adventures in...: hotel living

For New Year's Eve, some friends and I joined my cousin and her British beau at the Ritz Carlton-Laguna Niguel in Dana Point. He does a brilliant Austin Powers impression. Of course, it comes naturally to him :). After driving through torrential rain, we arrived safely and were greeted by a nice lady who walked us about 10 feet from our car to the awning of the hotel with an umbrella. After seeing all the bags I was carrying, she asked if I had just gone shopping. I sheepishly responded that I had brought items (board games, poker chips) so we could entertain ourselves indoors due to the weather.

By mid-afternoon, the sun had come up and so had our hopes for a tennis match. I had optimistically packed my tennis gear. We walked along the beach and then played a little over an hour of tennis. We played a doubles match and I broke a string, but it's about time I had my racket (racquet) restrung.

Back at the room, I sorted through the bath salts and bubble baths I had accumulated as presents from years past. I went with the peppermint holiday confetti bubble bath and took a nice long soak. It brought me back to my childhood, when precious daylight hours were abundant and I opted for baths rather than speedier showers. Ah well, there are some advantages to growing up, e.g. egg-nog latte. That's what my friends brought me from Starbucks. I've given up coffee for almost a year now and even then I didn't drink caffeine in the PM, but it was New Year's Eve! You're supposed to stay up on New Year's Eve! That coffee kept me up till 5am.

We munched while playing poker and Trivial Pursuit. After running out of glassware, my friend and I went down to the fitness center to grab some plastic cups and bottled water. When I saw that the bathroom there was fully stocked, I went to see what posh items I could take with me. I snagged an individually wrapped emery board and my friend said we were like the Bundys from "Married with Children." How sad.

It was a great night and I was completely worn out the next day. I fell asleep on the Studio Tour at Universal Studios. Luckily, I woke up in time to see Wisteria Lane, the backdrop for the series "Desperate Housewives."