Come Dancing!

I'm finally getting around to recording my adventures from the past two weeks. Bear with me, it's a long story.

I arrived in Palm Springs three hours late on Christmas Eve, due to a mechanical problem with my plane. Finally touched down in Long Beach and spent the next two hours zooming, zen-like, through blessed Southern California traffic. I may never want to live there again, but those people know how to drive. I was all tra-la-la flying down the highway with my 2011 California Driving mix blaring out the speakers of the rented Mazda 3. The rental agency had tried to stick me with a Kia, but I said no dice.

Once at my childhood home, I said hello to my parents, dumped my stuff in the guest room, and carted my unturkey sandwich over to the neighbors' house for a glass of wine. The next day, Christmas, I woke up early to do the traditional present opening thing with my parents. In their household, everyone has to be up, dressed, and presentable before coming into the living room. This has been the rule for as long as I can remember - no pajamas and bedhead for this family. No matter - I had to pick Alex up at the airport around 10:15 anyway, so presents had to go quickly. For some reason, this was the year of the owl. In addition to the terribly grown-up gift of a Sonicare toothbrush, I received the following items:

Owl lunch bag


Owl pajamas


Owl doormat


Not pictured: owl earrings, owl notepad, owl wrapping paper. Oy! I guess I like owls.

With Alex fetched from PSP, the four of us ate traditional holiday French toast before Alex left to see her family. My parents and I decided to have dinner at Great Wall, which actually ended up being kind of a disaster. At least it was a disaster we didn't have to cook.

Monday night, I met up with Scott and his new girlfriend Alice (of whom I have no photos, alas) to visit my very favorite bar in Palm Springs: Toucans. It was pretty dead. We were three of maybe nine people in the whole joint, including the bartender. That's ok - we can make our own fun. Bobby arrived Tuesday, and I didn't stop talking at him for about two hours. We ate at Rio Azul, a newly-discovered place that may just be better than my beloved Las Casuelas, before returning to our home base so he could talk SkyRim with the neighbors.

As is usually the case when I visit the valley, I don't really see anybody other than my family for the first few days, and the last 48 hours becomes a mad scramble of ringing doorbells and dinner dates with old friends. In a single day, we had breakfast with Rebecca and Leslie (the latter of whom I hadn't seen since approximately 2002), Cactus Berry with Matt Clark, a drop-in visit to see Raime and her mother and older sister, and a call back to the house for hugs from Erin and Shalini. Yeow. In between social calls, I did get to bask in the sun, boil myself in the neighbors' hot tub, and enjoy two swimming sessions in a saltwater pool. Hurrah!



Like any visit to the desert, though, it was cut short by looming plans at home in Portland. Bobby and I had less than 24 hours to throw together a New Year's Eve party. Realizing this time crunch, I called in reinforcements in the form of Conor, Jonathan, Breylan, and Iain. They helped us set up, move furniture, arrange snack foods, and entertain the first set of guests while I threw on my hostess outfit. Momentarily bored, they made Georgia festive. What a tolerant cat I have:



The rest of the night was a blur of hugs, dancing, and good times. Tara brought her good friend whose name is also Caitlin, and we became fast friends. Observe:





Without further explanation, here are some of my favorite party photos: