Author: elsims

I think the fact that I just attended a wedding inspired me to finish this post. Lol. By the way, the wedding was beautiful. We officially have Steven and Joy Parker. Ready to party at the reception.

On to the business at hand. So my friend Monica tagged me on Facebook about a young lady who was on The Steve Harvey Show. This young lady was presented with 50 available men, one from each state. She listed off about 4 requirements that she had for a man. Simple, not asking too much. Belief in someone or something greater than self, a car, his own accommodations not shared with anyone else and one other. Sorry I don’t remember what it was. More than half the men walked off the stage. Steve now asks her to list a couple of more requirements. She listed about 3 more, not wanting everything to be 50/50, not a macho man and a serial dater. She is now left with 4 men. Four men out of fifty! Wow. She says that she may be asking for too much. Steve reassured her by saying, “It is not your standards. It’s that you have to find men that meet ’em”.

I am not bringing this up to bash men at all. I believe that some of the men probably walked off because they were not interested in her and that’s fine. I am sure that a good portion also walked off because they did not fit her requirements. Mind you she did not say anything about height, hair color/style or overall looks. She was very clear in what she wanted. She had a set of standards that she knew had to be in place in order for her to have a happy and healthy relationship. I want to give her a high-five with the way she rattle them off. I have written down my needs and wants but I probably wouldn’t have been able to pick a clean 4 – 6 right off the top of my head. If placed in her position, could you do that? Men? Women?

The issue that I did have was the comment section. People, of course, are horrible on social media. They are bullies who say the meanest and most hurtful things. We know most of them wouldn’t dare have the balls to say it in your face, yet the hateful comments are still disturbing. Commentators, men and women, were putting her down about her standards and her looks. They were saying she would never find a man because she was expecting too much. Now y’all did hear me say she listed 6 – 7 things. They called her materialistic and a gold digger. To say that you don’t want a 50/50 relationship doesn’t make you a gold digger. I am seriously disappointed in the women who were making the comments. Really, we attack other women for having standards. Y’all hoes need to get some and stick to them. And if you don’t feel the need to have standards, don’t judge anyone else for having them.

Standards, in my opinion, are very important. I am shallow and I believe I dwell more on preferences. There is a big difference between the two. Preferences are things like looks, height, weight and social status. My preference is a man who has a height of 6 ft. or taller, brown skin, average build, nice smile and all his hair. My standards would be along the lines of someone who believes in God, has a job, a car and a place to stay that is not with his parents and who is successfully taking care of himself. A man who views marriage the same way that I do and who is loyal, upfront and honest about all the things that are important to us. No one is completely honest so I had to be specific on that point. And someone who loves me more than I love him. I am unsure if this is a preference or a standard. Lol.

Standards are guarantees that you will get treated the way that makes you feel loved and valued. They allow you to walk away from a relationship that does not serve you or makes you happy. How many times have you relaxed your standards and walked away from a relationship wishing you would not have done that? You are now bruised, figuratively and literally, distrusting and angry. You hate all men or women. You take that venom that is now inside you into the next relationship. To the person who meets your standards but you can’t relax because you are still carrying baggage from the last experience. I have been this person, kinda. I have relaxed my standards and been hurt pretty bad. But I start each new relationship giving that person the opportunity to present who they are. Not comparing them to the last one. It is unfair and can allow you to miss out on a really great person.

Do you know what your nonnegotiables are? Have you written them down? If you don’t know them yet, I would suggest looking at previous relationships and taking note of what was good and what was bad. The good things that you would want in future relationships could be the start to your list of standards. The bad things will also tell you what you are not willing to put up with no matter who the hell it is. It is so important to know yourself, your value and love yourself. It is the key to living a happy and healthy life. A life that when you look back you can say I have had more good than bad. That I lived with standards that represented me and I took shit off no one. It is not too late to start. If this speaks to you, it is time to reevaluate so that you can live well and whole. Love you all and wanting the best for each and every one of you.

Here is the link to the episode on YouTube. Check it out.

I must be honest. I have been overdoing it, a lot. My legs are like jelly. I have walked, rested in my room, got back up and walked some more. A couple of things about the Las Vegas strip I don’t like. One, they do not have any fucking benches on the strip. I did not see a single one between all my walking Thursday and yesterday. I did see a couple in the alley between the Linq and Margaritaville. That doesn’t count because it is a section that takes you off the strip. I guess they think that people are going in and out of the casinos so why bother. And I get that, kinda. But to get into some of the casinos is a pretty far walk. Give us a place to rest and recharge for a minute, dammit!

