We spent a long weekend (5 days!) in Palm Springs with my brother and his wife. Fun! And a much-needed break. I know I don't have children and working from home is a pretty enviable gig, but work has NOT been great lately. We're overloaded and under-led and the frustration just builds and builds and... The downside of working from home is the feeling that you never really leave work. While a separate home office helps, it isn't quite enough sometimes. But that's what mini-vacations are for!

We arrived Thursday afternoon at the Westin Mission Hills Villas (Matt's parents gave us Starwood points as an anniversary present). They were pretty typical of the Westin time share experience--large suites with kitchens and large furniture. We actually had adjoining suites, each with a kitchen and dining area. We stocked up on snacks, breakfast, and one dinner--and wine and beer--at Trader Joe's, because it was inexpensive and our main priority was to just hang out and catch up with each other.

The receptionist and concierge both recommended we attend the Villagefest our first night. They made it sound like a special thing, but it's basically their weekly farmers market. Still, I'm glad we went, or we might have missed this:


The first participant we encountered at Villagefest was a magical warrior from possibly the future, waging new age-y musical battle on behalf of wealthy retirees and tourists with his electric cello-ish instrument and billowing cloak. Yes, billowing, thanks to the industrial floor fan he had aimed at his knees. And no, I wasn't hallucinating--he really was wearing armor. Oh it killed me. It wasn't easy getting a shot around his little blue-haired groupies (okay, southern California old ladies aren't usually blue-hairs, but you get the idea)--he must get a lot of action from the grannies. I couldn't have been happier.

But that wasn't the end. At dusk we walked by a charming little stage with a hand-written sign announcing It's Magic! to passersby. My sister-in-law and I agreed that it was so cute that whatever was performed there had to be awesome. We weren't wrong. After eating and buying some fruit we headed back the way we came and there was a crowd around the stage.


It was an old man doing card tricks! I have a soft spot for card tricks and old people, so I was pretty much in heaven here. And he was a hustler, let me tell you. Shuffling around, playing on our touristy goodwill and trust of grandpas to sell his trick decks. Of course I am a total sucker, so I couldn't resist buying his "magic cards" (special end of summer deal! Half price! 2 decks for $5!) I got a Svengali deck and a tapered deck. It's Magic!

The rest of the weekend was pretty mellow. We played cards with the tapered deck and talked about family and life and whatnot. It has been years since I've spent more than a few hours at a time with my brother and sis-in-law, and it's been a year since I've taken a vacation, and the combination was truly rejuvenating.

The siblings left Sunday evening, so Matt and I got to do the romantic dinner thing at Copley's--in Cary Grant's house! I didn't see him though. :( Just kidding, I don't expect Cary Grant's ghost to wait tables. The service was still awesome and the food was fantastic. Loved it!

I miss it already. Work is still sucky, but I've regained some perspective. I think I'll survive this quarter, and be nicer to my husband again. Plus hello? I have card tricks to learn.