Smile Sweetly and Ask Nicely While You’re on Vacation

It’s a good thing my brother-in-law Dr. Bill Jacobs is a good holiday planner because he’s directly responsible for the fact that Terreeia and I are here in Scottsdale, Arizona with my sister Elizabeth and my sweet nephews for 5 nights.

William & Markus

We’re staying at the Kimpton Firesky Resort & Spa. When we arrived in our looong stretch limo (men are all about classy transportation–Bill again) we had adjoining rooms but not facing the pool.

I had called two days before and was told that they had adjoining rooms available but that there would be an additional charge to face the pool and that we could arrange it when we arrived.

Well, when we arrived, there was nothing beside the pool.

So what do I do? Do I smile sweetly and ask nicely? No. I get bitchy and cranky while Bill smiles and gets related.

At one point while the front office clerk was bent over her computer searching for rooms and I stood there with my arms crossed, Terreeia motioned for me to come over, get a smile on my face and uncross my arms.

When we walked to our adjoining rooms facing the highway with a promise to be moved the next day, I asked him which one of us got us moved? Bill or me? I’m guessing it was because of him.

The pool at the Kimpton

I was consulting with a client from California recently. She had just moved from New York and as we talked she mentioned that she was enjoying our conversation because of my straightforward, no-nonsense, bossy-but-in-a-charming-way voice.

She confided that when she arrived in LA to stay with her brother and sister-in-law while she was waiting to take possession of her new house, he told her that she needed to tone down her direct and aggresive Eastcoast personality now that she was living in the Westcoast.

I laughed and said that most of my long distance consulting was with readers who live in the East. The percentage of calls that are 3 hours ahead of me is mind-boggling.

I have often thought that if I lived in the East Coast, it would be okay to just be me and then would feel the need to apologize less for my sometimes pushy and impatient personality.

Terreeia won’t even sit down in a restaurant until I am happy with where we’re being seated. She knows. I can’t have glare (my eyes are sensitive) I need atmosphere, and, well, let’s face it, I’m a designer, my standards are high.

Speaking of restaurants, last night we had dinner at El Chorro restaurant not far from where we’re staying. We loved it and highly recommend it. The atmosphere was perfect (check) and the service was fabulous!

The next day someone even called to ask how our dinner was the night before?? Extraordinary!

William and Markus ran right over to the huge cacti to touch it (above), they thought it was very cool.

I always appreciate good design in a commercial bathroom so I thought I’d share this pretty bathroom done in blues with you!

The only thing I would have changed here was the accent strip of blue. I think it would have been perfection if it was just clean, white subway. Just my personal preference.

I loved the bullnose edge and wall sconces on both sides of the decorative mirror.

Out in the bar area, I really liked the blue and white parisian style bar stools with terra cotta tiled floors.

I even snapped a photo of the decorative mosaic around the bar. Normally matchy, matchy tile like this with the same size blue and white pattern in the chair doesn’t work but here it does!

Creative, decorative antlers going down the halls.

And pretty fairy lights wrapped around the trees outside the restaurant. With this atmosphere and the service, I can see why it was totally packed.

I snapped a quick picture of Markus outside as we were waiting for our car to take us back to the hotel.

One great thing about where we’re staying is the Mall is a 10 minute walk from here (although we still take a car because it’s hot!). We had so much fun shopping today! Every single store you can imagine is here.

Since I’m crazy about orange these days I couldn’t resist these Tory Burch sandals. They match my mandarin orange lipstick that I wear constantly from MAC.

Bill and Terreeia went to a ball game together around dinner time so Elizabeth and I took the boys to old town for dinner. Here’s a selfie of us!

William and Markus having desert in the perfect ice cream parlour with carrara topped tables and some more hex tile with blue walls and chairs. So great.

Here’s Elizabeth with her ice cream!

Here’s William and I in an airy taxi on our way back from dinner.

Whenever Markus walks through the front doors of the hotel he says “The sun is broken”.

Our adjoining rooms are great by the way. We arrived Thursday night and Friday when we moved to poolside rooms Markus said “Will you guys be beside us again?

Yes, I said.

Will we have a tunnel from your room to ours?

Of course.

It’s this experience that has me take great lengths to have the rooms that I want so that my nephews can run back and forth, especially at 6:00 am when my sister has already tip-toed over to have coffee with Terreeia and I in our room.

We love it here so much, we’re thinking we need to find some more friends and buy a place here.

Terreeia has arthritis in her fingers and she had really bad allergies that cleared up as soon as we arrived so we need to figure out how we can spend more time here in the desert.

Gotta run, I have to get back to the trashy beach novel I’m reading (I NEVER do that).

Thanks to all my readers who appreciate my direct and bossy-but-in-a-charming way personality.  I love and appreciate you!! xoxo Maria

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