Incommunicado
Thursday, 4 January 2007 21:47![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fatrockstarI just spent the last seven days in Palm Springs, California. Garret's parents have a condo there that they rent out to vacationers, and we managed to get some time there as a Christmas gift. Frankly, I had no idea what to do with our time there. Palm Springs is full of retirees and golfers, and my in-laws couldn't really tell us much else (they go there to sit in the sun and golf).
It was nice weather, that's for sure. 70 degrees under a cloudless sky during the day, 40 at night. The condo had a swimming pool and jacuzzi I was more than happy to take advantage of once the sun went down. I'm deathly pale and somewhat chubby, so hanging out in my swimsuit in the middle of the day isn't fun for me. I went at night as it cooled to 55-60.
I had forgotten how much I enjoy swimming. After sticking my candy red hair in a swimcap (no sense in having all that red bleed into the poolwater) I took to it. It was pretty incredible. It's been years since I've had a chance to really swim. My paternal grandparents had a swimming pool in their backyard (the marker on this map is slightly off. The pool you see to the right of it -- that's the one I swam in when I was four up until I was about 16), and I looked forward to every summer I could dive into it. The condo pool wasn't as deep, but it was enough that I could do handstands, flips, laps, and dog paddling in.
We didn't really have a plan, and I think Garret kept it that way on purpose. When I go to a strange place I like to have a plan. Not necessarily a schedule, but a general idea of cool things to do once I get there would be nice. I don't do well without some kind of purpose to drive my day. With nothing to do I just sleep all the time. Bo-ring. Garret is the opposite. He doesn't want to know. If the mood strikes him, he'll look for something. This doesn't work for me on so many levels, but the main one is that I know my husband will sit and watch television all day if there's no plan.
There was a list of things to do once we got there, but many of them didn't seem that interesting to me. We have a museum of flight in Seattle, so the Palm Springs one didn't excite me. I don't golf. We ended up going to a zoo called The Living Desert and "touring" North America. Part of the tour included a short hike to a vantage point where we could see the San Andreas fault. Fascinating stuff.
New Year's was spent in the condo watching the ball drop with Dick Clark on the TV. Every year we make a point to take a photo of our New Year kiss and this was no different. It will go in the photo collage with the rest of them -- every year since 2001 (except 2003, when we decided to argue instead). It was a nice New Year's.
And then there was DisneyLand. DisneyLand is about an hour and a half drive away from Palm Springs, and we figured we should make the trip. I thought it would be really cool to ring in the New Year there, since they'd be open until 2, but on New Year's Eve Garret's mother called and told us it would be too packed to enjoy due to the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl crowds. I was pretty upset that she ruined my plans, but ended up getting over it. We went on the 2nd instead.
It was still a mess on the 2nd. With President Ford's funeral and other events surrounding his memory there were a lot of things closed and restricted in Southern California (Ford was a resident of Rancho Mirage, which is pretty much Palm Springs when you look at it on the map), so once the events were over everybody piled into DisneyLand. We got there at the same time everyone else did. Wow. It was still fun, but we decided to get a room and come back on the 3rd.
The second day was an improvement. Between the 2nd and the 3rd they changed Space Mountain. For a few months it's Red Hot Chili Peppers themed. VERY fun. We rode many of our favorite rides several times thanks to the "gimp pass." The "gimp pass" is basically a disabled-access pass. Garret's arthritis started to act up, making it a necessity. So many waiting lines and entry paths are full of stairs!
By the time we got back to Palm Springs we were both exhausted. Garret went straight to bed. I headed for the jacuzzi. My muscles are still sore. I spent most of my park time as a human support structure for Garret, which is the equivalent of carrying a 50lb weight on your shoulders for several hours. My lower back, butt, and thighs should be half an inch bigger all around now.
There's so much more to this trip I could share with you. I could tell you about how my husband's libido miraculously appeared out of nowhere, or how one night at the TraveLodge opened my eyes to what was missing in our marriage. I know that deep down there are things I need to change, that my tendency to be uptight and overstructured creates a problem for him. I also know I'm the only person I can control, and I am responsible for my own understanding. I can hope that Garret understands his own issues, but I can't force him to do so. Trust is still something I struggle with regularly, especially with Garret. He knows this. He wants me to trust him and I want to trust him. It's something I need to work on.
The finishing touch on the trip was coming home. Grady and Teamun were being taken care of by a friend of mine while we were gone, and we missed them both. Grady was very excited to see us and is still not quite trusting that we're back to stay -- he's been yowling off and on since we returned. We just discovered that he barfed on the bedspread while we were out. Yay. As for Teamun, he either needs to be looked at or have his filter replaced. It's been very tough to keep his tank clean for over a month -- within a week of cleaning it's murky and smells awful again. I don't get it.
