Full Evacuation

Last weekend my friend Sarah planned a two birds with one stone birthday getaway.  She and I made a full evacuation of the Valley of Happy in the goofiest car you've ever seen, and headed first to Paris.  Sin City version. 


What you can't see are the bedazzled seats that read "soul soul soul soul".  We also fully evacuated this millenium, tuning to 90's on 9.  You down with OPP?

Max Brenner is my new favorite restaurant in Vegas.  I pick a new one every time we go.

This is an INCREDIBLE breakfast.  Omelette with black beans, tomatoes, avacado, and swiss cheese.  That buscuit is "diamond glazed" with sugar, oh HEAVEN!!!  That chocolate fondue to the left made a full evacuation on our index fingers just before we left.  *I still lost 4 lbs. for the weight loss challenge (full evacuation of the excess weight)!*

Headed to Palm Springs via the Barstow outlets which have made a nearly full evacuation from one of the strips.  It was like a ghost town except for the store where we ran in to a couple shopping for bronze fairy and dragon statues. 

We landed a good deal on a B&B but when we arrived all that was left was a queen room.  Miss European desk clerk... we don't roll like that.  She was a little snippy.  Not only was she Euro(hold my buddy's hand as we walk to the crepe stand on the corner)pean, but we later found out that 35-40% of the Palm Springs locals are LGBT. According to a publication in our hotel room they are a valuable asset to the community for their love of mid-century modern design.  I'm shaking my head.   I don't know?!

I put the smart phone to good use and got a 4 1/2 star resort for $10 more than we would have paid while one of us slept on the floor of the bed and breakfast.  DEAL! 

JW Marriott Resort....




Isaac's buddy Brandon is a telephone stalker.  He calls 3 minutes after Isaac gets into the car after school.  And again 3 seconds after that if I don't answer.  So he called all weekend.  Even after I told him I was two states away.  "You think your husband is still going to come get me to go to a movie?" 
"Um.  Maybe you should just walk up there."
"I did. No one was home."
The family had made a full evacuation to Salt Lake where Jason was shopping at Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware.  Getting back at me for all the weekends he's come home to a new paint job, a new floor, a new light fixture.

$34 dollars closer to broke we left GoodWill and headed downtown.  Palm Springs is like a desert Park City.  Ate artichoke outside at a cafe.  Stared at a gay guy who laughed at us because we were staring at a gay guy.  Although he could have been staring at our lush lashes.  Sarah and her mom gave me extensions for my birthday.
For my 40th birthday I'll have my eyelids lifted so you can see my lashes.   I think I may attend to it at a medical spa in this desert playground.  There's one on every corner. 


Headed back to the hotel to finish "Contagion" from the night before.  (Last we knew, people were making a full evacuation of public spaces to avoid contamination).  We grabbed some sushi at the bar in the hotel and ate it in our beds while we watched people succumb to the flu spread by the philandering business woman from Minnesota. 



The following morning CSI JW Marriott Resort was in our room. Note pad and all.
"What did you eat in the last 24 hours?"
"What type of sushi did you have?"
"Was it throwing up then?".....
"Oh, I get it.  FULL EVACUATION."

Awesome. 
I woke up in a sweat 3 times.  The second time I looked over to find Sarah typing on her phone.  Turns out she'd just returned from her berth on the marble floor during the full evacuation of the Philadelphia and JW Signature rolls.  We could have saved $10 and stayed at the bed and breakfast.  Go figure. 

My body cooked it, Sarah's outright rejected it.  It could not have been made worse having just watched a movie where half the world dies of an illness with a mysterious origin and no cure.

We fully evacuated Palm Springs in our Soul in the early afternoon, listening to BYU radio (horrid).  Full of stories and bags of Trader Joe's dried mangos and organic tortilla chips.  Renewed - cleansed even ;)- ready to reinfiltrate our homes.

On My First Tri

I'm typing this entry to avoid running right now.  Mentally I feel like I should have a vacation after my first race on Saturday even though I've run more that twice the distance of the race and have to run more than 4 times its distance in August.  So there.

I don't have any pictures of me or the other Speed Divas on our team from Saturday, but picture me only redder and breathing heavily with my farmer tanned arms bare to the world.  I felt so liberated.  Especially since Shakira was on my ipod keeping her hips honest, when I crossed the timing line to begin my race.

It was mostly uphill at 11:00 a.m. and I'm pretty sure it was 126 degrees.  Especially since I run at o'dark thirty.  Some blessed person on 2nd South and 2nd East put their sprinkler in the road around mile 3 for our relief.  They have probably been translated by now, but you can put flowers on their porch in Salem if you're ever around.  I got passed and then I passed some and when I was certain we were nearly done and pulled out my headphones so I could hear my kids cheer me across the finish line some jovial spectator cheered, "Nice job 10 (it was my number, he wasn't hitting on me), only 1/2 mile to go." 

The other ladies on my team, LuAnn (team captain), and Lori, were fantastic and so much fun.  Thank-you, thank-you for the opportunity!  Maybe next year we can each do it all!  And maybe Georgia will have better bladder control and the fam will be at the finish line.

It was a wonderful atmosphere at the race with a mixture of anticipation, competition, and support.  Potentially addicting.

Blessed #6

I had another post up because I thought I ought to post something this week.

It was really stupid (that's a bad word at our house so don't tell my kids I posted it).

I needed to be reminded of how great my friends are and how blessed I am that I've had so many close friends. It was pretty silly.

I am in sort of funk ever since some folks on Facebook blacked out their names on me.

They were mad that I didn't agree politically. One put "Oh good grief" as a comment and just like that, we were estranged.

Then the other one followed and she wasn't even part of our conversation. The first one must have told her friend not to like me.

I don't know these people, which I think makes it worse that they want nothing to do with me.

Then Chloe ran across the street to try to make a new friend while I was blowing leaves and the lady holding the dog that Chloe was so anxious to get to know proceeded to scream louder than the leaf blower and kick the dickens out of her in front of her mom, Olivia.

Liv said, "You know what I wanted to do Mama? I wanted to tell her, 'Do you like me to kick your dog?' and then I'd still kick it."

A friend of mine posted, "likes people. Almost 99% of the time." Yup.

I'm still feeling funky, but today I feel blessed that wasn't on the list of people that a former boss of mine hired some inmates to murder.

And because I am going to see a silly movie at midnight with some people who would never blackout their names on Facebook.