I feel like I just got back from a wild week in Vegas ...

Between a concert, an anniversary soiree, a welcome party and a birthday bash, capped off with a night gambling at a makeshift casino -- my weekend started on Tuesday and is still going strong. But in the midst of my mini Spring Break in Char-Vegas, I took a taxi to hell. I somehow managed to hail a cab with a driver who didn't get the whole left-turn-yield-at-green-light law and, in turn, I ended up in a totaled taxi on the corner of Tryon and 6th with a busted collar bone. If you happened to have seen the tourist attraction of emergency vehicles hovering around up-rooted sidewalk fixtures attached to a destroyed taxi van ... that was me. So now I'm hungover, loopy on pain medication and one-handed because my left arm is in a splint. What happens in Char-Vegas stays in Char-Vegas, but that's my taxicab confession.

Hip-Hop is not dead ...

Nas made a stop in Charlotte on his Hip-Hop is Dead Tour and of all places to entertain the masses, he came to Neighborhood Theatre. Theatre being the operative word here -- he didn't play an arena, or a club -- he came to a theater in NoDa. The Nas concert was a cultural convergence of hippie-hop. 1,100 heads packed the theater, filling it to the brim -- MTV was even there with cameras rolling. Nas wasn't the only one proving that hip-hop still has a pulse. The opening act managed to hype the crowd with the same level of excitement as the headliner ... did I mention the opener was merely a DJ from Raleigh? DJ BroRabb with old-school vinyl that kept the theater in a standing ovation of dance moves?

Saving the world, one dedication party at a time ...

Charlotte came together with an altruistic array of philanthropic parties with dedicated profits. Including: Von Mariee Events hosted Bowling for Babies to benefit the March of Dimes, the MS Walk made strides at the Mint Museum, and Cans transformed into a scene from Casino Royale for Chips for Charity -- that charity being Hands on Charlotte.

I really did feel like I was in Char-Vegas at the makeshift Cans casino; the only thing it was missing was free alcohol being served by the lusty cocktail waitresses, who were only serving Miller Lite as the beer option. So we "tapped that glass" while waiting to get a spot on the craps, poker and blackjack tables crowded with generous gamblers ... Cheers for Charity!