A Quiet Knowing

McDonald Drive is a road in Paradise Valley that is has a speed limit of 25 mph.  Once I turn onto it I am forced to slow down.  Camelback Mountain is on the right and it's shear mass blocks out the whole city.  The Sanctuary Resort is tucked along this wall of sculpted decomposing mass of earth tones *like that?*.    The entrance is a quick right and if you are scanning for Alijandro or applying lipstick, you will miss the turn so pay attention!

Paradise Valley, Phoenix

This patch of mod mansions, each fitted with requisite infinity pool, sits nestled on the steppes of Camelback and Mummy mountains, framed by giant saguaro cacti.  Unpretentious and sporty, its year-round residents tend toward WASPily low-key golf obsessives.
Famous Neighbors: Author Clive Cussler; Cambell Soup heir Bennett Dorrance; bungling former veep Dan Quayle
$25 Million Buys You: A 10,000 sq. ft. abobe-style desert compound on North 64th Street with every conceivable amenity. - The Official Filthy Rich Handbook by Christopher Tennant, page 35.

Today's meeting at Sanctuary was the bomb.  I was totally confident with the runner.  I looked and felt amazing.  I had my new Tory Burch heels on and thats all that mattered.   I have been working with Vance for a year now.   I will never forget the first cold call I made to him.  I was persistent.  I told him I made these handbags that had Asian print and that they might go really well with the whole bamboo zen-ness at his Spa. I guess it was enough for him to grant me our first meeting. OMG.  Our first meeting was like wearing braces on your first kiss. It was clumsy and rough.  I brought like 20 bags with me in these gray industrial plastic bins.   I knew at that time he was in observation mode.  I remember sensing that I had a long journey ahead of me.  He told me these things take time.  Did I leave out the part about how the valet guy had to take my gray bins in a golf cart for my initial meeting in the courtyard.  It's like showing up with a mini U-haul and moving in. Like I was setting up a damn circus tent.

A year later. Oh today *actually yesterday now, i am still working on this one* was so smooth and effortless. The cool thing is that the runner was Vance's idea.  I think he should change his name to Vance. He looks like a Vance.  He gives me all the credit but it is really a co-creation.  Once he saw the completed runner today, his eyes sparkled and his face beamed.  I felt like I had played this role so many times that I didn't need to be there.  We decided to take the runner to one of the treatement rooms to see how it looked.  You have to leave the restroom, lounge, locker area to go back outside in this hidden courtyard.  The treatment rooms are along an outdoor cooridor.  It was really awesome to see the runner on the massage table.  Then I sank a little when I saw that the runner did not hang down on either side of the massage table.   Easy fix.  The coolest part was watching Vance handle the runner.  He placed it diagonally and then straight.   He owned the moment.  He was contemplating how the new wall finish could tie in the with the fabrics.  He admired the SAM HARVEY logo that was sewn in the seam. He wants his clients to see the label when they come in for a massage.  Can you believe this?! 

Choice ball basket.  This is what I really wanted to do at Sanctury yesterday.  Oh yeah!

The difference between now and looking back at this time last year, is that I have a quiet knowing.