holiday recap

when the house is empty, what is there to do, but invite four kids over for a slumber party?

i picked up the d4 on sunday night, and after some bike shuffling, some rack stacking, and some glazed looks, it was finally determined that i would take jenny's van, loaded with bikes, back to my place for the adventures to come.

first things first though, upon arriving back at my place, the kids crawled in to pajamas and followed me to the back patio where we lit a fire in the pit and toasted marshmallows for smores.

the girls get excited

brad eats fire

after smores, it was time for

hide

and seek

but before the kids could fall asleep, they absolutely demanded that we take group self-portraits. and when children demand, i'm inclined to oblige.


much to their mother's chagrin, we finally called it a night at about 11 or so.

and despite the late bedtime hour, there was no rest for the weary cousin/aunt. although they let me sleep until 8 (i had been up much later than 11), it still felt just a wee bit early.

nonetheless, after a quick shower i found that the blankets and bedding had all been folded and put away, and we could get on with our day. first stop? les pancakes internacional. or 'ihop' as it is referred to by the common folk.

brad makes a pretty good paparazzi

though it had started as a cloudy say, by the time we got back to the house, the one pocketful of sunshine to grace orange county on the holiday was emptied onto us! and that meant one thing. bike ride!

just your average beach house garage

after our ride, we dropped the bikes back at the house, and headed to newport to enjoy the beach and the water.





though i was diligent about keeping the kids sunscreened up, i may have forgotten to be quite as attentive to my own skin. the result was not just a nasty sunburn, but a bout of sun poisoning! the kind that makes you nauseous on top of the searing pain through your back and shoulders. yeah. that kind.

but, that was a small price to pay for the laughs and sunshine and time spent with the kids. i do love a holiday. and i loved that this one put me that much closer to a visit from my favorite man. 35ish hours and counting!

check out the rest of the weekend pics here.

you can accomplish a lot in one day by getting up at 5am

don't ask me why, as this was my first day off in a couple weeks, but at 5:18 am, i was up. wide awake, and unable to fall back asleep.

i had a lot on the agenda for the day, and since the first was a serious deep clean on my car, i thought i might as well get up and go to the vacuumy/car washy place. i knew i wouldn't have to wait at 5:30 in the morning:)

i'm almost embarrassed to admit this...okay, i'm embarrassed, but not too embarrassed to blog about it...but i haven't cleaned my car, inside or out, since before i moved to california. that's 8 months and a long road trip ago. usually, i'm pretty diligent about these sorts of things, but in va i knew where all the vacuum and drive through car washes were. they aren't as, um, obvious? here. imagine my surprise when i started asking around and learned there was one about 1/4 mile from my house. *hangs head in shame*.

so, i spent 2 1/2 hours cleaning the car. they had vacuums, and upholstery cleaners, and air fresheners, and everything. and partly, i was taking my sweet time to be the first in line to get an oil change.

at 8 on the dot, i pulled in, and spent the next hour or so talking to lara while they changed the oil, filter, wiper blades, and rotated and balanced the tires. much needed. believe me.

then it was on to a 9:15am showing of 'prince caspian'. many of the feelings i had watching the first narnia movie were present again, and i was emotional for most of the movie. i ended up being glad i was flying solo, and that there was only one other person in the theater.

i loved it. i mean i really loved it. i may be biased by having read the book in my formative childhood years. but i loved it.

after the movie, i had a few errands to run, then home to do some laundry and watch a netflix. then sadie called to see if i could come out to play, and i couldn't turn her down. we took a nice long ride on the boardwalk (the hb boardwalk is soooo great for a bike ride!)

after i got home, i took advantage of all of my roommates being gone for the weekend, and soaked in the jacuzzi tub in the master. perfection!

time for a couple more errands, and on to some research for the next playlist. give me a couple days--i'll get there.

it's 12:41 now, and i have no idea why or how i am still up, but i better hit the sack. tomorrow is a big day. since my house is empty, i'm having the kids over for a slumber party!

