Rescue Mission 2009 (aka Memorial Day Weekend)

For most people, the thought of a business meeting in San Diego for a week is probably pure heaven. Sun, beaches, the Gas Lamp District...fun with a little work thrown in. For my college buddy Michelle, it's more like a fast descent into workaholic hell. Her company does a huge annual convention every year, which may be fun for the people attending, but not fun when you're the one running it. After spending 4 years working in non-profit planning events, I can relate. Pure adrenaline gets you through the event, but the come-down is a bitch.

Since the meeting was ending right before the Memorial Day weekend, Michelle added a little side trip to LA to her itinerary so I could assist with some R&R time and ease her re-entry to earth. So I took a couple days off work and drove down to San Diego to pick her up. And so it was that Rescue Mission 2009 commenced.

When I met Michelle at the hotel, she was still packing and barely coherent (brain mush is a normal side effect after surviving a 100 hour work week, for those of you not familiar with event planning). Figuring out a lunch plan was, therefore, up to me. Since neither of us was starving, we headed north to San Clemente and stopped at the Fisherman's Restaurant.

http://www.thefishermansrestaurant.com/

It's built on a fishing dock right on the beach...the perfect place to start relaxing. And in Michelle's case, enjoy some Dungeness Crab.



Then we got back on the road for the rest of the drive to LA. After hitting a bit of traffic (thank goodness for HOV lanes or we'd still be sitting in it), we arrived in El Monte and decided it was going to be a low key night. Neither of us had been to a movie in ages, so we headed into Monrovia to catch Star Trek. But first, a dinner stop at my favorite local spot...Jake's Roadhouse.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/jakes-roadhouse-monrovia

Best BBQ in the San Gabriel Valley. And who doesn't love beer in a frosty mug!



Star Trek, by the way, was AWESOME! Although it was more than a little strange to think about Uhura and Spock making out...those of you old enough to remember the TV series will get what I mean! If you're not old enough to get the idea, just imagine your parents having sex. Same ick factor....

Friday we got up early and headed to the beach, figuring it would be much less crowded before the "official" start of the holiday weekend. Great call! It was practically empty, we got rockstar parking right next to the beach, and the weather was perfect.



The only snag of the day was our discovery of the limitations of spray on sunscreen. First, it sucks in windy conditions. I missed a few spots in spite of trying to spray upwind so the sunscreen landed on me and not the towel, my shoes, and everything else. Apparently I didn't do so well, as I found out later when I started to burn in random spots! Second, you use the stuff ten times faster than the lotion! The marketing genius who thought this up probably got a huge raise. Needless to say, I will not be wasting my money on the spray stuff any more.

And though I wouldn't call it a snag, I did actually "work" at the beach, which only entailed participating in a one hour conference call. If I could do all my calls from the beach, I'd stay on the phone all day! My boss thought it was hilarious.

By the time my call was over, we were starving, so we packed the beach gear in the car and walked over the the Santa Monica pier for some lunch and margaritas.





Then it was time to head home after a long day in the sun. Unfortunately we hit the road at the same time as all the other Friday rush hour traffic...and had no HOV lane most of the way. Two hours later, we got home to shower and nap, then decided to order pizza and stay in for the night. That also gave us time for our favorite friendship tradition...drinking wine and playing cards.



Then it was time for bed...we needed beauty sleep before our spa appointments the next morning!

Saturday was Girls Day at the Spa. I had several gift certificates from Burke-Williams (http://www.burkewilliamsspa.com/) saved up, so we met Nadine at their location in Sherman Oaks and spent the morning getting massages, facials, and pedicures. While we were in the hot tub waiting for our appointments, I remember thinking I could live like this every day. Anyone wanna finance that for me?

The massage was heavenly, and my facial was great. Except for my least favorite part...the extractions! Extraction has to be one of the biggest euphemisms in the English language, at least as it relates to facials. Extracting something is just taking it out of it's location. Sounds innocent enough, right? But extracting stuff from the pores in your face involves a lot of squeezing... and PAIN! And like experiencing an earthquake, time slows and what is probably only minutes feels like an excruciatingly long time. My facialist squeezed stuff out of my face I had no idea was there. You could have eaten off my face when she was finished.

Michelle had her own bit of facial drama and got talked into a micro-peel. You leave with a set of instructions about staying out of the sun (hello..headed to the pool later!), and how your skin may change colors, SCAB, or ooze...all of which is apparently normal. So she spent the rest of the day worried about side effects from the facial, and I don't think she's ever doing another peel.

After we finished at the spa, we went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch, then out to Nadine's house to sit by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. Finish that off with some steaks on the grill and a hockey game in HD, and you have the perfect day. Big props to Nadine for being the hostess with the mostest!! I do have a great life...and amazing friends!

Needles to say, hard putting Michelle on the plane Sunday morning after such a fun weekend. But I send her back to NYC relaxed and ready to take on the post-meeting workload. Mission accomplished!