Palm Springs

Sorry for the unexpected silence the last few days.  I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but I had to head out to Palm Springs to handle my first site visit at my job.

My flight on Friday night was delayed by over two hours out of O'Hare because of bad weather in the morning that pushed everything back.  Luckily, I was nice to the customer service person at the airport and she got me on the already overly booked and delayed flight that was leaving 15 mins from now.  I pulled a runner across the airport and was able to get there and secure my new ticket with time to spare.  After that fiasco, and the number of people that were unsuccessful flying standby, I was willing to deal with my middle seat.  Even if I sat by the "guy who has to sit with his legs apart and his arms all over the armrest" and the "woman who wouldn't stop shaking her leg".

I arrived in Palm Springs at 11:45pm.  Just in time to say hello to Amanda and head back to her parents house.

The best thing about this trip was that Amanda was able to come down and stay for the weekend, and her parents and sister were there as well.  It was a family reunion of sorts for me because I had not seen her family in at least 5 years.

We had a lot of fun wandering around doing some shopping, hitting the Living Desert, and just have a relaxing time chatting and catching up.  I did manage to snag a few photos.

First, after dinner Saturday night, we swung into a sunglasses shop.  I was trying on a few regular glasses.  Have I mentioned before that I have glasses envy?  I have good vision and don't need glasses, but I wish I did. I love how nice people look wearing glasses.  I found a nice pair that I had to snag a photo for proof that I really have the "face" for glasses. :)

Then, on Sunday, we stopped at her family's favorite place.  It's a big resale shop for lots of estate pieces.  They have artwork, furniture, jewelry and other things.  It's seriously an amazing place.  If I lived down there, I could see buying most of my furniture.  I should've done a better job of snapping photos of things.  I did grab a shot of my favorite photo in there.  Shortly after I took this picture, Amanda told me she loved that photo.  Guess just more evidence of why we are friends.  It is so fantastically retro and girly.  If she doesn't buy it soon, I may have her parents buy it for me.  Then I could plan a trip carrying MORE artwork (I'll get to this story tomorrow).

It was titled "Hairdresser" and was framed for $100.

Finally, on Monday, I had to actually WORK on this trip.  So I checked into the hotel I was staying at and took my site visit with my contact.  By 11am, I was finished (God bless the small meetings) and found some time to enjoy this view.... and the pool:

I left early yesterday morning to return to reality.  It was a nice break and so nice to see Amanda and her family.