All good things come to those who wait and just BELIEVE.

I have just returned home last night from a fabulous week long stay in Las Vegas and I already want to go back! Vegas is an incredible city with so much to see and do and drink and eat! It is such a magical place, full of energy and wonder!

We stayed at the ..MGM.. Grand and our room was great! Originally we planned to stay at the Luxor because of Criss Angel having his show there and his stores. I became concerned about the beds though. I cannot sleep on a basic spring coil mattress without my Fibromyalgia slipping into an extreme pain flare up. Luckily I was able to get my deposit back on the room at the Luxor and change over to the MGM. I am so happy that we were able to switch! The beds there were fantastic and wonderful for a good night's sleep after a long day and night out on the town.

Upon our arrival we had to wait for our room to be ready since our flight landed in Las Vegas at 10:30am and checkout from the hotel is not until 11am.We proceeded to have lunch at 'witchcraft in the MGM and then went to check out the pools. Yes, there are more than one! We bought yard long margaritas and drank them while lounging by the pool with the lazy river. Saving your yard long cup allows you to buy refills for 9 bucks. Pretty sweet!!

Once we finally were able to go to our room and unpack we headed out to the Luxor. The walk wasn't too bad, fairly close to MGM which was nice. The weather was great all week, high 70's and low 80's. Perfect!!

Over at the Luxor immediately headed to the area where some of Criss Angel's motorcycles are on display and spent just a tad too much money at the official Mindfreak store. The shop is incredible! It is full of memorabilia from past episodes of Mindfreak. My favourite are the hooks that were in Criss' back when he did the body suspension while hanging from a helicopter flying over the desert. It was the first episode of Mindfreak I ever saw.

Luxor sure has changed since I was there in 2004! The casino had a major renovation and is much more modern now. I really like the fresh new look!

On Sunday, March 15th we went back to the Luxor for brunch at their new restaurant called Tacos & Tequila. On Sunday's they serve brunch from 11am-3pm with 2 for 1 margaritas. Yum yum! T&T is a really great restaurant with good service and the food is amazing!! On our way to the Luxor that day I stopped to take some pictures of the outside of the hotel. I was standing at the bottom of the driveway leading up to the Luxor front doors. Suddenly this gorgeous black Lamborghini came roaring down the driveway and tore off down the strip. Criss Angel sighting #1!! I'd know that car anywhere!

From there we picked up our tickets for Criss Angel's called "BeLIEve" before we walked over to Mandalay Bay to visit their aquarium. They have some really cool fish there including a touch pool where you can pet stingrays. They have massive moon jellyfish and an even bigger octopus who was really putting on quite a display!

Naturally we played the slot machines and over all I did fairly well. I only lost $30 of my own money the entire week! The rest of the time I played with my winnings.

Joe, Kathy and I managed to visit almost every major hotel on the Las Vegas strip. At the Bellagio we watched the fountain show more than once during the day and again at night. The fountains are set to music and now to shows are alike. Inside the Bellagio the floral glass ceiling is so impressive as is the indoor garden. The theme in the garden changes to reflect the season and the ideas for spring are incredible!! Snails were made out of roses and ladybugs of red carnations. So creative!

At the Mirage we went to Sigfried & Roy's secret garden to see the dolphins and big cats. The white lions are beautiful and we got to see the 10 month old white tiger cubs running and wrestling. We also saw the new baby leopard and baby dolphin. We ate dinner at the Mirage buffet that night. The food was fantastic! Naturally we stopped to watch the volcano erupt outside the Mirage and the Sirens outdoor show at Treasure Island.

The Venetian hotel offers amazing views of Mirage and TI. There are gondolas that start outside and take you inside the hotel on the river that drops you off in the concourse of the Venetian which is decorated to look like you are outdoors. The architecture is wonderful!!

My personal favourite part of the trip, and entire reason for going, was to see Criss Angel's new stage show "BeLIEve." I have never seen anything so good in my entire life!!!!

The Believe theatre gorgeous. Very dark, black walls with red velvet seats. The walls around the stage are gold with huge golden rabbits and a funky clock at the very top. 4 Cirque performers come out before the show even starts and they entertain the audience. Their faces are painted like very elegant clowns. Each one has a different personality. One his absolutely huge in a fat suit with a gigantic bum. LOL! He walks around offering people hand fulls of popcorn from his popcorn box. Haha! They duct taped a couple into their seats for no reason. LMAO! One of the actors gave my friend a kiss on her hand and kept waving to her all night. So funny!!! Atleast 3 times one of them kept going up on stage and saying "Ladies and gentlemen...CRISS ANGEL!" and a stuffed rabbit would poke it's head out of the red velvet curtains. Hahahaha!

When the show finally starts, a huge video screen plays a montage of clips from Mindfreak. Like I'm not excited enough! LOL! When the screen drops there is Criss LEVITATING in mid air! I got tears in my eyes the moment I laid eyes upon him. Finally getting to see the man who changed my life in such a profound way was so over whelming. When I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia almost 4 years ago at 22 years old it was incredibly hard for me to come to terms with this illness. There is no cure for Fibromyalgia and the thought of having to live every day of the rest of my life with chronic pain was shocking and depressing. Criss has an incredible outlook on life and he was the one person who was able to inspire me to fight and keep on living when it felt like all hope was lost.

