11/10/08

My Palm Springs Weekend Plus A Pictorial

Some of you may have noticed that I've been MIA. Part of it has been due to the fact that work has all but consumed my life and taken to pulling my brain in more directions than it knows what to do with. My 9-5 job has left me exhausted, overworked and feeling slightly homicidal. Never in my life has the term "going postal" ever sounded so poetic before. The bottom line is, I needed a vacation, and I needed one stat. I knew that if I didn't take a mental vacation soon, I'd be sure to end up in the loony bin. So with little reservation, I abandoned my computer this weekend and headed for the hills. Literally.

Renee and I packed up our stuff on Friday afternoon and took off for some good old-fashioned R&R in Palm Springs, CA. Our 5 pets were left at home (under the watchful care of a friend)and the trusty laptop sat on a desk and collected dust for the first time in its life. We packed nothing except a few snacks, some comfy clothes, our bathing suits & a few other unmentionables that I will leave up to the imagination. After 4 hours of sitting in bumper to bumper traffic in LA on a Friday, we finally made it to the desert. Life was beginning to look good again.


Renee and I had never been to Palm Springs before so we were excited to explore. When we arrived, we had a late night dinner at a small diner and headed back our hotel to relax. We decided our hotel room should be "clothing optional" as we snuggled up in our king sized bed with lavish 300-count bedding. The down pillows? Heaven. Our hotel, although considered to be "lower budget" in many people's standards was absolute perfection in our book. It was a tiki-style Polynesian themed "resort" complete with attached Mexican restaurant, tiki bar, 12 person outdoor heated jacuzzi and a large swimming pool. Sweeping views of the San Jacinto Mountains from our second-story balcony was absolutely breath-taking. It was a perfect and much-needed variation to the smog, traffic, noise pollution and insanity that we left behind in LA.

For those of you who don't know, Palm Springs is best known as a gay and lesbian friendly resort town in the desert of California. It is even better know to lesbians as the ever-so-popular vacation desitination for the sorority-style, lesbian-laden drunken week known as "Dinah Shore". Some say there's golf too, but that might just be an urban legend.

Downtown Palm Springs, centered around one long-ish main street, is comprised of adorable shops, restaurants with ample patio seating, hookah lounges, jazz bars, drag queen shows and enough steakhouses to scare a vegetarian straight into another county. Of course, there are also several casinos, quite a few nudist colonies and enough spa centers to massage away the stress, smooth out the skin and finally get that bikini wax your girlfriend has been begging for. Yeah, I said it.

Renee and I enjoyed all these great amenities from a distance, and although we would normal partake in such fanciful things as couples massages, hookah lounges and slot machines (not necessarily in that order), we found ourselves perfectly complacent with strolling down the street, window shopping and most importantly, lounging by the pool, mojito in hand. Afterall, it was a perfect 80 degrees and when your body says "Relax, fool", you best do what it says.

At about 4am on our last night there, the Santa Ana winds picked up and created quite a blustery delight of crazy weather. Never had we seen it rain in the desert before, nevermind with a mixture of sunlight and darkness all in one span of view. Of course, on the morning that we were headed back to LA, the wild weather provided us with a gorgeous rainbow spanning the backdrop of our hotel. I wanted to stay there for at least another week and contemplated packing my bag and running away from society entirely, but obligations brought me back to the monotony of work and routine, as they always do. Don't be surprised though, if someday you hear of the girl that went crazy, ripped all her clothes off and escaped into the wild. With her multitudes of freckles, wild and crazy red hair and a pack of wolves by her side, you can be rest assured she'll be happier than any rich mogul, wall street work-a-holic or multi-business entrepreneur. She'll be more free than anyone.

And with that, I leave you with a pictorial from my weekend in Palm Springs because as we all know, a picture is worth 1,000 words. Next stop: Sedona, AZ, Thanksgiving weekend!





























16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Had to laugh reading the reference to the "unmentionables"! Imagine you guys being like Alice and Dana in the L-Word getting stopped at security on the way to the cruise!!!

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to see pix from Sedona! I totally miss AZ. Be safe!

Margo Moon said...

That running off into the wild with a pack of wolves thing? DO IT!!!!

And if you do, take your camera. Just sayin'.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Julie, I thought the same exact thing. Very funny.

I am so happy that you got (even if just a tiny little bit) the rest you needed. Thanks for sharing your pictures - it looks beautiful there.

Bill Graber said...

Everybody else was in the street protesting and fighting for your rights and you were in Palm Springs?

Heather said...

Ugh. Looks HEAVENLY. Apes and I so need a vacation like yours.

And you don't need to defend where or how you spent your weekend. You helped raise nearly $16,000 to fight Prop 8. And even if you didn't, you still don't owe anyone an explanation.

I'm glad you took care of yourself!

Bill Graber said...

ok heather whatever

Bill Graber said...

and I am wondering here...can she speak for herself or do she need YOU to fight that battle for her too

Anonymous said...

I guess friends do that for one another, Paula.

Why don't you go focus your anger on something more important - like perhaps, "the fight". I'm sure it would be better served there instead of attacking a girl for going away for a weekend with her girlfriend. Enough.

Bill Graber said...

I guess I really should not have been so surprised... after all this is Renee we are talking about.

Well okey dokey there Greg... you can be SURE that I will...

see ya Saturday?

Jesse said...

Looks like you had a great time! My best friend lives just outside of Palm Springs, and I'd love to see it someday.

Drama! Pay no mind to haters, Renee. People are capable of saying all kinds of things when they're jealous or want traffic going to their sites.

We know you'll be there on Saturday, protesting for our rights in CALIFORNIA.

Tina and I will be in NYC protesting at the exact same time :)

ReneeG said...

You guys are the best!! (and you KNOW you who are)

Shannon said...

Bitter much, Paula?

Bill Graber said...

Oh there is plenty of traffic going to the site... most of what used to come here as a matter of fact...

Shannon I see you still are still supporting this site as well as you always did.

Jesse said...

everybody ready for the protests tomorrow?

BOOK_REVIEWER_EXTRAORDINAIRE said...

Keep up the great work, Renee!