New Year's Weekend

Flash back to forty years ago.

Randi and I were Junior High buddies, two of a group of about eight girls with college, marriage, and parenthood still far away in the future. (Okay, so I'm only one for three. Whatever.)

Flash forward.

Driving down to Palm Springs last Saturday, at first I went through one of those mental conversations you have with yourself: Who could have predicted that a lifetime later, we'd be spending New Years Weekend together?

Then, I thought: Well, duh. Why not? Quit being so melodramatic.

Anyway, food for thought. So there we were, yakking and navigating our way down the 118 to the 210 to the 15 to the...uh-oh. What happened to the 10? Suddenly, nothing looked familiar. And we'd gone way past the three miles where, purportedly, we'd pick it up.

Norco? I don't remember ever going through Norco to reach Palm Springs. Oh, well. We were hungry anyway, so we stopped at a MacDonalds and got directions. Yes, we'd missed the 10, but a new and exciting route awaited us.

We didn't care. We were too busy catching up on lives, loves, and...well, you know. All that girly stuff. Plus, I can cross off "eat at the MacDonald's in Norco" from my to-do list.

Bonus.

Here's another bonus. When I went hotel shopping for this excursion, I limited my search mainly to places within walking distance of the Spa Casino (where I knew we'd be spending a great deal of time.) Click, click, click...suddenly, one of those annoying pop-ups shot out of the screen, asking if I'd found what I was looking for. Usually, I hit the x and move on but this time, for some reason, I got curious. Okay, annoying pop-up...I accept your challenge. Show me something to knock my sox off.

And it did! I don't remember how it all worked, but I ended up on a site called Skoosh and they were quoting $86 a night for the Wyndham versus $186 a night at most of the other sites. I figured it was some kind of trick; a lure to an unsavory site waiting to rip off my credit card.

Then I saw the same price quoted elsewhere.

So I researched Skoosh, concluded they're related to Priceline, and decided to take the risk. The total (prepaid--which made me a tad nervous) for three nights with tax etc. : $316.80. On New Years Weekend.

Still nervous, I called the hotel a few days later, confirming they had my reservation and that, yes...it was possible a wholesaler had purchased rooms at the cheap price.

Score! We'd already "won" and we hadn't even begun gambling yet! Not only that, but when we showed up, the hotel (not the booking agency, the hotel) had us arriving...um...next year--as in December 29, 2008--so they didn't have the exact room set-up I'd reserved. No problem. They upgraded us to a junior suite at the same pre-paid price. Another score!

And that's how the weekend commenced...more later.