"I Feel Like Oprah"

That was the comment I made to Amy W. when she walked through the front door of my spa villa at the fancy shmancy spa resort that we were lucky enough to stay at in Phoenix.

Amy responded with a "Does that make me Gayle?"

Yes, it does Amy.

Why were we in Phoenix in this fabulous locale?

For this:

Those peeps over at Allergan sure know where to hold these meetings.

Who is Allergan?

Allergan makes the Lap-Band.

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that this was the 3rd Annual Patient Executive Council Meeting.

The 1st meeting was in San Francisco in 2011.

The 2nd meeting was in Austin, TX in 2012.

But I'm here to tell you all about what went down in Phoenix.

Every.

Juicy.

Detail.

The trip began with Clyde, my 87 year old driver who picked me up from the airport. (Oprah moment #1)

He's pretty bad ass with his old-school flip phone and pack-a-day smoker's cough.

I felt kinda guilty letting him carry and lift my bag into the town car. But he managed.

Off we rolled to the hotel:

Ta da! Amaze-Balls. Presidents have stayed here.  And now me too. (Oprah moment #2)

Random pics of my villa:

Patio with indoor/outdoor shower and fireplace (Oprah moment #3):

We explored the resort to look around. Guess who Amy and I found sweatin' it out at the gym? Alex. He created Lapbandtalk.com. Alex is 10 years post op with his Lap-Band!

Time for dinner. 

You can never have too many glasses and beverages.  

Did I break that Lap-Band rule of "no drinking with your meals"?  

You betcha.

Food porn!

After dinner, I had the honor of meeting some very special banded ladies who live in the Phoenix area.

A few of them have blogs.  Some don't blog.

It was amazing to meet them and fun to bond over personal stories of loose skin, Spanx, dating with the band (future post alert!) and of course our Lap-Bands. I miss these ladies already.

After all that excitement, it was time for a swim in the glorious spa bathtub in my villa.

Don't worry, I stayed safely in the shallow end

Coming up on the next post: Lap-Band rumors, hullabaloo, and general ridiculousness!