Las Vegas Cheat Sheet: Things to Do Edition

I've got this blogging momentum going-aiming for three posts in a day!  I think this blogging craze stems from many days and nights of self reflection and analysis induced by moving to a new city alone.  I desire a medium to express my thoughts, many of which have surrounded leaving Las Vegas and longing for much of what it offered me.

I feel like my outside interests and pursuits are facing a definitive end date of August 27th, my first day of graduate school. I've started this frantic blogging frenzy before I run out of time to blog.  I am making a solemn promise to myself, and to this blog that I undertook three years ago, that I will seek out a healthy balance of mental, physical, and spirituality pursuits.  While I'm at it, I encourage everyone reading this to do the same!

Here's my promised list of favorite things to do/places to see in Las Vegas:

Shopping
Town Square
Premium Outlets

Perusing
Tivoli Village
The Districts
Lake Las Vegas

Museums
Springs Preserve
Lied Children's Museum

Performances
The Smith Center
Onyx Theater

Arcades
Pinball Hall of Fame
Gemini Arcade Palace

Shooting
Clark County Shooting Range

Parks
Sunset Park (for the pond)
Desert Breeze (for the dog area)
Mesa Park (for the well maintained tennis courts)

Dive Bar
Dino's (for karoke and pool)

Karoke
X.O. Karaoke Room

Hiking
Red Rock

Drug Dealing
Haha, can't help you here

This list seems rather incomplete but the brain is not recalling things as rapidly at this hour.  I will continue to update this list when the neurons start firing again.  Here's to sweet dreams and fruitful waking hours!

Las Vegas Cheat Sheet: Food Edition

Thank you to those who have inspired me to revive the blog, namely my sister-in-law Jamie and my dear friend Jess (Tang) Coburn. 

When people find out I'm from Las Vegas, the usual reaction is disbelief because I turned out semi-normal (I'm sure there are many who would dispute this) followed by, "Do you have any recommendations of things to do while I visit?"  In fact, my good friend Tamarin is embarking on a trip to Las Vegas as we speak type.  I've decided to compile a Las Vegas Cheat Sheet of all of Jessica's favorites spots in Las Vegas. This way I can just refer people to this page and hopefully boost my readership.  It's all about the numbers, baby!  Also, keep in mind that I'm really not much of a clubber, so if you want clubbing recommendations, I'm not your go-to girl. 

People regularly ask me about the good eats in LV.  They seem to pick up on the foodie vibe I emit.  My follow-up question is usually, "What genre are you looking for?"  Here are my favorite eateries in their respective genres:

Chinese
Three Village Restaurant (awesome shan jian bao)
Yun Nan Garden
Noodle Pot (beef noodle soup)
Asian BBQ & Noodles
China Mama (decent shao long bao)

Japanese
Sushimon on Maryland and Silverado Ranch (note there is a Sushimon on Sahara but it is separately owned and significantly less tasty)
Goyemon
Yama Sushi (only for all you can eat)

Vietnamese
Pho So 1
Da Lat

Soul Food
Ella Em's
M & M

Mexican
Tacos El Gordo
Mariana Marketplaces

Korean
Soyo Korean Barstaurant (excellent soon dobu jegae and kimchee pancake)
Jin Mee

Spanish
Firefly

Afghan
Kabob Express

Filipino
DJ Bibingkahan

Buffets
M Resort Studio B

Hawaiian
Island Flavor

Vegan
Red Velvet Cafe (non vegan offerings as well)

Mediterranean
Market Grille Cafe
Paymon's

Indian
Taj Palace (for lunch buffet only)
India Palace (for non-lunch buffet)

BBQ
Memphis

Thai
Pin Kaow
Corner Thai Kitchen
Surang's Thai Kitchen

Pizza/Hamburgers
Metro Pizza
In and Out Burger (obviously)
Grind Burger
Smashburger

Dessert
Serendipity 3
The Cupcakery

I just realized this list is quite lengthy and more comprehensive than I originally planned.  I am going to break this cheat sheet up into categories and separate posts.  A favorites list of "things to do" will follow in a later entry.  If you need additional recommendations on what to eat at each restaurant (but really I would encourage you to be adventurous), feel free to comment or send me a message on Facebook and I will respond promptly (well as promptly as graduate school will allow for).  Will I ever be able to compile a good eats list for San Diego?  That remains to be unseen as I am on a restricted student budget and eating out just so happens to require money.  It may be high time for a sugar daddy...

