Like sands through the hourglass… so are the days of our lives.

No – I’m not a Days of Our Lives fan.  🙂 Sadly I have no time for soap operas in my schedule unless you count Game of Thrones and Once Upon A Time (these are my guilty pleasures and I love them).. ??  The days have been slipping by – I swear I don’t know where the heck they go and we have been very silent on the blog front. Sorry about that. It’s not due to a lack of desire to post- that’s for sure…so much has transpired. I personally have had some major family stuff to deal with. Normally I would not address that in a blog but it’s pretty serious.  In a 45 day window my brother Doug and my grandfather Gene both died.  45 days apart in fact. Wasn’t prepared for either one. Needless to say it’s been difficult .

      

 

I’ve hesitated and struggled with whether or not to write about any of this… But this is real life, horrible tragic things do happen sometimes and I have never felt more strongly about encouraging every person who will give me the time of day to follow their heart and dreams. Girls Gone Global is that for me. After coming to terms with the losses to the best of my ability ( I mean can you ever really come to terms?)  so much has changed perception wise for me.  Now- having a very personal connection to all of the cliché sentiments I never took very seriously such as  “Everyday is a gift”, “You never know which day may be your last so live each one to the fullest” …you know those ones – I really understand the messages conveyed. Now let’s be realistic…if I was living each day like it was my last you would likely find me on a nude beach located somewhere in the Seychelles drinking a cocktail with an umbrella in it eating an entire loaf of bread full of gluten. So the statement still has parameters to really be applicable in day-to-day life – but here is my very expanded interpretation of it from all angles bullet pointed out for you!

•  If you’re gonna do something – really do it.  Dive in…and I do not believe in regret. If that head first dive didn’t or doesn’t work out for you, learn from it and make a different choice next time. For those of you who don’t know my background is in therapy and I worked as a very successful therapist for quite some time years ago – One of the most prolific things I learned was that guilt is an entirely useless emotion and serves no purpose other than to make you feel like crap. Let go of the guilt people. Learn, make different choices and move on.

•  If you have unsettled emotional business with a loved one or friend…work it out. It’s not worth hanging on to – TRUST ME ON THIS ONE. Fortunately I had the privilege of  holding my grandfathers hand when he passed away and had told him just  that day how much I loved him and what he meant to me. I also was fortunate enough to of talked to and seen my brother shortly before his death. We had just had a giant heart to heart about life and  – yes you guessed it I told him how much I loved him. Phew- THANK GOD! Rest assured – All the people in my life that I love have now sincerely been told 1897 times over the last two months.

• Getting back on track to living life to the fullest and my interpretation – If you don’t like your life – make steps to change it..even baby steps are great steps. When we are little we don’t just stand up and run. We start with one little teeny tiny step at a time and we fall an awful lot. All those little steps add up and before you know it you are taking great big strides! Daydreaming, imagining and fantasizing all count as baby steps too! Believe in yourself and be kind to yourself. You  have the choice of either being your biggest supporter or your own worst enemy. While on the topic of enemies..If you have anyone in your life you have assigned that astute title to – I suggest you eliminate the word from your vocabulary except in the context I just used it  in and make up or forgive those people and move on.  Life is to short to hold a grudge..it’s all about the love friends.

• Live your life for you…not your parents, your children or your partner. I’m not saying that your children or partner should not be a factor when making ‘some’ decisions…but you have to follow your heart and your dreams and your inspiration. Work with your partner towards a career change if you hate your job. Take time for yourself. Instead of spending all your moolah on trinkets and crud for the kids..set some of that dough aside just for you. I do not care if your parents told you that you had to be a lawyer and in order to make them happy you went to law school and now you’re a fancy pants lawyer and now you fuc*ing hate it. It’s never to late.

•  I am officially giving you permission to do what makes you happy. Personally, professionally, socially – you get it. And I don’t want to hear any ‘buts’. There are no ‘buts’ about it. You could die tomorrow.

Now for me… the things that makes me happy are travel, my family, spending time with my girlfriends, making out, telling the people I love how much I love them, listening to  really loud music while driving in my car, singing along to that really loud music, pursuing my dreams, making tv and movies, writing, encouraging people to follow their inspiration – heart and dreams, reminding people that they are ‘worth it!’ and inspiring them to believe in themselves, sweet little babies when they are not crying, you get the idea and that’s just  naming a few. Do you have a happy list? How many of those things are you doing or have done recently? Lets make a game plan. How about you make that list and agree to do at least three things on it over the next week.  You must put at least 10 things on the list. They can be small things or huge things. Whatever you are comfortable with. Just make the list, choose your three and do them. Oh gosh. How did I forget – my cat Princess Diana – she makes me really really happy.

