Laborious Labor Day

Is that even a word? The good news is I didnt do any work over this 3 day weekend but I did do a lot!

Michaela and Margot have been in town for the last 10 days. Most nights after work have been spent hanging with the BFF and weekends have been filled with shopping trips and pool time.

Earlier this week, my coworker's boyfriend was performing at an open mic night in Glendale so in true Phoenician style (read: will drive any distance as if it is no big deal as long as it is "in the valley") Michaela and I left Mesa and headed to Glendale - on a week night no less! We had a great time. Of 15 comics at least 10 were really funny, including the boyfriend. So whew! I can stay friends with that coworker, haha. It was nice to do something out of the norm.

This weekend Michaela and Margot actually spent the last two nights of their trip at my place. Sometimes 10 days is just too long with family (not that I would know anything about that) and I just happen to have the best roommate around (and a spare bedroom) who is all about having guests over to our place. She was petsitting this weekend so it was just me and the girls. We had a lazy saturday swimming and then singing along to the Little Mermaid. I dropped them off for dinner with her parents and inlaws and then after Margot was in bed Michaela and I ate chocolate and popcorn while watching Bridesmaids. It was really perfect.

Then Sunday I woke up at the crack of dawn to drop them off at the airport. I was very sad to see them go.

Luckily, my cousin Liz and her friends had come to the Valley for the long weekend (staycation) and I met up with them for the rest of the day. We ventured to Ikea for liz's first visit. I try to prepare people for the experience but lets face it, Ikea can be overwhelming. We had fun though and then we headed out to the outlets near wild horse pass (they are new and fancy).
Then in true Phoenician style (see definition above) we drove to their resort up in Carefree...north of Scottsdale (basically drove from one end of the Valley to the other). Their villa was fabulous and we spent the evening in the pool. There had been plans to go bar hopping on Mill (again, very Phoenician) but we decided to forgo that for the booze and pool already at the villa. Liz has super chill friends.

Today was more of a chill out day. My roomie and her boyfriend were home and we watched a movie. We are incredibly lazy about it because 1) her boyfirend always picks the movies 2) they are always bad or at least not great 3) we havent bothered to correct this by picking the movies ourselves. I can appreciate that he loves movies but am baffled that every terrible B movie that comes out is exactly what he picks. Then again I tend to go to the theater to watch the movies I really want to see so the movies he picks are generally anything else.

All in all it was a great weekend. Now to get pumped up for fall travel. We are short staffed in my office so I have had to take some recruiter duties again. I will be in Tucson all of next week and then next month I will be in Minneapolis (overnight) and then Kansas City for the rest of that week. I think I am also going on an overnight trip to Seattle at the end of October. It is a good mix of places I am really comfortable and places I have never been.

Perhaps Labor Day means the start of the laboring season...it sure does for me.