12 Days of Awesome

De Nile river is not just a river in Africa because it's running all through me right now.  Deep.  Even as late as driving to work today, I thought that somehow I was wrong and I wasn't supposed to go back yet.  I had convinced myself that I would arrive to an empty parking lot and realize I did my calendar dates wrong and I had one more day.  I'd already done the work of getting up, but no matter, I'd happily drive home and hop back into bed with my slumbering husband.  Whelp.  That didn't happen.

I also meant to write a post about Christmas, and then I'd do a second post about New Year's, but that didn't happen either.

The worst thing about the holiday break is that I stumbled out of bed in the middle of the night at the Hard Rock Hotel and accidentally drank an $11 bottle of hotel water instead of the $1.99 bottle I brought from home.  In other words, my break was pretty awesome. 

By the end of the year I'm exhausted.  It doesn't matter how many vacations I've had either.  I'm exhausted, and it's cold, and all I want to do is curl up into a ball for the rest of my life.  It's a good thing I don't ever have a lot of holiday shopping to do, because I simply don't have the energy for it.  Malls, crowds, post offices.  NO.  I went straight to Amazon for one husband plus an adorable niece and nephew.  We usually do a family gift exchange, but we didn't even do that this year.  Everyone had an expensive year, and for a bunch of adults Christmas gifting is just not that important.  We'll re-evaluate next year.  I look forward to holiday break with a vengeance every single year.  It's the one reason I won't quit this job.  Well, it's not the only reason, but totally free days of paid time off for Christmas is pretty high up there.  The first official thing I did over Christmas break besides shut down my stupid  6:20am weekday alarm was eat pizza at happy hour, and it only got better.  There were plenty of lazy mornings drinking coffee and watching TV, that turned into an entire day spent in pajamas, but I didn't spend the entire time at home...although that doesn't sound half bad.

We didn't do cards.  This is it.

We opened presents on Christmas morning, just the two of us.  Guys.  He got me Chanel No. 5.  I have definitely heard of it, but never smelled it because why would I?  But it smells so good.  I don't know how much it costs but I'm pretty sure it's worth every penny.  He also got me the perfect cashmere sweater.  It fits exactly the way I like it.  He got me a few other perfect gifts, but he always does good when it comes to gifts.  This year I think I did pretty good too, and I have to add that I did not get one clue from him as to what he wanted.  Not one!  The only thing he could think of that he wanted and didn't already have is a gun and I'm absolutely not the best person to shop for it so that was out.  He went out and bought his own gun (as adults do) and I came up with some other things that he loved including that polka dot shirt from Land's End.  I wore my new sweater and he wore his new shirt that night to dinner.  We are those people who go out to dinner on holidays so Christmas dinner was at George's at the Cove- California Modern in La Jolla.  It was pricey, but at least I can say I didn't mind the bill that much because the food was so exceptional it felt worth it.

The day after Christmas we went to the movies to see Fences (Denzel Washington).  The day after that we hiked Mt. Woodson at Lake Poway which is 7.5 miles and very challenging.  Afterwards we went to the very same place we went to after the last time we did that hike and I ate the very same thing.  Nicky Rotten's!!  Nothing like a hot juicy burger and an ice cold beer after a 1,000 calorie hike.

Hard Rock Hotel for New Year's Eve was his idea.  Well, it was his friends idea, and that friend didn't even end up going, but we didn't let that stop us.  My first thought when MJ told me he booked the tickets was darn, I'm going to have to wear heels.  I gave up on heels.  I hate heels.  I no longer wear heels.  The last time I wore them was during the summer when I went out in Las Vegas and my feet hate heels so much one of the shoes broke.  Heels aside, I was still excited because we haven't done the going out thing for New Year's Eve since 2013.  MJ is here for a limited time only so we might as well live it up.  The folks who came to party at Hard Rock are serious.  They showed up in droves dressed to kill, and by that I mean in the shortest, tightest, lowest cut, shiniest dresses possible.  I was no exception (minus the sequins)! The place was packed, the dance floor was packed, and any semblance that I made any effort at all to do my hair was gone by the end of the night.  I toughed it out in those heels for as long as humanly possible which turned out to be three hours.  My hair was wilted and my feet were DONE, but those three hours were really fun! I drank just enough to wake up with a headache, which was no big deal really.  Nothing that a giant pancake couldn't cure.

We stayed at Hard Rock an extra night so the next day we went to breakfast...well it was more like brunch by the time I made it out of bed.  No, I did not order an entire cake for myself.  That giant thing is a baked cinnamon pancake from Richard Walker's Pancake House.  I was only able to eat half of it, but it was really good.  After that we walked over to the International Auto Show at the convention center, and then picked up food from a really loud bar called Bootlegger, where we saw an almost fight on our way out, and ate dinner in bed while watching a movie.  I really like eating in bed because it's something we don't do at home, and I'm telling you, the Cobb salad that came out of that box was one of the best I have ever eaten in my life.  It was great.  Everything was great.  Not even the accidental drinking of bottled water that cost more than a bottle of decent wine could bring me down.

The Gaslamp

I love a good staycation.  I felt like I had all the time in the world with myself and with my husband for sleeping in, watching TV, morning walks, and just existing in life without any real responsibilities.  I really, really needed that and I'm pretty sure I'm going to really really need it again in approximately 353 days. 

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