And then a bear ate my head

Our last full day in Vegas we walked up and down the strip, and came upon the giant Coke store. (Coca-cola, just to clarify. It is Vegas, after all). Lizzie and I love Diet Coke with an unholy passion, so we had to go in. As you can see from the picture, there was a person dressed up as a polar bear (at first we thought it was animatronic, but it wasn't) with whom you could take a free picture. Obviously Lizzie and I needed to do this. Two small children were in front of us, and as the camera snapped, the bear leaned down and bit the little girl's head. She didn't flinch. When it was our turn, the bear leaned down and bit my head. I screamed. And made that face. (Thanks to Erin for the fabulous photography). Danielle laughed at me, and said "You saw it do that to the little girl!" and I said "Yes, but I'm an adult!" and she said "AN ADULT WHO JUST HAD HER PICTURE TAKEN WITH A GUY IN A BEAR SUIT" and I said "TOUCHE."

I was traumatized, and spent much of day two of the rodeo reminiscing about the time a bear ate my head (though to be fair, if I were a bear, I would totally gnaw on someone's skull). This was the finals of the Finals, so we got to see the cowboys get their gold buckles. One poor kid got bucked off and stomped by a bull, and they had to take him out on a backboard. Turns out his arm was fucked up (that is the medical term) but it could've been a lot worse (he could've gotten his head eaten by a bear, for instance). I also managed to fall down the stairs on the way out, but for once my scrawny (I mean massive) bicep was able to keep my more substantial ass from careening all the way down, so it just felt like I'd been racked for a few minutes. It's not my fault, guys, I'd been nearly mauled, and the trauma threw off my balance. I was probably having a flashback or something.

After the rodeo we went to old Vegas, and had some gross Chinese food. Since our flight was so early the next day, we couldn't really stay out late, but I've heard there are lots of bears in old Vegas, so it's probably better that way. I'm just surprised we were allowed to leave, since not one of us gambled the entire weekend. Luckily they're building some casinos in Massachusetts, so we won't have to go far to pay our "bad at math and calculating odds" tax.

Watch out for the bears, y'all...