We have lots of good stuff coming up over the next month too! Every friday in March I will post a new blog. I’ve asked each one of the girls to write a blog about why they love to travel, why it’s important to them, what’s their favorite part of a trip and why do they think you should be traveling too.  My secret mission is to inspire you to go somewhere. You’ll have to let me know if it works.  😉 Speaking of going somewhere…there has been a  fair share of traveling happening for me and the ladies over the last two months as well.  Melanie was in Hawaii twice and is headed to Florida and  Grand Turk next week.  Just yesterday she finalized plans for a trip to Costa Rica this April.  Her husbands ( Kaleo Wassman ) band Pepper is currently on tour and were going to head out and meet up with them tomorrow. Yay- always a good time with Kaleo and Melanie! Angie spent a glorious 10 days in Anguilla and St. Barth over Christmas and then flew to LA to spend New Years with me. She dragged me to Hugh Hefner’s  New Years party at the Playboy mansion. I wasn’t kicking and screaming but I definitely utilized the fake it til’ you make it attitude that night.

I spent a week in Seattle during January and then took another short road trip up the coast with my hubby. We took the 101 North and kicked things off  house hunting in Montecito (planning on moving by August) then headed to Solvang,  Pismo Beach, Avila Beach and San Luis Obispo.  It was a great little mini trip that was incredibly inexpensive. Gotta love those. We paid $68 per night for a suite with an ocean view in San Luis Bay…deal of the century!

       

We also spent a long weekend in Palm Springs with friends. We rented an absolutely stunning house that I was able to negotiate a last-minute rate on…never hurts to ask – sometimes you get a YES!  Weather was 75- sunny and the pool was outstanding. Check it out here… http://www.vrbo.com/70857 .

So it’s safe to say we’ve been logging the miles. Angie promised to write a post about St. Barth and Anguilla so that should be coming soon- the pictures I’ve seen are outstanding!  I’ve also got an extensive travel itinerary over the next 6 months… Seattle, Canada, France, Amsterdam, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and maybe a Mediterranean cruise with Mom (I’m taking my own advice and doing what makes me happy while living my life to the fullest!).  So I promise..we have lots of good blogging on its way!   On that note I leave you with Angie and I counting down the New Year straight from the playboy mansion itself.

This blogs for you Dougie and Grandpa…so much love and missing you both every single day,

Eden

3 In A King and A Super Hot Soak! Day 4 Part One.

Yes I know. This is late. Really late…and it’s only Part One. Live blogging has it’s challenges..such as internet access and hangover recovery and long bout’s of driving. These things all factored into the delay this time. We are just full of excuses aren’t we? 🙂 Moving on…cuz’ the good news is… The first half of Day 4 is here now and the second half will be up tomorrow and then Day 5 is coming and VEGAS – can you say undercover sting operation with the Las Vegas Police Department! Seriously.  I can make no promises about attempting to keep this short.. It’s going to be a long one- to much good stuff to share – so pour yourself a glass of something and prepare for a stiff read! LOL

After a restful night – kind of – no not really at all – can three people sleeping  in one King bed that have been drinking really sleep soundly? Nope.  After trying to sleep…let me paint the picture for you… Angie squished in the middle (she’s the stillest) and Melanie and I each taking a side..we proceeded to all toss and turn and flip and flop from about 4 until 10. One slight little movement in such close proximity..everyone’s up..we finally just decided – if one of us woke up – we would all use that as an opportunity to shift position. Very funny. And don’t get me started on how hot it was. One leg out of the covers..one leg in..upper half no covers..all covered up.  Back and forth. So we crawled out of bed after attempting to sleep around 11am. Quick pack and shower and we were out of the Monte Carlo AKA Roger Rabbit suite. The pics say it all. Giant yellow stripes, red & black curtains, blue chair- you get it.

Melanie had to be at the airport by noon…so we were on a mission. One of the greatest things about the nav system in the 335diesel is that it adjusts your designated route minute by minute depending on the live traffic updates it receives via satellite. I have to do nothing..the sweet little voice in my car simply says – “Your route has been updated” LOVE THIS FEATURE. So needless to say – we made it to the airport on time and did not sit in any traffic. We did however reroute through what we thought was the projects in Denver. Always nice to see all sides of a city.

As soon as we dropped Melanie off we missed her. We considered kidnapping her and forcing her to road trip back with us but we didn’t have room for her and her luggage. We just had to bring all that dang crap. Darn it. As you will notice in the photo above Angie is wearing another one of her now infamous $9.99 Target dresses. Green in honor of Denver and the Rocky Mountains that we still had to drive over. Back to the road. Breakfast this morning consisted of sunflower seeds – Angie hates them but has now taken up eating them daily. The road calls for extreme measures. We also each had one of Holly’s cookies. Breakfast of champions.

