Sedona

Today was a good day. I wrote 3 Morning Pages when I got up. I set the timer to give me a little push to help stay more focused. It took me an hour and 11 mins. I kinda wandered, but since I hadn't written in a while, I had a lot on my mind. Then I ate a little and went to the gym. Yay, I made it 2 times this week. After showering, I went to the pond store to get some stuff for the pond to get ready for Cynthia's koi fish. A de-chlorinator and some other stuff to help with sediment and algae. I also asked about some goldfish. I talked to the same knowledgeable guy - his name is Shawn.



After that, I went to get my tire checked because it seemed like there was a slow leak in it. There was, so they patched it up - it cost me $22. Not bad.



I have a few stories about my trip to AZ so I'll tell a little at a time. My trip started last Thurs. morning. I had gotten a late start cuz I wanted to have a leisurely breakfast. I went to the Original Pancake House and then headed out. I went by the dam and passed what seemed to be a hub of power.



Traffic was moving slow since the speed limit was around 20mph! It seems they're constructing some kind of bridge. I'm hoping it'll be some kind of bypass so cars driving to and from AZ won't have to wind through the mountain by the Hoover Dam.





This is pretty much the kind of scenery on my drive...



As I got closer to Flagstaff, there was snow!


As I drove, I didn't realize that I'd be going through the mountain. I think this picture is as I'm first getting into the mountain. I didn't take any pictures while I was driving through because there were sharp turns. But it was very pretty to look at.



I got into Sedona a little too late to take the Trolley tour - I forgot to account for the time change into AZ. They don't change their clocks so it was an hour later. I think I realized it because my phone automatically made the time change.

So I just checked into my room and asked the concierge about places to see. He told me how to get to the Holy Cross church and another place with a nice view. When I tried to go to the church, it was already closed off - it was 5pm. It was overcast and kinda rainy so I just drove around a bit.
I drove up to a place to get a view of the town...

I walked around a little downtown area. I'm not much of a shopper so I skipped a lot of the stores. I was getting hungry so I looked for somewhere to eat. Didn't see anything that sounded interesting so I headed back to the hotel. I saw a Thai place so I went in there and had some charbroiled chicken w/noodles.

The next morning, I was planning to go back to the church to take pictures, but it was raining and so I decided to just eat breakfast and leave for Phoenix. The hotel had a little continental breakfast set up so I had an english muffin and coffee. A couple from Toronto joined me at my table. They had gone to Tucson and driven up to the Grand Canyon. They said it was about a 2 and a half hour drive from Sedona to the canyon. I was telling them that I had heard that Sedona is sunny 300 days of the year, so we happened to get one of those rainy days! The man must have been some mathematical whiz because he paused for only a second and said that it was an 18% chance to see rain. I should have asked what he did for a living but I didn't. As I left, this was the view from the hotel...

Still feel a little tired from the weekend. It was a good trip. I liked Sedona, but it did feel like a tourist spot. It was beautiful, but I ran into some rain so I didn't do as much driving around as I normally would have. Getting there was a little scarey cuz I thought I was getting lost. Good thing I didn't have any time restrictions, but I drove through the mountain and I didn't expect that. There was snow and sharp turns.

Phoenix was about 10 degrees warmer and the class went well. I didn't know what to expect from the class, but it seemed like it was a lot of stuff that I learned in school. Trigger point work and structural techniques. It was a good review and made me realize that I need to get some more work done on my shoulders. I also need to watch my body mechanics when I work. Don't look down so much and keep my shoulders from over extending. The teacher said my serratus anterior muscles are very developed and I couldn't figure out why at first. Those are some muscles that you use when you climb ropes or that kind of overhead pulling. And I'm not a rope climber! I think it might be from the way I pull my arms toward me as I work on peoples' backs...I'm not sure. But that causes other problems and she really had to work to get my latissimus dorsi muscles lifted off my ribs. But I noticed such a difference afterwards - I could bring my arm back more.

So I'm not sure if I'll take more of those NMT classes from them. I want to take Myofascial release (but those classes are really expensive) next.