Happy eating, folks!

Emotions Abounding

I suppose I should start getting accustomed to this position: eyes heavy, hands on keyboard, feet grounded on the carpet.  Graduate school will undoubtedly bring an onslaught of papers and long nights staring at an overly illuminated computer screen (I just opened up a syllabus for class and oh lawdy, my blood pressure shot up considerably).  Why not prep myself by writing a blog entry?  These keys seem to be a bit dusty anyhow.  

I will always have a special connection with my hometown of Las Vegas.  It's the town of a thousand vices but I love it despite its faults.  Las Vegas has never judged me so I care not to judge her.  I fondly remember making the decision two and a half years ago to venture back home.  I was in Utah at the close of my undergraduate career and driving through something I interpreted as a blizzard (probably more like a flurry to a Utah native) on the freeway.  The snow was resolute in launching its attack and sticking to my windshield.  In defense, I decided to squirt a stream of windshield wiper fluid.  A very foolish move on my part, the windshield wiper fluid now being frozen alongside packed snow.  I cautiously navigated my way to the next freeway exit while peering through a small space on the bottom of my windshield and utilizing my side mirrors.  Once pulled over, I began chipping away at the ice and contemplating if I could realistically stay in Utah for another winter.  With each piece of ice falling to the ground, my resolve became undeniable: I would be flying south for the winter and beyond.

Because of the considerable time I had spent as a child and adolescent in Las Vegas, I assumed I knew the city quite well. Going home would be returning to a comfort zone, a predictable place of friends, eateries, and businesses.  I thought I would venture to my old stomping grounds frequently and bask in the nostalgia.  Las Vegas surprised me this time around because it truly tested my conceptions about what it represented and what it had to offer.  I discovered my assumptions of the people and places were quite outdated or possibly, never accurate to begin with.  I was beginning to experience Las Vegas an adult.

My first job as an adult in Las Vegas required me to journey into areas of the city I had never stepped foot in.  Part of my naivety stemmed from strong beliefs that these areas were less safe or underdeveloped.  Pity I allowed these stereotypes to stop me from exploring, which is so essential to the adolescent experience. Areas like Aliante in North Las Vegas and Mountian's Edge in the southwest are flourishing communities with all the facilities of say, a Green Valley.

I solidified my status as a true foodie after returning to Las Vegas. That statement makes it seem like being a foodie takes some real effort, but eating considerable amounts of good food is really quite simple.  I came to appreciate and adore the fare in Las Vegas-diverse, easily accessible, readily available at all hours, inexpensive and generally delectable.  I even discovered my current favorite genre of food during my 2nd go around in Las Vegas-soul food.  Ella Em's and M & M will convince you that your last meal on earth should be comprised of soul food.  Note to readers: Please make sure my last meal on earth consists of collard greens, yams, smothered chicken, oxtail, and cornbread.  Don't forget the cornbread-extremely important.

Finally, in returning to Las Vegas, I believed I would probably hangout with the same people as yesteryear, in those old familiar places.  Very, very false.  I met some dynamic individuals as an adolescent in Las Vegas and I was fortunate to meet many more after returning in 09.  In our gatherings, we went to places discovered via Yelp: Japanese arcades, dive bars and karaoke clubs.  I learned that coworkers have the potential to become your closest friends, advocates, and supporters (also learned not to date coworkers, but that is another juicy story for another time...like never).    

A month ago, I walked my high school campus before once again, bidding adieu to my beloved Las Vegas.  I'm undertaking that other adventure they call graduate school (Wait, my last post was on GREs and now I'm in graduate school, when did this happen?!?). While walking, I noticed that the outside of my high school is pretty barren, a bit sterile even.  But inside those walls there is so much growth happening and so many seeds being sown for future growth.  Las Vegas was a great place to start and a great place to come back to.  I'm grateful I had a second chance to experience her and I apologize for all the previous Vegas bashing.  You won't hear me utter another word.  

Poor brazenasian...

left to rot in the vault of forgotten blogs. You know you've got something real with your blog when you feel pangs of guilt for not writing or frequenting its site often enough.

I've been keeping myself busy with non-bloggy things like looking for jobs, applying for jobs, and interviewing for aforementioned jobs. I had an interview last Monday and I am preparing for one tomorrow. There was so much trepidation surrounding my move back to Las Vegas and the subsequent job search in a city with 13% unemployment. My brother constantly reminded me of the daunting statistic and urged me to stay in Provo. I've always been one to throw caution to the wind. I call it faith or idealism, others would probably call it sheer stupidity. Whichever it is, I am happy that I cured my case of indecisiveness and decided to move back to Las Vegas. If one of the greatest gifts we are given is agency, we shouldn't hesitate to employ it. Yes, this is one of my new year's resolutions: to use my agency more actively; not only use my agency but be completely satisfied and content with the decision that was made.