The second thing I don’t like is you can smoke in the casinos. Ugghhh!!! No offense smokers, but if you don’t smoke the smell is disgusting and overpowering to the senses. That truly threw me for a loop because I had no idea. I appreciate that the restaurants do not allow smoking. It gives a reprieve for the smoke. Now I did appreciate the cigar bar. It is a closed in area so you are not smelling the smoke. Next time I will take advantage of that. I don’t mind smoke in that setting because I am voluntarily exposing myself and partaking as well. I am not just walking around being bombarded with smoke in the face. Lol.

As I mention I did a good deal of walking and picture-taking. Here is few pics.

Ok last one.

Ok I lied, one more lol

The highlight of my day was ziplining at the FlyLinq at the Linq Hotel and Casino. They have morning and evening ziplining. I picked an evening time due to the heat and the sun, which are both not my fans. Also, I love lights so the evening time really worked for me. There was a few different ways to go across the zipline. You could go across sitting down facing frontwards or backwards. Or you could go across in the Superman pose, laying flat, frontwards or backwards as well. I chose the sitted position facing frontward this time. Next time I will do the Superman pose. Not sure if I will choose front or back. This was the one thing I definitely wanted to do this trip and I am happy that I did. I can cross it off my bucket list.

Now here is a bit of information for those who are interested in this attraction. All of your belongings need to be able to fit in a bag that they are going to attach to your person. I had an issue because my walking stick didn’t go down far enough to fit in the bag. I had to leave it with the people who checked me in. This also meant I had to walk all the way back to get it. Lol. Yea, I probably just looked drunk walking so I fit in with everyone. The other thing to note is once you have completed your ride there is not an elevator to take you back down. Lots of steps. Lots! You can of course purchase pics of yourself on the ride and the ones they take before the ride. I didn’t at the time but I may later off the website. Only if they are cute though 😂😂😂.

The other thing I would recommend is purchasing your tickets online. It saves you $5. Have you been to Vegas and ziplined on the FlyLinq? What way did you go down? Would you do it again? Please share your experience in the comments. Continue to be well and whole everyone.

I am bass ackward. I have a post labeled Vegas Baby Pt. 1 but I haven’t finished it yet. This one however is complete so I’m posting it first. Lol. Y’all know I’m different.

I am such a loner. Last night I headed out on the Las Vegas Strip all by myself. It may sound unsafe but it was not. It was fifty million people. And the majority of them were rude as hell. I do not use my walking stick in my day-to-day operations, but I always have it with me when I am traveling. You would think that when people see me walking with it that they would have a little courteous, not so much. They were walking in front of me, on top of me and one even stepped on the back of my shoe. I had to dig deep into my reserve of politeness not to whack a person with my stick. I really thought about it seriously. Actually I was itching to do it. Yeah, I am not even a violent person, but I have my limits. I can proudly say I did not hit anyone with my stick but I did elbow a couple of people.

I didn’t make it to far down the strip. I stopped at the Cosmopolitan to rest my legs. I had to weigh my options at that point. Walk down a little further or save the leg strength I just gained to make it back to my hotel. Commonsense prevailed, back to the hotel. I walked back by the Bellagio and purchased a beer from a street vendor. Watched the water show again. I took the escalator up. When it was time to take one down, I wasn’t so confident. Yea I was a little buzzed off that beer. Lol. Thank God for elevators! At the bottom it was a ledge for me to rest again. I caught this sight.

Yes that is a dog 😂😂😂.

I did get a couple of good shots of the strip and the water show.

I happen to run into Steve, the groom, and a couple of other guys back at Caesar’s. The ladies and gentlemen were partying separately. If I wasn’t being so antisocial, I could have hung out with the ladies. There is always tonight though. And of course the wedding, the reception and  the after party. The plan for today is solo strip walking again before it gets too hot. It is supposed to be 96 degrees today. Too fucking hot for me.

Vegas in its grandiose is beautiful but I am not cool with all this rudeness. I know times have changed but manners should be eternal. I pray that you continue to be well and whole.