Criss floats down to the stage and runs out to the front, the audience going crazy! He takes some time to talk to the crowd and selected a girl out of the audience to do a prediction with him. She was from Toronto which is only an hour away from me!!! Hanging above the stage was a metal box and it was in plain view the entire time, even before Criss picked the girl out of the crowd. He asked her to say any word she wants so she said "Eyes" Sure enough when Criss brought the box down and opened it up the word Eyes was written on the huge sheet of paper inside the box. Amazing!!!

He has an assistant on stage with a POV camera and he asks her to video the audience but it comes up really dark on the screen. She gets crabby and yells at Criss because it is too dark and he calls her a bitch. LMAO! It was staged that way and I will explain why in a moment.

Criss then plays a video clip from the Tesla coil stunt. That episode always gives me goosebumps since Criss was hurt so bad during that one. Off to the side I see Criss putting on that metal suit again! The screen drops and there is a huge Tesla coil going crazy with electricity. Criss said he was going to do the stunt again for us. Of course it is staged and Criss gets electrocuted and wheeled off on a stretcher. Video is played of Criss backstage, bloody with burnt skin, his face not recognizable anymore. Pretty cool special effects!!

A robotic rabbit pops up on the right side of the stage. He looks so real, it's creepy!! The rabbit's name is Lucky and he tells the audience about the tragedy of rabbits dying in their line of duty in magic shows. Of course a lamp from the top of the stage falls down and kills Lucky. The ushers from earlier in the show come out and lay Lucky to rest with some roses. Then the Cirque performers come out in amazingly elaborate rabbit costumes and dance The Homage of the Rabbits. There is one rabbit dressed in black and leather, it is the same girl who held Criss' camera. She is the evil ruler of this alternate reality. See? Makes sense now why she was such a bitch before! LOL.

Criss' body is wheeled by on the stretcher at the back of the stage. The rabbits turn on him, drag his body to the middle of the stage and start to tear his flesh and rip him limb from limb! The fake body they made for this is rather impressive!

The ushers come back and fight off the rabbits. They re-assemble Criss' body and it is placed in this huge machine that holds the body by the waist. In a flash that body disappears and Criss is back! Topless I must add. ;) He was topless for a lot of the show, proving that he was not hiding anything on him to assist in his illusions. Fine by me, I was more than happy to feast my eyes upon that bod! ;)

Criss is now lost in this strange alternate reality. The story actually reminds me of an evil version of the Wizard of Oz. He walks battered and uncoordinated with the ushers and asks "Where am I?" and "Why are all these drunk people staring at me?" LMAO! He made a joke earlier when he was walking through the audience because a few people had MASSIVE cups of beer and margaritas with them. LOL!

The evil people of this world try their best to take Criss down. He levitates again wearing a huge pair of black angel wings while Cirque actors dance below him dressed like white doves. When Criss floats back down to the stage a flock of real white doves appear out of thin air and fly over the audience. It was beautiful!

Criss disappeared and re-appeared so many times it was crazy! How he moves so fast is incredible. He was put in a straight jacket and hung by his ankles over the audience. He started to spin like mad in circles and got out of that jacket in under 15 seconds! Amazing!!!

Remember when he walked upright down the side of a building? He did it in the show but walked down a silver curtain!!!

Criss is abducted and the ushers are wandering through a forest trying to find him. Suddenly one of the ushers appears right beside us and he was on the stage only a second ago. The usher standing beside us sheds his costume and it is actually Criss! While wandering through the forest there is a huge rabbit head on the ground. The head flips over and starts to walk on it's ears! Pretty neat!

While trying to find their way out of the forest this massive monster comes out on the stage. It had to be atleast 20 feet tall and looked sort of like a dinosaur made from tree branches and bark. Criss and his friends try to fight the demon off and Criss ends up running off the stage, across the front row and through the audience a few rows back. Suddenly he is gone! The monster falls apart and Criss is inside!

One of the Cirque members did the trick with Criss where it looks like she is passing through the middle of his body. He was also cut in half just like on Mindfreak only a bit more graphic with his intestines spilling out. That trick just blew me away! It's amazing to see in person because even though you KNOW it's a fake body, his head is still there and he is screaming but where the hell does is actual body go!? It was just like on Mindfreak, he was separated right in two pieces and actors walked between him. I can't get over it!

The ending of the show was perfect. Just Criss standing under a single spotlight and he whispers "Believe."

After all the actors take their bows, Criss talks to us again and does one last trick. He said that critics and skeptics say it cannot be done live and has to be a camera trick but he showed them!! He was covered with a silver sheet and just as fast as he was covered, the sheet was pulled back and he was gone! My hands hurt from clapping so much and my cheeks hurt because I didn't stop smiling for an hour and a half!

After the show we grabbed a margarita and went for dinner. I went back to the Believe store and spent way too much money.

