I have had quite the time processing the fact the Sean is no longer walking this earth. I never let myself go to the place where I thought he would be gone. I just always thought he would get better. Yes, it was ignorance on my part as it just makes it harder for me to process now that it’s happened. What is especially hard for me was getting the word while I was traveling back home from an awesome vacation and then having it hit me that it’s the same day my father passed away 14 years ago. Someone REALLY doesn’t want me to like July. Just when it’s gotten bearable to celebrate the 4th of July and my birthday…. here we go again. I will never be the same again but I also know that I am one of the luckiest people to have been able to call him one of my best friends. No, we didn’t talk everyday or even every other day and that was the beauty of it all. He was always there when you needed him, no matter what. He was someone you could count on. I met him right before my 16th birthday in 1987 while we were standing in line to go to King Diamond at the Penny Arcade. It was my first concert at a club and the band had trouble getting through the border which made them late to the club so we had to wait outside while they set up. My girlfriend Natalie and I were standing next to Sean and his friend Chris. We started talking and we ended up hanging out for the whole show together. We swapped numbers after the show and we’ve been friends ever since. Just a few more days would have been 24 years since I first met Sean. The only thing that makes this bearable is knowing he’s no longer in pain. Rest in peace, my friend. Someday we’ll meet again.
Category : Friends
Category : Uncategorized
Got up and got everything packed and ready to go! We got the car back to the car rental place and took the shuttle back to the airport. Kelly went to the Delta desk to see if she could change her flight at all. We headed over to the United desk to check in. Got our tickets and headed back to Kelly who was still in line. We decided to head to the security line because it can be long in Vegas! Told Kelly to call us or text when she knew what flight she was on. As soon as we found our gate I headed over to the Starbucks and the Tags and Tapout shops. Called JC and he hadn’t seen Karen’s post from the day before so I told him to look at it. He said he would order the pay-per-view UFC event for me so I could see Tito’s fight later that night. I texted Karen to see if she would be up around midnight so I could give her a call after my flight landed back in Rochester. She said she’d be up and to text her when I got in. We got on the plane and headed for D.C. for our layover. We didn’t have a long layover so I was hoping there’d be no mishaps!! As soon as we landed, I turned my phone on so I could call JC to let him know we were on time and headed to the connection. The first thing that popped up was a text from him telling me about Sean. It was all I could do to keep myself together while getting off the plane and running through the airport to the next flight. Katie and I had to go to the bathroom something fierce but we had to run to the tram to get to our next gate and then through about 5 different escalators and finally to our gate, where we had just enough time to run to the bathroom. We then got in line to get on the next plane, where my brain was running through so many different thoughts. The flight couldn’t get back home soon enough. We landed, I ran to get my luggage, my brother dropped us at the house and I hopped into the shower to rinse off that nasty travel smell. I threw a bunch of clothes in my backpack, grabbed my keys and headed to JC’s house. I called Karen on the way and left her a message. She called back a little while later and we had a good chat. I let her know I’d be there for her if she needed it and my phone is always on. I wasn’t up to talking to too many others so I just went to JC’s and watched UFC. Good fights and got my mind off everything for a little bit. Unfortunately though, I was still on Vegas time so I kept poor JC up all night! I was sooo not tired at all. This week is going to be tough but I’m not in a place to get into now.
