Bonaventure Hotel- October 2018

In October 2018, I was able to join Dan on his work trip to Los Angeles. This was a bit strange thing, since for thirty-nine years, I lived just ten minutes from downtown. It was bittersweet to visit my hometown and to know that I’m just a tourist.

We stayed at the iconic Westin Bonaventure hotel.

Built in the late 70’s, the Westin Bonaventure is a Los Angeles landmark. It has been featured in dozens of movies, such as True Lies and Logan’s Run. Also used as a location for television series, music videos, and even video games.

The first time I visited the Westin Bonaventure, was in the early 90’s, when I begged my mom to take me to a John Robert Powers talent scouting event. I wasn’t particularly interested in being scouted, although I did wear my very trendy “Hyper-Color” tee-shirt. I was more interested in the celebrities in attendance, including up-and-coming actor, Brian Austin Green from Beverly Hills 90210.

The atrium style lobby was packed and a cat walk had been erected in the middle of the room. Here are pictures of how it looks today…imagine hundreds of screaming pre-teens and the smell of Aquanet.

Flash-forward to my early twenties, when the height of sophistication was going out for drinks at the Bonavista Revolving Cocktail Lounge with my impossibly handsome friend, Luke. The Bonavista offers stunning views of downtown Los Angeles as it slowly turns. We were always the youngest people in the lounge, which was decorated in 1980’s chic. To be fair, this was usually our first stop, prior to hitting more age-appropriate night spots on the sunset strip, always ending with a 4am, drunken breakfast at The Standard.

I insisted that Dan experience the Bonavista. Sometimes, it is better to leave the past in the past. The lounge was absolutely dead, the decor dated, and not in a cool, retro way. We had overpriced drinks, took a few pictures, and got out. The views are still breathtaking, but the lounge is in desperate need of a refresh.

Our rooms at the Westin Bonaventure were small, but comfortable. The had a lot of the amenities that Westin is know for, including a lavender sleep spray. We even had the option of borrowing a set of gym clothes, in case we hadn’t thought to pack our own, and wanted a work-out. We had a view of the downtown library.

The Westin Bonaventure isn’t a beautiful building. It’s concrete and cold, certainly a vision of the future circa the 1970’s. It’s also huge, with three towers and a mall inside of the hotel. The mall, mostly small stores and food court style restaurants, was actually great for quick, inexpensive meals, especially since we stayed at the hotel for five nights. I appreciated having close options that were more affordable than the typical hotel restaurants.

I loved the hotel maps. These clearly were the inspiration for the Dharma Initiative on Lost.

The pool is located on a large patio, on a high floor; not a rooftop pool, but high enough that you feel like you’re floating in the middle of the skyscrapers. The view is quite spectacular. Unfortunately, the pool itself was too cold to enjoy, but we did spend time soaking in the downtown ambiance. It’s magical at night.

The Westin Bonaventure is an icon that should be considered for your next trip to Los Angeles. It’s located in the heart of downtown, just a short walk to many tourist attractions. I spent five days in the city and walked everywhere, while Dan attended a conference. I always felt safe and never lacked for entertainment. Although I lived so close to downtown for decades, this was my first time experiencing many of its famous sites. I would encourage locals to book a staycation and check out all of the wonderful things that downtown Los Angeles has to offer.

Social Distancing in Littleton: Week Ten

Two and a half months and we are still mostly indoors.

As we are now able to enjoy our garden, we do have more contact with neighbors from a safe distance of staying within our own yards. It’s great to finally be able to connect with people in our neighborhood and I feel like this is the beginning of some life long friendships. We are so lucky to live in a wonderful community.

This week was actually quite spectacular. It was Memorial Day weekend and as a bonus, Dan’s company gave him last Friday off, so we had a four-day weekend. It was the perfect mix of accomplishing various chores and relaxing. The weather was mostly summery, with the exception of Sunday, when it poured rain.

On Sunday, we stayed inside and had a double feature of mockumentaries: Best in Show and What we do in the Shadows. Best in Show has long been one of my favorite movies and it was Dan’s first time seeing it. Sure, it’s a little dated, but it still made me laugh. What we do in the Shadows is absolutely hilarious and we have discovered that it has been turned into a tv series, so that’s next on our watch-list.

In virus news, Memorial Day weekend brought out all of the people tired of social distancing and mask wearing. There were so many news reports of crowded bars and pools. This is very upsetting to me. I’m certain that we are going to have a surge in cases. People are going to die due to selfishness and the economy is going to continue to suffer. We will also all be stuck inside longer, progress will be much slower. Trump continues to show his incompetence and arrogance.

Colorado is reopening dine-in restaurants this coming week, although at a reduced capacity and with strict rules. We miss eating out, but I don’t think we will risk it. Maybe in a few weeks or a month, but certainly not in the first couple of weeks. A local mall also reopened. We have no reason to go to a mall.

Life continues to be good for us in Littleton, but the minute we turn on the news, we are reminded of what is happening outside of our bubble. My friend’s aunt is still the only person we know, as far as we know, that has contracted covid-19. Thankfully, she has recovered.

I have a funny virus related picture from a trip to the grocery store. We had been engaging in a text thread with our friends regarding where we get our news and we teased that we only read The National Enquirer, so we took a picture of a copy at the store check-out. Of course, The National Enquirer is utter nonsense, but it is interesting to note the conspiracy riddled headlines on the cover.

Oh and check out my cute woodland creatures mask that I purchased on Etsy!

Back to our bubble…

We’ve been riding our bikes nearly every day and even managed to go over ten miles on Memorial Day. My confidence is growing, along with my endurance. Ten miles might not seem like a lot, but for me it was a huge accomplishment, especially since we live on a hilly estate.