I got back Sun. night before 9pm. The class ended early so I was able to leave by 4:15. It took me 5 and a half hours to drive back, but there was also a time difference of an hour so it wasn't too late.

I'm so excited about seeing Sedona. People have been telling me it's beautiful there. I think there might be snow as I drive there. We'll see. And there are a few restaurants I want to try in Phoenix - a Japanese place and a BBQ place.

Last night, I went by Town Square off of LV blvd. It's fairly new and I had no idea that it looked so nice! I went there to go to Sephora - Karen, I got the Bare Escentuals starter kit! =) I will now have "flawless" skin =). Thought I'd try their cosmetics out. Anyway, not all the stores in the Square are open, but it looks like a great place to walk around during the warm summer nights. I guess I like it because it has the feel of downtown areas up north. Restaurants and stores all together w/in walking distance and street parking. There's also a garage. It almost felt like Disneyland to me! Except no rides and not so crowded. We just don't have many places like that here...it seems like it's either malls, strip malls, or casinos. I'll have to go back and walk around more...and take pictures.

I went to Trader Joe's yesterday and bought energy bars, juice, oatmeal and truffles =P. I was wondering if I could survive off of energy bars and juice. I'm really not wanting to cook lately.

I just booked my hotels for Sedona and Phoenix. I went the cheaper route - La Quinta and Red Roof Inn. I don't think I've stayed in a Red Roof before. My plan is to drive out to Sedona Thurs. and try to take the trolley tour when I get there. I looked up www.sedonatrolley.com and it sounds like a good way to get familiar with the area. I don't know much about the place so it'll be a good introduction. Maybe I can make the 12 or 2pm before I check into the hotel at 3pm.

One of the pictures off their site

I can't believe how fast the week went by. Last week at this time, Lily, Betsy, Dina and I were getting ready to check out of our rooms and heading over to eat at the Original Pancake House.

I'm looking forward to driving to AZ to get out of town and learn some new stuff. Driving back will be a challenge since the class ends Sun. around 5pm. So I won't be getting back home until 11pm after I eat dinner. It feels good to have booked my rooms - now I just have to worry about how to get there. I picked up some maps the other day from AAA.

I went to the pond store to find out about taking care of koi fish. My co-worker wants to find her fish (they named it Mark!) a larger space since their tank is small and they probably will get rid of their tank and other fish. The guy I talked to was so knowledgeable about koi! I was impressed. But since I don't know anything about koi, I'm easily impressed with any info! He said koi are much smarter than goldfish and that they will remember you if you're the one feeding it. He said I don't have to feed the fish since it can survive on the algae and sediment in the pond, but people choose to feed them to have that relationship. Otherwise, it will go into hiding when you come around cuz it sees you as a predator.

He also said that some people get into it once they get one koi and start breeding them. They can be sold for $10,000! In a couple of weeks, they're having a koi fish sale. I guess they have a bunch of fish on loan to the Bellagio conservatory since they have it decorated for Chinese New Year. Once they get them back, they'll sell them for $100 (when they usually go for $250). I didn't know they were so expensive! We saw those fish when we went to the Bellagio last Sat.

I've been gaining weight since I've been eating out more and not exercising =(. I'm going to have to find a way to turn myself around. Yesterday, I took Alex out for his birthday. We had sushi and then we went to go see a play that my co-worker was starring in. It was a 2 person show that spanned over 20 or 25 years. It was a small production at the community center. Since Alex likes theater, I called him to see if he wanted to go - plus we had been meaning to get sushi for a few weeks. It happened to fall on the day before his birthday so it was good timing.

It was so fun having the girls visit me in Vegas. But unfortunately, Cindy was too sick to make it out =(. We stayed at South Point and the rooms were nice. Lily got a deal on them online. She's the bargain finder. I picked them up from the airport and we checked into our rooms. On the way from the airport to the hotel, my sister called because they were in town for some storage business seminar. So they ate dinner at the South Point buffet and we got to see my sister, brother-in-law, mom and Stephanie (Mark's scheduler).

We chatted for a while and then the 4 of us went to The White Chocholate Grill (that restaurant that I've been wanting to try). We ordered an appetizer - Seared Ahi w/sesame seeds. It was quite tastey =P.

