Joooon

I ended May with another "Goodbye, Best Wishes" lunch for one of my designers. 

Eva from Quebec is getting married, then off on a one year around-the-world travel adventure/honeymoon.

Sigh. 

The whole team gathered, including those on mat leave or working from home:

Seeing I had my camera at work, I took some pics earlier that day, of what it looks like when we (the whole staff) pray every morning:

When you call or email a prayer request, we pray.


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After work, I treated myself to:

... a pedi.

"Are you going somewhere tomorrow?" she asked as I was getting ready to soak my feet.
"You know me pretty well..."
"You only get your toes done the night before you leave on a trip. Where are you off to this time?"
"Long weekend in Palm Desert."

I feel so snobby even just saying that. Haha. WHO AM I that I can zip down to the desert for my birthday? CRAZY lucky I am.

I got to bed about 2 am, then got up at 5:15 am. Picked up Julie (not my sister), then drove to the airport for our 8:30 am flight. We landed in Palm Springs at noon, got our car rental (PEOPLE. RENT CARS THROUGH COSTCO. Our's cost $8 per day. Plus taxes and exchange BUT STILL. Cheap like borscht.) We stopped to pick up sandwiches, and were floating in her pool by 2 pm.

It was 90 degrees on our first day, and 113 degrees on the day we flew home. But it's a dry heat so you can hardly tell.

The 'shelf' in the water, at the front of the pic (below) was my spot to relax and read. I put a pool noodle behind my back and sat, submerged in 8 inches of water for 8 hours (slipping off once in a while to float in the deep end) and it was heaven.

Seriously, heaven will be 89 degrees and have a pool shelf for me.

The following morning, I woke to 100 notifications on my phone and a chocolate cupcake in my bed. (Julie had been up for hours, hiking, then shopping...)

...  and that evening, we walked down memory lane (also known as South Palm Canyon) and had dinner at the quintessential Palm Springs restaurant dining experience:

I love Palm Springs.
It's one of my happy places.
So many good memories in this town.

We spent our evenings on the lounge chairs in her yard, beside the lit pool, under the stars, listening to the frogs and crickets, talking about the deep things in life.

The whole weekend was just freakin wonderful.

Thanks, Jul, for inviting me to join you.
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I came home to grey, cooler, cloudy days with mostly no plans.
Now that I'm old(er), I've been home every evening binge-watching Suits because Meghan Markle/Duchess of Something.
(Are you watching too? Donna is my fav character, but Patrick Adams (Mike Ross) has the best twitter account.)

I did go out with Maxine one evening.
We tried to outrun the wet by going as far west as possible.
We ended up at Kits Beach, where the rain wasn't heavy - and sat on a bench under a tree and watched the sun set.

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Three things I'm thankful for:

1. This beautiful earth.
2. Quiet evenings.
3. Seawall walks.

Shalom,
xo