Category : Fun
Got up this morning and Mom and I headed over to the Breakfast Buffet while Kelly, Katie and Julie headed to the pool. It was alright but the buffet was not set up very good. There was no flow, and long lines that were a pain in the butt. Afterwards, I put $5 in a slot machine and proceeded to hop machines for a bit. I was up to $101 but I’m dumb and ended up playing it all back into the machines, but I did walk away with my $5 so I really didn’t lose anything! Ha! We headed back to collect the girls and I checked my Facebook quickly and saw the note Karen had written that Sean wasn’t doing to well. She said he didn’t want any more visitors but I thought I’d give a call when I got home and see if I could sneak in for a quick visit anyways. I put on my happy face because I didn’t want to bring anyone else down. We headed over to the MGM to find the UFC weigh ins and they had just started when we got there. They were going to drop me off and go look around but the weigh ins were going quickly so everyone decided to come in with me. We had so much fun. I got some video of when Tito Ortiz came out, who got a standing ovation. Vegas apparently loves him as much as I do!!! I really hope he wins on Saturday. The main card fight, Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz was the last one and the place went crazy for Urijah. He’s really very likeable. The whole place booed Dominick Cruz, which made my mom feel bad for him so she’s rooting for him now haha. After the weigh ins we headed over to the Lion Habitat so Kelly could see the kitties. They were sleeping again but still beautiful to watch. Then we headed over to the Venetian to see if we could catch Shannon but she had already left for the day. We checked out the gondola rides but there was a long wait so we decided against it. Then it was time for dinner so Julie said she wanted to check out Margaritaville so we walked over there. It was about a 45 minute wait but I think we ended up only waiting for about 20 minutes. They serve Boca Burgers so I was all set! I got a drink off the drink menu that tasted like sour candy. It was really good. They have people on stilts that come around and make balloon hats for people. One of them came over and made us all hats. We were laughing so hard. We walked down the strip with them on after dinner and everyone commented on our hats. We also saw Freddy Krueger on the street and I got a picture with him! (Not the real guy but he was dressed like him haha). We went back to the car and headed over to Fremont Street for the show. They now have zip lines there where you can fly over the people just under the screen. I would so love to do this but there was a huge line. I’ll have to do it next time. We went into Binion’s and got our picture taken with the Million Dollars. It was cool. Then we watched the show and caught a couple of the bands playing and headed back to the resort. We have to get up and return the car in the morning and get to the airport. Almost time to say goodbye to Vegas!
We got up Thursday morning and got ready to head out to Bonnie Springs Ranch. This place is so much fun. It’s out just past Red Rock Canyon. We took a wrong turn at one point and ended up near a park with these donkey’s roaming around. Kelly, Katie and Julie got out of the car and they came over and we took a bunch of pictures. A little girl nearby warned us that they were wild and they do bite but they all seemed pretty calm around us. There was a little one that must’ve been a baby. That one came over to me and I was petting it for a bit. We got back in the car and got back on track and headed to Bonnie Springs. We got there about an hour before the next Melodrama show so we headed over to the petting zoo and played with the deer and donkeys and sheep over there for a bit. Then we headed into the village and checked out a couple of the shops. We also stopped at the shooting gallery and tried that. I did alright, Katie did pretty good! We headed to the saloon and grabbed a frosty cold beverage and watched the melodrama. The fun part is that there is a guy dressed as a female like they used to do way back when. It’s a funny sketch with plenty of cheesy jokes. Just the way the Halligan’s like it! Next up was the Public Hanging in the square. The funny thing was Kelly got picked out of the crowd to pull the lever, which I got to do the first time I was there too! It was fun and we got some pics with the guys who work there. After the shows we headed back over to the little restaurant there and had some mid afternoon lunch. We headed back to the city after that and drove by Red Rock Canyon but couldn’t see too much from the road. We then headed up to the Planet Hollywood resort and the Miracle Mile Shops. They have a Bakers shoe store there which we no longer have in Rochester and I found a great pair of shoes for the club that night. Kelly tried a few things on but didn’t really like anything so she opted for an aqua massage instead. We headed back to the resort. I went next door to the deli and got some pizza for dinner. Then Kelly and I got ready for our VIP night out. It was awesome. We went up to the line at the Haze Nightclub at the Aria resort and gave our names. We were right on the list and went right through while other people were waiting in line still. Not sure how exactly that happened but it was awesome! We got three free drink tickets, which we were thankful for after we found out that drinks are $14 a piece just for well drinks!! This place looked like it was straight out of a movie and the DJ was great! It’s like they know any variety of people could be there. The song selection was Katy Perry to Jay-Z to Kid Rock to Beyonce to Guns and Roses. It was just like my iPod!! We had so much fun dancing. We met some people from Brazil that seemed cool. We left around 1:00 am or so and headed back to the resort and promptly passed out from the long day!!