When the 9:30 show finished at 11 we waited for the crowd to die down and then went to stand in the large hallway between the Believe store and the theatre entrance. Around 11:30 a girl came out and said that Criss had already left and she kept on walking into the casino. I refused to believe her but a lot of people did actually leave. Maybe they do this to thin out the crowd a bit? Only the true Loyals would not believe her and wait longer. Just before midnight he man I recognized as Criss' assistant came out, took a look at the people waiting and went back inside. A few minutes later Criss came out, all smiles, carrying Hammie. :) He is so nice and was so happy to see us all! He promised to wait until everyone got a chance to talk to him.

When it was finally my turn he flashed me that fantastic smile and said "HEY! How are you!?" I showed him my tattoo and his eyes just lit up! It was so wonderful to see. Criss hangs on your every word and looks you straight in the eye. I love how attentive he is! He looked at my tattoo and the little bugger ran his fingers down my arm! I swear my heart stopped beating just a little. Hehehehe! Criss smiled again and said "It's beautiful, thank you." He looked me right in the eye, smiled again, and then said ever so softly "Will you wait for me? I'd like a picture for my website." I just about melted. The way he said those words "Will you wait for me?" so smooth, soft and sexy. Hell yes I'll wait for you!! LOL! He had already started to snake his arm around my waist for the picture while asking me.

He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in for a picture. My goodness did he ever have one heck of a grip on me! I asked him if he got my flowers and his assistant said he took them up to Criss' room. :) Criss gave me a squeeze with the arm he had around me and said thank you again.

After we took the picture he rested his hand on my back, which was bare due to the halter top I was wearing, sigh Criss gestured to his left and said softly again "Wait for me?" I said of course, for the second time now. hehe. Hearing him whisper those words to me once was incredible but twice!? There are no words to describe that feeling. Criss let me pet Hammie and I have never felt a cat with fur so soft!! Hammie was purring up a storm. So cute!

I stood off to the side about only a foot away from Criss while he met everyone else. He kept looking back and smiling at me though, making sure I was till there. Once he finished taking pictures with everyone he had his assistant take a photo of my tattoo and Criss checked it before we left to make sure he liked the way it turned out. Looks pretty awesome to me!

Ah....what a night!!!!!!....

What a trip!!!

It is so hard to explain just how special getting to see and meet Criss was for me. It all goes back to that very first time I laid eyes upon Mindfreak almost 4 years ago. His constant drive to push himself further and his incredible outlook on life just blew me away. Not to mention he can endure some of the most extreme physical pain and mentally demanding challenges and walk away successful. At the time I was suffering physically and mentally and barely able to get myself out of bed. I knew I had found someone special and life has never been the same from that day on.

Trying to explain to a person all the physical and mental pain a person with Fibromyalgia can suffer along with how this illness effects every single thing we has humans do in normal day to day life. All the things we take for granted, it is all smashed into a million pieces and it is a major challenge to pick up all those pieces again. Some struggle with it their entire life. Some can never learn to come and some find the strength to learn and fight.

When I was officially diagnosed it was both a blessing and a curse. It was good to know what I had and that it was not life threatening but it was awful to think that here I am, 22 years old, and I have an illness that is going to cause me pain for the rest of my life. I have an illness that will directly effect my central nervous system and it does not have a cure.

My doctor started me on a pain management medication program, starting out with the lowest dosage possible so we could see if I would suffer any major side effects. From there we slowly increased the dosage until we found the dosage that would start to give me relief. The problem is this particular medication takes time to build up in your body. It takes 2-3 weeks before you will notice any changes whether they be positive or negative.

After the first month I did not have much success with pain management but did not suffer any side effects so we increased the medication by 10mg. Again, I would have to take my pills daily and wait 2-3 weeks before I would know if this was a good dosage. It took roughly 6 months of trial and error before we found the dosage that would help. These 6 months and the year I spent prior to this undiagnosed was the worst year and a half of my entire life. I struggled constantly with anxiety and depression.

It has taken me all these years to fully feel comfortable talking about my illness. I didn’t let anyone know just how terrible I felt during that first year and a half. Not my friends, not my family, not even my husband. It can still he tough to talk about now, especially because Fibromyalgia is one of those illness that is very hard to understand if you do not have it yourself. Unlike other chronic illness like Cancer for example, Fibromyalgia does not present itself on the outside. You could look at a picture of me now and compare it to a picture of me from before my illness started and see no difference. Just because I LOOK fine does not mean I AM fine. For a long time though I used that to my advantage and was able to hide behind that mask. However, I did not know how much longer I could continue to do that and sometimes wondered if I even wanted to try.

Seeing Mindfreak for the first time completely turned my world around a full 180 degrees. I was fascinated with Criss, his work, and his incredible urge to keep learning and fighting through obstacles. Not only did I find myself an amazing entertainer but an exceptional human being. So kind, so generous, so caring, so positive and so happy! Criss truly is an angel in every sense of the word. To me Criss is not just the best illusionist the world has ever known, he is the man who saved my life.

Follow this link to see pictures from my trip. http://luxuria.smugmug.com/gallery/7700915HGc7w#497648374bpk3f