vegas baby: a blog in three parts

act 3:

scene - my room, huntington beach, ca, time irrelevant

so. the host. i dug it. better than i thought i would. body snatching aside, i thought the premise was fairly unique (although i'm not a big sci-fi reader, so i could be wrong), and it was far better written than the twilight series. don't hate. i couldn't put them down either. but that was DESPITE being poorly written, and my distaste for bella. what can i say? i'm a vampire fiction lover. and then there was jacob....

i digress. i'm curious, did anyone else find it ironic that this 'adult' novel of meyer's was more suited (as in 'cleaner') to the teenage girl target market, than the books written for the demographic?

vegas baby: a blog in three parts

act 2:

scene - mccarran international airport, on the floor by the lockers and vending machines, 6:23pm

probably since i was about 19, i have loved cirque du soleil. i saw them do a short performance on one of the late night shows and it was simply magic. ever since then, i have wanted to see them. i bought cd’s, saw the imax, but in all my visits to vegas (because seeing them somewhere else just wouldn’t have felt right!) i have never seen a performance. usually it was because of money, but if look deeper, maybe it was because i was afraid that it couldn’t live up to my expectations. in my mind it was this perfect theatrical event, and nothing is perfect, is it?

when i checked in to my room at treasure island, i immediately saw that i faced the mirage, which happens to have ‘love’ signage splashed all over it. calling my name. taunting me even. i was completely torn. ‘love’ is nontraditional for cirque, but it’s beatles music. i mean, it had to be good! but i knew cheap tickets were hard if not impossible to come by—it’s still too new.

being an event planner has it's perks

i mentioned to shauna that i had never seen them perform and she told me that it was an absolute must. she suggested i stop by the desk at treasure island to see if i couldn’t find any great single ticket prices. she must have known from my hesitation that i wouldn’t. and so it wasn’t long before we were both at the desk inquiring about various shows. in the end, she bought both our tickets to see love. i’m still not sure how that happened, but it was a very nice gift. even though i know it’s probably not a big financial deal for her to do that, what was most meaningful to me, was that she did it because she somehow understood how happy it would make me. she had no particular interest in seeing the show, but she knew it would be an extraordinary experience for me. and it was.

i'm in love

it was unlike anything i’ve ever seen. it can’t help but bring out an awe and wonder rarely present in adults. because, let’s face it. we’re kind of jaded . and as much as i loved the show, equally as powerful to me was the gesture.

the trade show itself was also a huge success. in this case, i measure that by the feedback from our agents. this show is different than any other show i’ve been involved with. our booth was to serve primarily as a place where our people could setup meetings with clients and prospects.



we had 140 in attendance, and monday and tuesday, our tables were packed. the advisors had nothing but rave reviews for the booth itself, which i understand has never before been true. the booth was buzzing with activity all day monday and for most of yesterday, which is exactly how it should be. there were no angry attendees, everyone had a table when they needed one, and as i understand it, there were some very productive meetings held.

the booth reception was also a great success . a first time for the company, we weren’t sure exactly what to expect, but it was near perfection. there were one or two minor complaints, and knowing that it is impossible to please everyone to perfection, i was actually quite proud of that fact. very rarely do i walk away from a show with less than 10 ‘do differently next time’ items, but i was struggling to come up with five.

the boss and i

we had a good advance team, and the execution was near flawless. it takes skill, but also a fair amount of luck to pull that off, but it seems that despite the rough beginnings of this trip, all was to work out well in the end.

i’ve moved now to mccarran airport where i’m finishing this post (i love airports with free wifi), and looking forward to arriving home. two more work days (both of which have been announced as ‘jean day’s – yay!!) before the long weekend, and then it’s only a couple more before my man arrives. i am ecstatic!

vegas baby: a blog in three parts

act 1:

scene - las vegas convention center, icsc, 162 f street, 12:54pm

four hours and six minutes until i can officially close up shop here at the show. the tumbleweeds keep rolling past my booth and the pigeons have flown in to reclaim their territory (yeah, not kidding on the latter).

