Week in Review

The four-day work trip to L.A. actually began last Friday morning with me going on the hunt for a new dress in which I could present. (I figured the dress I wore the past four years at these conferences should stay home.) After an unforgettably bad trip with Rhett to Nordstrom Rack, I found a dress I liked. But that spawned a set of frantic emails back and forth between Camie and me on how to dress my feet and legs. I am soooo not good at this and she is soooo good at it. Saturday morning Rhett, Chuck, and I went to Macy's looking for tights thanks to Camie's direction, and ended up getting the much needed new shoes as well, after asking a saleswoman to, "Show me everything you have in a size 5." This request yielded three shoes. (I'm including the pics because Emily wanted to see. I was too lazy to put everything back on, plus it was too cold downstairs to get undressed.)




My non-stop, WiFi-enabled-for-free flight left Monday morning. On said flight was a co-worker of mine. Not only do I like this coworker, but she's from L.A. and wondered if I might want to join her on a bike ride along the beach. Would I?! I would! Because we got in so early, we enjoyed a lovely ride through Redondo, Hermosa, and Manhattan Beaches that afternoon. After our ride, I was beat and went to sleep at 7 PST. Sweet. (This meant a 4:30 a.m. wake up call the next morning, but that's fine with me!) I didn't take any pictures while riding, but the houses along the beach were lovely. Check out the reflection in this one's window.



Tuesday the conference started and I got to give three presentations. I'm not sure I could be less obnoxious during my presentations, but I was glad to get them over with early. That evening I enjoyed a lovely picnic dinner on the beach, and another 7 o'clock bedtime.



Wednesday was an easier day conference-wise as I had no presentations. Instead I had to endure seven long, boring hours of other peoples' talks. Not sure which is worse. But when it was through, I called my "Virginia Mormon Friend" Tamara (who now lives 30 minutes from where I was staying) and she offered to come get me and take me to meet her family. After meeting her lovely husband and even lovelier boys (Sorry Doug, but it's true), the two of us went to dinner. It was so fun seeing her. We have known each other since we were six years old. Six! Can you imagine?! Due to Facebook and blogs, we've been able to watch each other grow and change, but it was much better to talk to her in person.


Thursday I was all done with work stuff and waited until daylight to run (the other days I got to use Gold's for free. Man, I really dislike treadmill running now.). I still got up at 4:30, but watched some shows on Hulu to catch up on TV I was missing with my early bedtime. Then I did an hour run on the beach because it was just so freaking beautiful that I couldn't stop. The sounds, the smells, the surfers: it was all so incredible. I couldn't believe how many people didn't have their eyes glued to it. (And no, I did not run into anyone, thank you very much.) After the run, I walked to a nearby farmers' market and tried a persimmon (yum! should have bought one for the plane).

And here's the post-sunset view from my hotel room.


You know, in the weeks leading up to this conference, I felt really guilty about going on this trip. Yes, Chuck works full-time and so only had to single-parent for a bit in the mornings and a few hours in the afternoons for four days. Nonetheless, I felt guilty. But really, California is just so dang nice and lovely that by the end, I was able to feel only 72% of the guilt I felt Monday morning.

Remind me why I don't live there? Oh yeah, this is why. Can you believe the price? Oh well, I'll just have to be content with visiting family and friends who live in the area.