We had  a big day ahead of us. A lot of miles to cover and I was not looking forward to a single one. There are approximately 773.07 miles between Denver International Airport and Viva Las Vegas. Under normal circumstances I love the road trip and all the miles…however I was not feeling so well today. I really didn’t drink that much..but between the altitude, lack of sleep and lack of food the night/day before.. I was hurtin’. Angie wasn’t in much better shape. We set the nav and headed west.

Todays main objective was specifically to cover miles..but what kind of road trip would it be without a few stops? Even if we do have mean headaches, are pressed for time and on a mission. In hindsight we probably should not of planned our longest driving day the morning after ‘Party Like A Rock Star’ was on our agenda. We had a room booked at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas starting Thursday night…so technically we had about 30 hours to get there…that does  leave plenty of room for a few little side adventures…

First spontaneous stop..  Indian Springs Resort.  As we were driving through Idaho Springs I recalled hearing that there were great Hot Springs somewhere in the area. A quick stop at the nearby Starbucks…free wife, 5 minutes on the google and voila!   We were only about a mile away. What sounds better than soaking in all natural hot springs when hung over? Nada. Indian Springs Resort was a ‘groovy’ place. Very rustic. Very Hippy. The Geo-Thermal soaking caves were originally mines that were later converted into tubs. They had a mineral pool, private soaking indoor tubs, soaking caves and outdoor soaking jacuzzi’s..all filled with naturally hot mineral water. Angie was freaked out by the caves.  It was dark and really hot and kind of smelly – in her defense and I was way to ‘headachey’ to attempt to talk her into it. Then we saw a snake slither by as we were touring the outdoor tubs and it was over. As we stepped off the red wood deck she said to me – “Eden – stop moving. Stand still. Stay calm. Don’t freak out.  There’s a snake” None of those words made me calm and not want to freak out. We were heading out – off to the next option. Detoxification through sweat and soaking would have to wait. 

Angie saying “Hell no – It’s way to hottt!”

SNAKE! I swear it looks smaller than it was.

About 2 hours further west on Interstate 70 the Yampah Vapor Caves were calling our names. North America’s only all natural underground hot mineral water steam baths  are located in the little town of Glenwood Springs Colorado. Same place coincidentally we had found great lodging (America’s Best Value Inn Day 2 with the kick butt pillow top mattresses) on our way to Red Rocks.  Hot mineral waters flow through the cave floors at 125 degrees F. to create their natural geothermal steam baths… cave temperatures average 110 -112 degrees F. It is freaking hot. 

 Your only allowed to stay down in the caves for 10-12 minutes at a time. You are instantly dripping sweat…there is access to cold water through a shower and hose located within the caves.  Large buckets/tubs are laying around that people were filling and soaking their feet in while leaning back on large marble slabs. It felt great. It was really hot. Angie started panicking as soon as we headed down the stairs into the caves. She hung out by the entrance and remarked how sweaty I was every time I came to check on her 🙂 . She agreed to come into the caves only if I would have the cold shower running for her so she could aim for it upon her venture in. She ran straight for it – rinsed in cold quickly and ran straight out.  Again- It was really hot. REALLY REALLY HOT. Manager was great  – as were the staff.  A+ experience.

           

         

    

Have we established it was hot? 🙂 After the caves most people head into the solarium to cool off and then back into the caves…not us. We had arranged for a private soak in a tub filled with – yep you guessed it – REALLY HOT mineral spring water.

The private tub soak would be great for a ‘romantic’ little get away if your ever in the area with your special someone.. They had candles lit, a little tray all set up with ice-cold water and wash clothes soaking in ice chips. Wait. Sweating profusely isn’t so sexy. So maybe not. Cancel romantic soak and fill in with hangover recovery instead 🙂 Ha Ha. I think every drop of alcohol had sweated out of me by this point. Drinking 600 glasses of ice water probably helped as well.  I suppose the Yampah Caves and Mineral Baths are great for both…Romance and recovery.  Eden… Angela…Eden…Angela…- what is that we hear? Oh yes..the sound of the road calling our names – and food. Yes we must have food. Cookies and seeds..not so good anymore. 

TO BE CONTINUED… 🙂 Chomp’s Delicatessen, lightning storms (we’ve got video) and the worst rain either of us have ever experienced – ever ever ever. I mean it was sideways people.  How is that possible?

Love,

Eden and Angela