So, we're home. I am exhausted and feel fat. There are many emails to catch up with. The beauty of a small f-list is that I don't have to spend a lot of time to play catch-up with all of you here on LiveJournal. Happy Belated Birthdays to Michelle and Dustin, and Happy New Year to everybody!
It was nice weather, that's for sure. 70 degrees under a cloudless sky during the day, 40 at night. The condo had a swimming pool and jacuzzi I was more than happy to take advantage of once the sun went down. I'm deathly pale and somewhat chubby, so hanging out in my swimsuit in the middle of the day isn't fun for me. I went at night as it cooled to 55-60.
I had forgotten how much I enjoy swimming. After sticking my candy red hair in a swimcap (no sense in having all that red bleed into the poolwater) I took to it. It was pretty incredible. It's been years since I've had a chance to really swim. My paternal grandparents had a swimming pool in their backyard (the marker on this map is slightly off. The pool you see to the right of it -- that's the one I swam in when I was four up until I was about 16), and I looked forward to every summer I could dive into it. The condo pool wasn't as deep, but it was enough that I could do handstands, flips, laps, and dog paddling in.
We didn't really have a plan, and I think Garret kept it that way on purpose. When I go to a strange place I like to have a plan. Not necessarily a schedule, but a general idea of cool things to do once I get there would be nice. I don't do well without some kind of purpose to drive my day. With nothing to do I just sleep all the time. Bo-ring. Garret is the opposite. He doesn't want to know. If the mood strikes him, he'll look for something. This doesn't work for me on so many levels, but the main one is that I know my husband will sit and watch television all day if there's no plan.
There was a list of things to do once we got there, but many of them didn't seem that interesting to me. We have a museum of flight in Seattle, so the Palm Springs one didn't excite me. I don't golf. We ended up going to a zoo called The Living Desert and "touring" North America. Part of the tour included a short hike to a vantage point where we could see the San Andreas fault. Fascinating stuff.
New Year's was spent in the condo watching the ball drop with Dick Clark on the TV. Every year we make a point to take a photo of our New Year kiss and this was no different. It will go in the photo collage with the rest of them -- every year since 2001 (except 2003, when we decided to argue instead). It was a nice New Year's.
And then there was DisneyLand. DisneyLand is about an hour and a half drive away from Palm Springs, and we figured we should make the trip. I thought it would be really cool to ring in the New Year there, since they'd be open until 2, but on New Year's Eve Garret's mother called and told us it would be too packed to enjoy due to the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl crowds. I was pretty upset that she ruined my plans, but ended up getting over it. We went on the 2nd instead.
It was still a mess on the 2nd. With President Ford's funeral and other events surrounding his memory there were a lot of things closed and restricted in Southern California (Ford was a resident of Rancho Mirage, which is pretty much Palm Springs when you look at it on the map), so once the events were over everybody piled into DisneyLand. We got there at the same time everyone else did. Wow. It was still fun, but we decided to get a room and come back on the 3rd.
The second day was an improvement. Between the 2nd and the 3rd they changed Space Mountain. For a few months it's Red Hot Chili Peppers themed. VERY fun. We rode many of our favorite rides several times thanks to the "gimp pass." The "gimp pass" is basically a disabled-access pass. Garret's arthritis started to act up, making it a necessity. So many waiting lines and entry paths are full of stairs!
By the time we got back to Palm Springs we were both exhausted. Garret went straight to bed. I headed for the jacuzzi. My muscles are still sore. I spent most of my park time as a human support structure for Garret, which is the equivalent of carrying a 50lb weight on your shoulders for several hours. My lower back, butt, and thighs should be half an inch bigger all around now.
There's so much more to this trip I could share with you. I could tell you about how my husband's libido miraculously appeared out of nowhere, or how one night at the TraveLodge opened my eyes to what was missing in our marriage. I know that deep down there are things I need to change, that my tendency to be uptight and overstructured creates a problem for him. I also know I'm the only person I can control, and I am responsible for my own understanding. I can hope that Garret understands his own issues, but I can't force him to do so. Trust is still something I struggle with regularly, especially with Garret. He knows this. He wants me to trust him and I want to trust him. It's something I need to work on.
The finishing touch on the trip was coming home. Grady and Teamun were being taken care of by a friend of mine while we were gone, and we missed them both. Grady was very excited to see us and is still not quite trusting that we're back to stay -- he's been yowling off and on since we returned. We just discovered that he barfed on the bedspread while we were out. Yay. As for Teamun, he either needs to be looked at or have his filter replaced. It's been very tough to keep his tank clean for over a month -- within a week of cleaning it's murky and smells awful again. I don't get it.
So, we're home. I am exhausted and feel fat. There are many emails to catch up with. The beauty of a small f-list is that I don't have to spend a lot of time to play catch-up with all of you here on LiveJournal. Happy Belated Birthdays to Michelle and Dustin, and Happy New Year to everybody!
