Archive for the Friendship
One of my best friends, Chris Cavanagh, marketing director for a food and wine daily email called Tasting Table, turned 50 in March. Way back before the end of the year–actually it was over a year ago, she decided that she wanted to go somewhere, get out of dodge, take a real vacation to celebrate the auspicious date.
For her 40th we went to South Beach Florida and although it was chilly and gray most of the days we were there it didn’t matter. We were there for maybe 3 days but managed to pack in bike rides, fab dinners, night life of the strangest sort, clubbing, and cocktails by the pool wrapped up in big towels to fend off the wind. A good time was had by all.
When she picked Vegas for her 50th and asked if I was game I said yes without much thought. Then it hit me, we were going to Vegas, sin city, the 24 hour festival of excess and I’m a person who likes to be in bed by 11.
Suffice to say my fears of not having fun in Vegas–as in, been-there-done-that-once-why-go-again?–were ill founded and mostly because we planned things to do outside of the hotel.
I knew that Zappos.com was nearby and that they gave tours. When I sheepishly asked Chris is she’d entertain doing that she jumped at the idea. That was a truly inspirational tour. I highly recommend it if you are ever out that way and have a single customer.
Knowing that I love to hike, she went online and found out we do a combo hiking and rock scrambling with a guide just for us. I’m holding fast to my promise not to say anything nice about our guide Neil cause he’s so busy he can’t get a day off but I’ll tell you the company name if you ask really nicely via email. That’s us acting brave, climbing around on boulders, heart pounding but loving every minute of it. 
And one of her long time “must sees” was the Liberace museum. I have a new found admiration for all it took to become the showman he was. His costumes, many of which reside in his museum, sometimes weighed as much as 150 pounds! That’s one of the reasons he drove onto the stage.
Throw in an old boyfriend–hers–and some amazing meals, (Michael Mina’s SeaBlue and American Fish to name a couple) time to walk through casinos and marvel at the size of everything, the gym, the spa, and the laughs–oh and the many nights we managed to resist bed til around 2am or later, and we had the best time ever.
Before I left I was having feelings of guilt for going. I’d be away from my business, I was going without my husband, and on and on. When I let go of that and just allowed myself to play I realized how important it is–again. This taking time out from work, family, whatever it is that comprises our day to day is just as important to our success as nose to the grindstone.
The other important point I took away was the importance of planning. It made all the difference in our experience. We got a good travel deal, we were able to book the things of interest cause we didn’t wait til the last minute and we enjoyed the anticipation. We also left plenty of time to be spontaneous. A perfect combination and one I’m going to implement more in my day to day life.
This last picture is Chris, master sommolier William Scherer of Aureole, and moi at Aureole after our rock adventure. We clean up pretty well don’t we?
During our recent yard sale an adorable salt and pepper haired guy jumped out of his car and headed towards me asking in a delightful French accent about half wine barrels we had for sale. As he got closer he slowed down, stopped speaking, and we both blinked and stared. “Gregory?” he asked. “Herve” I asked and at the same moment we pushed the table between us aside and just hugged each other.
Herve, who you can see below doing my sister’s makeup for my first wedding, was–is–one of my favorite people. One of the kind of people you hate to lose track of but life somehow leads you in different directions.
Herve with my sister Alexis in 1984
“I have chills” I said, “I have them too” he answered and so it went for probably 30 minutes. Lots of Oh My Gods, and I can’t believe its were exchanged and the girls he was with were introduced and it was like we’d never been away.
So I asked him what he was doing now–25 years later! “I”m still doing hair and makeup” he replied and let it go at that.
Well of course as soon as he drove off–with lots of treasures for his friend’s new home–I had to Google him.
He’s not just doing hair and makeup, he’s a rock star of hair and makeup. And the co-host of the TV show “Scandinavia’s Next Top Model” now in its 5th year. Not to mention, he seems to be helping us midlife types with some of our beauty issues.
The video below will show you the current Herve at work on a non-model midlife woman. Though he’s less Duran Duran in appearance he’s still a sexy, good looking man who knows how to make a woman look beautiful. Is there a collaboration in our future? Who knows. What I do know is that we are going to start with a long dinner, plenty of wine, pajamas in tow cause we’ve got catching up to do.
Finding a long lost friend in the way this happened is so delicious. He told me that his friends were tired of yard sales and wanted to go home and he insisted, “come on, just one more.” “I really don’t know why we chose yours” he told me. But now we do. Thanks universe for this treat.
Herve’s 3 Minute Makeup Makeover
