Now THIS was a bloggable weekend!

This past Thursday I flew to Palm Springs to be with Aaron. He has been attending the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year National Awards. He works with a company called Skull Candy that makes awesome headphones and other products. Anyway, Skull Candy won Entrepreneur of the Year in Utah, and went on to compete nationally.

Thursday I got to the airport at 1:30pm to catch a 3:00 flight. My flight ended up being oversold by three seats. No one would volunteer to miss the flight and earn Delta dollars. So the airline randomly chose three people to miss the flight and guess who one of them was? Yep, me! I had to hang out in the airport all day to catch an 8:55pm flight! I got super lucky because the other two folks that got bumped were also on their way to the same event in Palm Springs. They were a sweet hubby and wife from Salt Lake and they hung out with me all day. I did a lot of reading and a lot of gift shop browsing. On the positive side, I earned some Delta Dollars for future flights. (And a free airport dinner.)

So the resort we stayed at was AMAZING, it was the Desert Springs J.W Marriott. Our room walked out onto an 18 hole putting course. The weather was 90 degrees everyday!

Friday morning I woke up and went to hear Chris Gardner speak. He is the man that the movie The Pursuit of Happyness was made about. If you’ve seen the movie, then you know what an incredible life story he has. A few facts that differ from the movie . . . in the movie Will Smith shoots the movie with his son who is five or six. In real life, Chris was caring for his 18-month-old baby! His talk made me laugh, made me cry, and made wish I were a superstar at something.

Most of Friday was spent at the pool, sleeping and reading. Aaron and I decided to go for a run in the evening. We had heard there was a 4-mile run around the resort, but we were pointed down the wrong trail and ended up running a golf cart path on the golf course. Then we decided to forget path running, and ran right down the middle of the fairways on the gold course. It was a blast and I’d actually enjoy running if I were always allowed to run on a golf course. Friday night we attended an outdoor concert. Anyone a fan of Joe Cocker? I’d never heard of the guy. He’s 65 years old and I was getting ready for a disappointment. But Aaron and I got up and danced right in front of the stage and were surprised at how many songs of his we actually knew. (Love lift us up where we belong . . . . ya, classics)

More floating on the pool, sleeping and reading on Saturday. Saturday night was the BIG awards event. We got all dressed up schnazy like and headed to an event that resembled any Academy Awards show in Hollywood. Jay Leno was the master of ceremonies and he was HILARIOUS. He did a comedy routine that had everyone clutching their sides and in tears. From politics, to how fat America is – he was a hit. There were over 200 companies represented in the room, and Skull Candy ended up in the top 40 companies featured. They lost to a company that can actually grow new organs from your stem cells. SO we couldn’t feel bad about losing to a company that is going to make such a difference in the world.
After the event I said to the owner of Skullcandy, “Aw, I didn’t get my picture taken with Jay Leno.” He said, “That sounds like fun, let’s make it happen!” So we grabbed our group, ran up on the stage, down the celebrity exit, and looked all over back stage for him. He was actually taking pictures with people, so we got in line. A woman asked where our invitation was. What invitation? Apparently, only the winners got invited to have their picture taken with him. I told her we weren’t going anywhere and she didn’t know what to do with us! Jay said, “Who’s next?” And I ran up and gave him the biggest bear hug and said, “I just love you Jay!” (And I do.) In the group picture Jay and I have our arms around each other! HA! Isn’t that hilarious? It totally made up for my downer of Skullcandy not winning.
Sunday we flew home. Ashton was so homesick for us to come home. He likes me, he really likes me! It was a much-needed break and we made fun memories!