Lily and Dina

We all went to sleep pretty late and woke up to eat breakfast at the buffet. Then we were off to the Strip. MGM to the M&M store. On the way we stopped in a few stores.

Betsy making some...noises =)

In the lobby decorated for Chinese New Years

We shopped, walked, ate, walked, shopped, walked and then went to Wynn to see Spamalot.

After the show, we went to the Bellagio. By that time, I was really tired. When we got back to the hotel, I took a 30 min. nap before getting back up to watch a movie in Lily and B's room. We got ice cream and popcorn and just hung out in the room. Another late night, but I didn't have to wake up early...even though I got up at 8:30 anyway!

For the whole weekend I stayed pretty much even in the casino. And the weather was nice...we're on a warming trend. Although I think Thurs. might get a little colder.

Here are some pictures from the Premier Designs conference I went to in CA. They introduced the new spring line...and they were raffling all the jewelry off!! I think there were 3 lucky winners who got the whole collection. I can buy them at a very discounted rate, but I don't know if I will yet.

New spring samples

I got to meet Kathy's Premier "mom" Jennifer and her husband. They are quite successful in this business. She was one of the speakers and they reached several goals in the past year. I don't know what it all means, except that they are working very hard to build their business! They can pay their mortgage (yes, a CA mortgage!) with the income they generate from Premier Designs.

Matt and Jennifer walking across stage...again!

And Kathy won some awards too! In our "family" she was fifth highest in retail sales...I think $21,000, or somewhere around there.

Happy Kathy =)

Me and a new friend Laura...it was so cold in there, I wore my jacket!

Okay, so I had already told Kath that I didn't know how long I'd stick with PD. But I'm not ruling anything out. She was praying that I'd win the "Paid registration for one year" prize that they were raffling off, but I didn't. They were giving away a lot of good stuff...but I didn't win anything =(. I'm still undecided as to what my goals are with PD (Premier Designs).

But this is what happened today. I went to Starbuck's because I wanted to get out of the house and just sit and read. So I decided to put some jewelry on and try something new I learned at the conference. Kath did this with two other necklaces, and one of the speakers also mentioned a way to combine 2 necklaces by "flipping" them. So I did it with 2 necklaces I like...

...and it came out like so.

Well, after I ordered my coffee, I went to grab a couple of napkins and a woman sitting at a table said, "Oooh, I like your necklace! That's nice, where did you get it?!" I told her that I sell it through Premier Designs and she asked if I had a catalog. I had some in my car so I grabbed a couple and gave her a few of my cards. I briefly explained how it works (home shows, etc.), grabbed my coffee and went to sit down. I am sooo unsales-man like! But I went back over to point out the necklace that I had on in the catalog. And the woman said to me, "You look familiar, have we met before?" She kinda looked familiar, but I had no idea who she was. She asked if she had cut my hair before because she's a hair stylist...still no bells. Then she asked if I was from Hawaii and if Gwen cut my hair...still no connection. Then she asked if I went to Studio 108...sounded familiar, but I still didn't place her. Then I asked her name and she said "Marta" and bang! I knew who she was! I guess I'm better with names than faces?!

But she sure has a good memory. She remembered that I was going to massage school. I guess I lost track of her because I left for Japan and she moved salons. Anyway, that was something! She's definitely a jewelry person and she said she'd call me. If I was doing the business correctly, I should have gotten her number and told her I'd call to possibly schedule a time that she could do a show. But I didn't! I guess I don't know how busy I want to get with this. But it was nice to see her again! If she calls, great; if not, I won't be crushed =). I think Kathy has been praying that I stay in the business!

This morning I got a massage (yay!), and I saw Brooke =). We used to work together so it was nice seeing her. She now works at GVR. She said she saw my name on the books so she came to the lounge a little early to say Hey. The massage was just what I needed. Brian was my therapist since Steve doesn't work until tomorrow and I didn't want to wait til then. I steamed a little and sat by the jacuzzi and read a little. Just one of those reading kind of days.

I'm watching "The Biggest Loser". I like that show because it's inspiring. I'm so amazed at how much weight these people lose and how they are transformed - not just physically, but emotionally as well.