Another accomplishment is gardening. I’ve never been very good at keeping plants alive, but we didn’t want to be the only people on our block with a shabby front garden, so we bought a few plants to replace ones that had died over the winter. We need to plant more, but we started with three. It has been five days and so far, so good. Luckily my sister-in-law, Ali, owns a landscaping company and can give us advice. Next week, I’m going to tackle clipping dead branches and maybe adding a few more flowers.

I baked delicious blueberry muffins with a recipe from The Magnolia Bakery. Everything that I’ve ever baked from The Magnolia Bakery cookbook turns out great. I didn’t even need to make adjustments for high-altitude baking.

We grilled burgers with fancy beef that we bought from our local meat delivery service. Colorado has it all!

No contest, the best meal of the week was snow crab legs that we grilled. We’ve been tempted to buy snow crab for months, but we were intimidated by how to prepare it. It turns out, it couldn’t be easier. They just need warming up on the grill. They were actually meatier and more delicious than if we had bought them at a fancy seafood restaurant. They were expensive; about ninety dollars for four legs, but they were scrumptious. I know this won’t be a weekly indulgence, but hopefully we can eat them again soon. We even bought a set of shell crackers and utensils…so basically, we are obligated to splurge again!

Our neighborhood community center has food trucks nearly every day and last Saturday, they hosted a company that makes alcohol infused ice cream. We hopped on our bikes and rode over. They were low on inventory when we arrived, but we managed to get three different flavors. So far, we’ve tried the Grasshopper and the Chocolate Caramel Macchiato. Both were amazing. We will definitely make space in our freezer to purchase more.

Fun things came in the mail. My John Oliver Last Week Tonight stamps arrived. I have a deep affinity for Chijohn. The Tattered Cover, a local bookstore, sent my copy of Mikel Jollett’s memoir, Hollywood Park. Since the live event was canceled, Jollett included an autographed bookplate. I’m very exited to read Hollywood Park and to add this to my autographed book collection.

I was able to have phone dates with some of my favorite people: my best Fanny and her family, plus my mom’s best friend, Nancy. This is a weekly thing, but we also caught up with my step kids, Zoe and Felix. One really positive aspect to being stuck at home, is it has given us more time to reconnect with loved ones, especially spending extra time with the kids. Technology is awesome, but of course, we are still holding out hope that we will be able to see them in July, as planned.

And my biggest news….drum roll please…My non-fiction story “Weight” was published in Intima: a Journal of Narrative Medicine. This was a big deal for me. This year, I decided to finally start sending out short pieces for potential publication and quite honestly, I was anticipating a lot more rejections, before landing on an acceptance. It is very exciting and a true honor to be included in this prestigious journal. I’m still stunned by it all and I’m overwhelmed by the positive feedback. It means a lot, especially because the story is deeply personal and was difficult to write.

I’m going to end with cute cat pictures: Tom in our shoe cabinet and Slinky sleeping on the steps outside.

I'm Published!!!!

Over the weekend, a non-fiction piece that I wrote was published in Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine. I wrote about grieving for my Aunt Trudy. Specifically, the complicated relationship that we had in her final years and reconciling those final memories, with my memories of a doting aunt who was vibrant, fun, and loving.

Just before Christmas in 2013, Aunt Trudy passed away after suffering organ failure following a back surgery. Her surgery seemed to have gone well and it was a surprise to everyone, including her doctors, that she didn’t recover. I suppose some of it shouldn’t have been a surprise, as her husband, the love of her life, my Uncle Larry, passed away earlier the same year. She was heartbroken, lonely, and due to her own medical issues, in a ton of pain.

Although my aunt was certainly my uncle’s primary care taker, I stepped in to help during the last years of their lives. I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention all of the wonderful friends who helped me. My aunt and uncle never had children, but they certainly had a tight-knit group of friends and I’m so grateful for them.

I was living part-time at their house in Orange County and towards the end, I even moved my cats into their home with the intention of living with them full-time. Fate intervened and I met Dan, my now husband, in early 2012. Although I spent more days at their house, I moved in with Dan instead.

Unfortunately, this increased the tension I felt with my aunt, especially after my uncle died. I believe that she liked Dan and was happy for us, but it also took me away from her. We fought and we were hurtful towards each other. It wasn’t just about my new relationship, but also how my relationship changed with her. Aunt Trudy was a strong personality and she didn’t like relying on anyone. She was a natural caregiver. Our roles reversed and this was challenging.

As much as I tried to avoid it, occasionally I found myself acting like a parent and she the child. We have a small family and outside of distant relatives that I don’t even know, it was just us left. Compounding the problem we’re her pain pills. She had an accident in 2010, where she suddenly snapped her femur and it required emergency surgery. The surgery to implant a rod in her leg was unsuccessful and it required a second surgery, followed by multiple back and neck surgeries. It was really horrible for her and I don’t deny that she needed heavy doses of pain medication. However, that medication changed her personality. It made her angry and edgy.

During my time at the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, I wrote about these feelings in my essay, Weight. I’ve sat on this essay since 2014 and I finally decided that I was ready to send it out into the world. I was thrilled when Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine wanted to publish it.

I have to confess that my excitement was tempered by the fear that some of my aunt’s friends might read Weight and find it too personal. I wrote my essay from a place of both love and truth, but it was also uncomfortable to admit some of those truths. Luckily, I’ve received messages of support from many of her close friends and now my fears have been replaced with pride.

I’m going to close with a few pictures of my gorgeous Aunt Trudy. She was stylish, witty, and charming. She was generous with a big heart. It still hurts to know that her last years were filled with emotional and physical pain, but none of that can diminish her vibrant life.

My aunt and uncle picking up their marriage license in Las Vegas. Look at the love in my aunt’s gaze!

She showed champion Norwegian Elkhounds.

and finally…a picture of my aunt and I in Chicago.