FaUx PhOeNiX LaYoVeR

Sometimes it's a "take what you can get...and realize you totally scored" mentality. A week before a conference in Las Vegas I was told I needed to buy a plane ticket to the event and cover it for our association. Now, if anyone has looked up ticket prices in the U.S., you'd know they are extremely ridiculous, I mean really ridiculous. So imagine trying to book a flight less than a week in advance on a budget--awesome.

I had to be there by Sunday evening in order to start working Monday morning and work through at least Wednesday morning. With all the travel knowledge I poses I attempted to find an inexpensive, direct flight that got me in on Sunday out Thursday, thus allowing some necessary pool time. However, nothing. Every slightly inexpensive flight on Sunday was booked and flying out on Wednesday afternoon was a lot cheaper than waiting until Thursday afternoon.

So, with these flying concoctions in my head I thought, Fine, I'll give up pool time! I also decided that if I had to have a layover to get to Vegas on Sunday, I might as well make it one I wanted and for as long as I wanted. I found a flight giving me 32 hours in Phoenix (please don't hate me all the people I didn't see!) then a direct flight home, which in pure U.S. style ended up not being so direct. Let it be known that this ticket was also cheaper than other more "logical" flight patterns suggested.

I landed in Phoenix in early afternoon on Saturday and was greeted by my CF (new acronym for college friend--log that away) Heidi who took me to the amazing, ever crave-inducing Cafe Rio for lunch. We chatted, ate our entire pork salads (yes, we're porkers), chatted some more then headed to Last Chance for some good ol' retail fun. My DCF (D.C. Friend) Britt met us towards the end of our spree and we all purchased way too much but somehow not enough. The three of us then decided to go see a movie while we waited for my HSBFF (high school bestie) Amy to get out of work. We got free popcorn thanks to Heidi's fan tshirt and made our way to Hannah. After 10 minutes of Hannah I said we should go, it was so weird, but popcorn was still being eaten thus deadening Heidi and Britt's movie senses. At minute 20 I finally convinced them to go to Something Borrowed instead. Not the best movie either, but better than Hannah, that's for sure. Above all, the popcorn and company was amazing!

I was then picked up by Amy and ushered to a farewell party for Sara (my right in group shot) before she heads home to Chicago then off to study a semester of law in Paris. Can you say tres jealous? The next day --Mother's Day--Amy and I celebrated our motherhoodness with a bit of church, a bit of frozen yogurt and sushi, a bit {okay, a lot} of OPI nail polish, a bit of 10,000 Women networking and a bit of Mexican nosh before I headed to the airport.

My faux layover was more than a little bit good, it was fantastic! Every time I go to Arizona I ask myself...could I live here? Well, YES I could. Who doesn't love good Mexican, amazing hiking all around you, good shopping and movie theaters that give you free popcorn?! And as I said earlier, the company's not that bad either. I just need to make longer visits...