the good news is, i survived. i survived arriving at the airport to learn that i was only allowed one bag and not two (finally, not watching the news bites me in the behind). i survived the flight delayed due to ‘mechanical’ problems. i survived 109 degree temperatures. i survived manning a trade show booth for the first time in my life. i survived the questions i didn’t have answers for. i survived the intense amount of pain in my quads, developed by the equivalent of doing squats 8 hours a day for three days straight. up down. up down. up down.

and i also managed to finish ‘the host’ (more on this at another time), see an amazing show, meet a lot of great people, spend quality time with my boss, not lose a dime, and enjoy the bathtub in my room. twice. every day. quads and all…

ironically, i’m kind of a first timer at this. don’t get me wrong, i’ve worked on too many trade shows for my liking. but this is the first time i have taken it from booth conceptualization to onsite show management. i’ve coordinated drayage and shipping and electrical and carpet. but i’ve never led the design process and the marketing, and i have most certainly never been the ‘face’ of the company. even with eleven years in, there is still something new, and that is exciting.

i still can’t say i like trade shows any better than i did. but, i do like to do different things, face new challenges, and expand the repertoire. there isn’t a lot i haven’t done in this industry. i’ve “thrown” chairs. i’ve pulled air walls. i’ve conducted site searches. i’ve learned how to negotiate contracts. i’ve learned how to work with operations staff earning minimum wage, and executive staff earning more than i’ll make in my lifetime. short of sales (and my desire for ‘something different’ does not reach that far), there is no single part of the industry that i haven’t been involved in at some time.

i love what i do. i always have. and i’ve been lucky and blessed. i’ve spent 95% of my career working at good companies, with and for good people. i don’t know how many can truly say that. for a long time, i felt the need to justify that i never finished my degree. at 20 years old, and only part way through my schooling, i was offered a choice. finish school to earn a degree that would help me get a job i really wanted, or take the job offered to me, that i really wanted.

unfortunately, i couldn’t do both. the travel required by the job i was being offered would preclude any formal education, and in those days, there were no such thing as online degrees. maybe i should be more embarrassed by this, but for me, it was a no brainer. and never once have i regretted that decision.

that’s not to say i haven’t had to explain it a few-hundred times over the years—particularly to potential employers. but in the end, it didn’t matter. i never felt that it prevented me from being offered a job, and a few years ago, employers stopped asking. every once in a blue moon, it will still come up. but with 11 years in, it’s certainly not deterring me.

i don’t typically think of a profession as a ‘calling’, but there is no doubt in my mind that there was some divine guidance in mine. and with every good experience i have, good company, good co-workers, good boss..it is reaffirmed.

this particular show was the first time shauna and i have traveled together, and it only furthered my respect and appreciation of her as both boss and colleague. though i will stand by my initial assessment of her from my interviewing days—that i’ve never met someone so hard to read—it’s for completely different reasons than i would have guessed. i think as a culture we are trained on a very subtle level to distrust. so many hidden agendas, so much spin, so many walls. what you see is not what you get, and if it seems to good to be true, it probably is…right?

well, not so with shauna—at least, her hidden agendas aren’t hidden, her spin isn’t spun, and are walls are pretty easy to hop over. even though i am much the same way, it still can be slightly jarring at first. it took a little time to realize that it’s not so much that she was ever hard to read, but more that i assumed that that the façade was just that, a façade. perhaps true, but perhaps not the whole story.

i don’t mean to imply that she has no depth, or that she can’t hold her tongue when necessary, but, i know that when she tells me something it’s because it’s true. she is direct, she is decisive, and she is fair. she trusts people to do their jobs and only steps in to guide when direction or course correction is actually needed.

as such, she has earned my loyalty too, and her respect matters to me. beyond that though, this trip gave me the chance to see that i also genuinely enjoy her as a person, not just as a boss.

there have been many people who have shown generosity to me over the years, in a variety of ways. i am always profoundly grateful, and always a bit surprised. maybe because i know that at heart, i’m selfish and i have to work not to be, it always amazes me that there are people who at the very core of their beings are selfless. selflessness is a trait i haven’t mastered, but i have seen it time and time again in people i’ve been fortunate enough to know.

it presents itself in many ways, but on this trip, it presented itself in the form of tickets. tickets to cirque du soleil ‘love’.

- intermission -