My dear friend Jennie Yri wrote a very well-worded post on agency. I am reposting it here because she truly encapsulates my thoughts in her writing, it doesn't hurt that she incorporates a Matrix quote...how I do love the Matrix series. One day I will employ her as my personal ghostwriter.

Because I choose to
Jennie Yri (click on her blog link on the far right to read more)

The words of Neo in the final Matrix movie are somewhat immortal to me. They go with other timeless quotes such as "To thine own self be true". And they get at something that I think is at the heart of our very existence. The backdrop is Agent Smith fighting him, with mind as well as body. He has throughout the whole triology been telling Neo that "It is inevitable". And it culminates in this moment:

Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson, why, why do you persist?

Neo: Because I choose to.

Because I choose to. These are the words that ring out and stand as a banner for everything we are and everything we can be. It is the admission that in everything we do there is, or at least at one time, there was a choice. We cannot control the world around us. We cannot stop the winds and the storms, we cannot stop the sun from rising, or force it to rise, but in ourselves, we are our masters. We choose what we do. This is the powerful gift, the divine gift of agency.

The whole point of the atonement is to give us the ability to raise from the ashes from our own bad decisions. It is to give us greater freedom to choose, and that one bad decision will not ruin our lives and destroy our ability to choose forever, but as we cling to that, that we may gain greater and greater freedom. If you look at any command the Lord has given, what appears to be a restriction upon closer inspection is a protection of that divine right to choose, a guide to help people stay away from those things that destroy agency, that impair choice.

It is not inevitable. Nothing is inevitable. We can choose, and we can repair our impairment to choose through the atonement. The consequences of our decisions are natural. Certain choices lead to certain consequences. The choice is the decision in the first place. We can choose anger and bitterness. We can choose strife. We can choose to love. We can choose to hate. Every moment of every day, we have a choice. Nothing is inevitable. We are who we are, we do what we do, because we choose to.

Thanks for trashing my town, folks....

Vegas should've erected a sign that I've seen in many a BYU student's apartment/dorm, "Your mother doesn't live here, clean up after yourself." Maybe a giant billboard would've sufficed?

A massive clean-up crew was brought in to deal with the mess so that Las Vegas Blvd could be opened as soon as possible to allow the masses to return home and forget about their night of debauchery. If only everything in life could be the same way.

This was my first New Years on the strip. Being a native of Las Vegas, I never really had a desire to be a part of, 'America's party.' This year, the fireworks show and the prospect of being with old friends from high school enticed me to venture onto the strip. Little did I know that the fireworks show wasn't going to be like previous years, with numerous fireworks going off the rooftops of various casinos. Because of (last years?) Monte Carlo fire, crews were forced to light fireworks off of parking structures, causing the fireworks to be barely noticeable from ground level.

OBSERVE:
Seeing my old buddies from HS was definitely worthwhile-never mind that they were drunk! ;) Harry and I, being total novices to the whole strip experience, weren't aware that LV Blvd would be entirely closed after a certain time. After an hour and a half of desperate parking spot searching we gave up and parked on Industrial, a very far walk from the bar/club we were going to. Luckily, a cab driver noticed our frantic/desperate hand waving to get a cab, and stopped to pick us up. Harry couldn't understand his accent, especially when he said he was from "Cooo-ba." One of my favorite songs is from the 'Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights' CD, so I immediately recognized that he was from none other than Cuba. Thank you Diego Luna! (hottie!)

Our Cuban cab driver couldn't save us from our walk back to our car after the night was over. No thanks to a pair of unbecoming shoes from Hong Kong (I believe they were only 6 US dollars) I painfully hobbled the entire 2 (or was it 3) miles. Harry will probably claim that my estimate is overstated-whatever.

Final note: Vegas is not just for tourists-there are thriving residential communities that exist just a few miles from the strip. I think tourists tend to forget that-or maybe they're just too drunk to remember such a "minute" detail. It's incredibly disheartening for a native to see a symbolic part of her town being desecrated in such a manner. When I go to your house, I pick up after myself. Now it's your turn to return the favor.

Thanks and Happy New Years.