holly’s 14 hour girls’ weekend

This summer I got an invitation that I couldn’t refuse.   It was from Maile. I met Maile at Mom 2.0 in the Art Gallery/Taco Truck dinner surrounded by amazing photography displayed in the modern used-to-be-a-factory-but-now-am-a-super-cool-loft-like space. I love that kind of space. I also loved Maile.   Maile is a photographer and has created one of the coolest things I have ever seen…a camera bag. As in a REAL bag.   Like one that you would grab even if you didn’t need to take your camera.   Like one that you would buy even if you didn’t own a camera. More on that later. Back to the invitation.   She was inviting a few girls to join her in Austin for the weekend where she was renting a freakishly modern house for the weekend to do a photo-shoot for Epiphanie Bags.   A fun weekend in an Austin dream house with Maile and the hope to pick up a few photography tips…I am in. I drove down on Friday afternoon and arrived around 3.   The girls were already out on a photo-shoot so I let myself into the house and took a few pics with my iPhone to send home to blog-Stedman: This is taken from the loft over the living room.   Just a few steps from where I took the picture there is a built-in sleeping loft with three beds and a TV. This is the downstairs TV room.   I am using the word “room” loosely because all the “rooms” on the first floor were separated (or not) by curtains hung on hospital-like tracks. The stairs between floors one and two. The room I chose initially because it was WAY cool.   A rolling wardrobe was behind the right curtain to contain the Holly mess. This crazy-cool tub was across from my bedroom.   There were bathrooms everywhere.   The other downstairs bathroom had a shower so large that you could probably use it as a carwash. Back upstairs in the main living area. The dining room had a fun mix of modern with traditional and shabby-chic. I figured I would pull out my REAL camera the next day and get some REAL pictures of the house in a more thoughtful and less iPhone-y way. Sam and Maile returned from the photo-shoot and we chatted and giggled until we were nearly starving and headed out via taxi for dinner.

Random fact:   All the taxi cab drivers Sam and Maile encountered over the weekend seemed to know less about Austin than Sam and Maile.

We ate ON Lake Austin.   Literally on a dock.   We all ordered fish tacos.   It just seemed to be the thing to do.   The evening was perfect. Maile took this picture of me: And deleted all the pictures of us together. Maile! We got back to the house around 10 and giggled until midnight.   I decided it was too frightening to sleep downstairs and grabbed one of the loft beds placing my phone on the built-in shelf next to my pillow. *foreshadowing alert* 5 am the next morning my phone rang.   It was my mom who had my boys for the weekend.   When I had left the day before Ryan had a fever, but I figured that a little Tylenol would fix him right up.   He is NEVER sick and I was leaving him in good hands with grandma. Well, 5 am…14 hours after I arrived…he still had a fever of 103 degrees that wasn’t being touched by the medicine. Crap. I am 4 hours away. I am a mom. I need to be there. I told my mom to start rotating Ibuprofen 2 hours after the Acetaminophen doses.   My suitcase was hurriedly packed, a note to the girls scribbled and I was off headed North toward my 9 year old baby. I imagined that Ryan would be relieved to see me.   Maybe even curl up on the couch next to me as I hugged him back to health.   He isn’t usually very cuddly, but surely when he was sick it would be a good excuse for a little extra mommy love. My arrival was a little after 10 am.   I rushed up the sidewalk to my parents’ house where a note was taped on the door in my dad’s handwriting: Ryan and I went Sailing WHAT? I just drove 4 hours…that child BETTER still be sick. Awhile later Ryan and my dad return.   Ryan takes one look at me and says, “You are NOT taking me home.   You PROMISED I could stay with grandma and grandpa.” WHAT? I just drove 4 hours…I am going to nurse you back to health whether you like it or not. Turns out that it is very possible that the Acetaminophen that was brought from my house might have been out of date and not working well.   Once Ryan started taking Ibuprofen his fever was under control and he felt good. He ended up having that fever for a total of 5 days, but was able to stay his normal active self as long as he was under the influence of Motrin. As for me, I had the thought of just getting back in the car and heading back to Austin, but figured that I better just call it quits while I was behind… very behind. Oh so very behind. Have you entered the Epiphanie Bag giveaway? Yep! I am giving one away. Hurry and click here to enter. The contest ends September 23, 2010.