice and very graciously obliged all of us crazy fans who were standing in line and milling about the shop.  I had the presence of mind to hurry up and grab my sister's shirt and include it in the picture, making me look even more like a crazed tourist.  I'm kind of proud of this picture because I do not look like I puked in the dumpster (or that I was trying to read his trash), or that I was about to puke out the window of a moving vehicle (PPT) on Las Vegas Blvd., OR that I was going to vomit in a parking garage.  Just sayin'.