Palm Springs has actually been a frequent destination since I was little. Living in Long Beach, my family could be by the pool in just a little over two hours. It’s funny how many details of those trips suddenly came to mind this past weekend–little details I hadn’t thought about in years! There was the time my girlfriend Emy and her family came with us and there was a huge earthquake that sent everyone fleeing in bikinis. The time I drove my mom and I in my parents’ Mercedes and we spun out on Hwy 60. The time I snuck into the Spa bathroom to borrow a magazine, and saw Kate Moss on one of her first covers: Seventeenmagazine. The time my high school girlfriends and I realized (first with excitement and then disappointment) that we were the only girls at our hotel. And the time Aron and I first shared a date shake out at Hadley Fruit Farm.
I had all but forgotten about another first: I sort of had my first date in Palm Springs! My parents let me go to lunch with a boy I had met by the pool; we walked downtown to Hamburger Hamlet in the blazing sun. I remember that I wanted some money so that I could offer to split the bill and my parents gave me $5. (And no, I’m not that old, so this wasn’t very much money back then either.) I think dad–being the old-fashioned guy that he is–thought the boy should really pay.
I scanned the menu anxiously and saw that I could only afford the French onion soup. And so I ordered French onion soup and a glass of water. As if this weren’t already the most ridiculous thing to get on even a sort-of-date (a bowl full of stinky onions with stringy cheese), this was in the summer! In the desert!
Guess what? He ordered the same thing. (And paid.)
What’s your first date story? How old were you?
[Top photos taken at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs–which I can’t wait to go back to]
I got back late last night from Palm Springs, where I spent the past three-and-a-half days participating in Camp Mighty at the Ace Hotel. The official tag line is “Camp Mighty is a retreat for people who like to make cool things happen,” and I met some amazing people doing very cool things. For example, the woman making the impromptu, would-be Breck hair commercial with me here? That’s Jeanne Lewis, the CEO and co-founder of Creative Bug–a startup that aims to be the go-to source for online art and craft instruction. Like so many of the people I met, she had infectious enthusiasm about what is possible.
Some of my favorite bumper-sticker moments of the talks? Ben Silbermann, the founder of Pinterest, was the keynote speaker (with the sweetest family–seriously, we’re going to talk more about his mother-in-law sometime) and led with “Inspiration is contagious. But so is self-doubt.” Isn’t that so true? You know, I never mention it, but I think about how I should stop blogging just about every day. Self-doubt. So tricky.
Jordan Ferney struck a cord with many people when she said that “the chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want in the moment.” She made me want to post goals on my fridge! And from Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess: If you are doing something no one hates, no one will love it.”
There was also a business-tip trading session at one point and it was fascinating to hear from people whose experience ranged from working behind the desk at their parents’ laundry business all their lives to selling their little startup called Hootsuite. (Have you heard of it?) “Do what you do best, and hire out the rest” was the tip from Susan Petersen of Freshly Picked.
I got the chance to go because AT&T is going to help me do something philanthropic, to help me give back–and I’ll share more about that soon–so meeting these (very friendly) cool people who are doing very cool things at this oh-so-cool place, well this was really just icing.
P.S. Maggie Mason, who started Mighty Events (and who is also a UCDavis alum!), just launched Go Mighty–a site for sharing your life list and inviting brands to make things on it happen. Check it out. And for a couple more smile booth pics, check my twitter feed @ashleymuirbruhn.
