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  • Tag: Las Vegas

    • grad school: two down

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on May 8, 2017

      Oh hey, remember me? It’s just been a casual few months since I posted anything! I just finished my second semester of grad school, so I finally have time to write for fun, and to feed myself anything besides canned peas and Lara bars.

      This semester was even busier than the last one, since I was also writing for the ASU State Press, and working as a TA for one of the undergraduate classes, in addition to taking some pretty intense classes, and a foreign reporting trip to Mexico, but I made it through. You can check out some of the stuff I’ve been working on here, if you’re interested.

      I have one semester left, which I’ll be finishing in the fall, and over the summer I was accepted to do a fellowship, so I’ll be spending most of my summer in Phoenix (it was 104 degrees yesterday, and it’s only May. Help.) but also traveling to a few places around the country reporting on stories.

      I have a few weeks off before it starts, so I’m jamming in as many things as I can, including a Vegas trip, a few days in the Great White North, and a road trip to New Mexico to visit White Sands, which has been on my list of things to do since we moved here two years ago.

      I’m excited to do some reading for pleasure (!) and post as much as I can here, since I still have some trips from last fall that I haven’t hit publish on yet.

      Posted in life, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged grad school, Las Vegas, new mexico, road trip, travel
    • lake havasu triathlon

      Posted at 9:59 am by jasminedesirees, on November 18, 2015

      london bridge, lake havasu

      Last weekend, I did my second triathlon, in Lake Havasu, Arizona. Our first triathlon was a couple of years ago, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

      This time my mom, my sister and I all did it together. I had been thinking it was time to start training for something all summer, I am a very goal-oriented person so I have to keep setting up new challenges for myself or I get bored and lazy.

      I started training in August, but gave myself until September to sign up, to make sure I had at least started training by then. Training was a lot easier this time, since we had a pool in our building complex in Arizona, I could swim almost every day. When I was training for the first one, I had to go down to the local community pool, and fight off 13 year old SPEED swimmers for lane time a couple times a week.

      I also biked and ran a few days a week, so I felt like I was pretty ready for it.

      The Thursday before the race, we drove up to Vegas, and spent Thursday night and Friday night creeping around there. I didn’t go to sleep until 5 am on Thursday, and woke up quite ill (it’s always the red wine) the next day, which maybe isn’t the mark of a serious athlete, but my family is really fun, and we don’t get to see each other all the time, so we tend to take full advantage when we do.

      On Saturday, we drove down to Havasu, picked up our bikes (we had rented them before hand) and then rode them to our hotel. Unfortunately, we all through our purses (with our phones) into the truck while we were riding, and we got left behind about 15 seconds after we left the parking lot. So we got to drive around for a bit, and finally ask a nice man at a gas station for directions.

      Once we finally found the hotel, we went to pick up our race packets, the race started and finished at London Bridge beach park, and then went to the store to load up on snacks. We did a cross country half marathon in San Francisco a few years ago, and the only thing that got me through it was an Oreo at the rest stops every few miles, so I made sure to have some of those on hand.

      Also when we did our Mt. Rinjani trek, I gave myself one Oreo for every mile I successfully climbed (it was SO hard). At least I have a sophisticated rewards system?

      The morning of the race was pretty chilly, we had packed up and put on all of our numbers the night before, so we just jumped on our bikes and rode down to the beach park. We had about 45 minutes to get set up, get our wet suits on, and chat with other racers, before we went down to the lake to start.

      We were doing the Olympic Tri, which is approximately 1 mile swim, 25 mile bike ride, and 6 mile run.

      The swim was fine, although it was definitely the worst part. It always is. This tri was a lot smaller than our first one, so we weren’t getting kicked and swam over, which I appreciated, but the wet suits we had rented were pretty thick, and made swimming a little harder, and breathing as well. It felt like we were in the water forever, but we actually finished in pretty good time.

      The bike ride went well, it was a pretty good course until the very end where we had to turn around to come back and there were 3 enormous hills that we had to go down, and then back up the other side. And I mean, enormous. I didn’t even feel comfortable going down the hill, let alone capable of riding back up the other side.

      The run is always my favourite part, we put on some tunes and got it done. A few other runners said we looked like we were having way too much fun.

      The whole experience was great, although I would definitely not do a triathlon alone. It’s way more fun when you have other people to commiserate with.

      After the race, we went for drinks, and then made the three hour drive back to Phoenix. I was worried I would be sore the next day, but we all felt good enough for a marathon shopping session, before we eventually passed out collectively at around 8 pm.

      Posted in Arizona, travel, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged bike, lake havasu, Las Vegas, run, swim, triathlon
    • buzz

      Posted at 3:42 am by jasminedesirees, on October 18, 2013

      It’s such a gorgeous day in San Francisco I just want to go play outside. I find it strange that it is 60 degrees here in July and 90 in mid-October, but that’s just one more thing to love about this weird little city.

      I am literally don’t think I can eat any more turkey, but I feel really guilty going shopping for any other food while we still have so much left because there are lots of people in the world that don’t have enough to eat, so there is actually no other food in our house.

      As a direct result of this situation, I had a very large coffee and some chocolate for lunch today and it was delicious and decadent but between the caffeine and the sugar rush I am feeling a bit crazy and I might be developing a twitch in my left eye.

      It might just be excitement though, I’m off to Vegas tomorrow to see two of my most favourite girls, drink a lot of margaritas and spend all my money. It’s not the gambling that gets me, though I do seem to have a unusual talent for craps, it’s the shopping.

      There is a Zara here in SF, but for some reason when I walk into the one in Vegas I want EVERYTHING! Plus they have a Top Shop. Life is good.

      Posted in life, San Francisco | 0 Comments | Tagged coffee, Las Vegas, life, San Francisco, shopping, travel, zara
    • vegas

      Posted at 4:53 pm by jasminedesirees, on June 17, 2013

      We went on our first trip with my sister and her husband a few weekends ago, we were only in Vegas for a couple of nights but we had so much fun. I hadn’t seen them since Thanksgiving so it was great to catch up, and hang out, just the four of us.

      We didn’t win any money, but we did some shopping, dancing, lots of drinking, and ate at some really cool restaurants. I even tried calamari (it’s gross) and encountered a magical chocolate fountain (it was amazing).

      Vegas has always been one of my favourite places, when I was little I always more excited to go to Vegas than Disneyland, I just loved the lights and the environment and the showgirl costumes. Now, with our family so spread out, Vegas is kind of a central place for us all to meet up and be together, so it will always have a special place in my heart, no matter how much of my money it steals.

      I am obsessed with mermaids. I will never grow out of this.
      the mermaid tank at the Silverton
      Siegfriend and Roy’s secret garden
      beatlemania
      hogs and heifers
      thousands of dollars worth of bras. seriously.
      fremont
      old school slot machines that give you actual coins, soooo much better. except his hands were black from touching all the nickels
      this guy had actual magical powers. sooo talented
      i wanted to try every single one of these
      yum
      supper at lakeside, amazing food
      Posted in family, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged dolphins, family, Las Vegas, mermaid, travel
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