Day 21 - Governor Newsom rescinds restrictions. Outdoor dining reinstated!

The Hoxton Hotel in LA…where L. and R. stayed for Valentines Day…

2/14/21. Sunday. Valentine’s Day.

8:30 – 9:00-Today is lackluster at best.

B. is up early, as usual. I didn’t make plans for breakfast on our last day as I thought we would immediately leave and B. could drive through a McDonalds.  He eats at McDonalds, infrequently, and seems to like their pancakes; I never eat breakfast. I mentioned this dilemma last night but B. thought we could find some place to eat.

Unfortunately, because we weren’t able to peruse the antique store yesterday, it now falls onto today’s agenda.  You might think, “Well, go to the Antique Store and then head home”, but B. doesn’t operate that way. Breakfast is a necessity before he starts his day.

9:00 –10:00 -  I get up. Shower. Lotion. Make-up. Dress in leggings, a sweater, and my thigh-high boots again. A crazy woman under my bathroom window is sitting on a park bench and screaming at pedestrians as they walk by.  She calls women sluts and whores and swears at everyone on foot.  She has a filthy mouth and screams continuously the entire time I’m getting ready (over an hour).  Nobody does anything about it.

10:00-11:00 –We bring our luggage to the car- B. makes two trips and I make one – and check out. I sit in the lobby while I wait for B. and notice that one of the maids is circulating with a “black light gun.” She aims it at some of the chairs and then “fires.” What does that do?

 I don’t know where we’re going to eat and these things typically fall on me when we do anything as a couple.  To make matters worse, it’s Valentine’s Day so nothing’s open.  The Mission Inn Restaurant is completely booked, but I didn’t want to eat there anyway because we’ve already eaten there two nights in a row. B. asks the concierge for some options and he tells B. there are places to eat a few doors down from Prohibition, but I know there are no restaurants that way.  Honestly, fast food is really B.’s only option but I don’t say anything.

We walk past Prohibition and it is jam-packed [remember: Valentine’s Day], but we already ate there yesterday.  Four doors down is a barbecue place that just opened [it’s 11:00].  I try to talk it up…like, ‘Hey, this looks good’, but B. is leery because there are no diners in the restaurant.  When I say, “Well, that’s good, right?  Less people???” B. says he wants pancakes, then asks, who appears to be the owner of the barbecue place, where he can go for breakfast. She suggests Simple Simon, back the way we came, but when we get there the sign on the door says it’s closed on Sundays. B. is getting agitated and says abruptly, “Well, I don’t know where to go.”  Yes, same.  I also don’t know where to go, but why is it up to me to figure it out?  Maybe I’m internalizing it, but why is this confluence of events my fault?

I text L. for some restaurant suggestions but she says she doesn’t have any.

I say, brightly, “How about we leave Riverside and drive to the nearest McDonalds?” but B. wants to at least visit the antique store before we leave, which means breakfast first.

11:00 – 12:30 - Finally, we come across a Coffee Bean that has a few items B. can eat, one being oatmeal.  He gets a coffee, too, and then shows me how runny/paltry the oatmeal is at this location.  It’s no Starbucks, that’s for sure (this is where B. typically gets his oatmeal) and there are no nuts and raisins that accompany the oatmeal, like at Starbucks. I pay for everything since I’m responsible for all food purchases and parking this trip.

I get a Pelligrino and a plain croissant.  When we get to the table I realize the employee gave me a chocolate-filled croissant, which I hate.  I’m too tired to make the exchange and I’m not hungry anyway. I eat pieces of the croissant surrounding the chocolate then give the rest to B.

We eat outside and the crazy lady continues to scream and swear at people from the bench across the street.  Eventually, she crosses the street and walks past us as we are eating outside at the Coffee Bean. I’m terrified she’s going to yell at me but, thankfully, she says nothing.

B. seems satisfied so we walk across the street to the antique store, which I’ve been visiting for the past 10 years every time I come to the Mission Inn. I’m not even sure why I recommended this to B. – it’s dusty and dirty and contains three floors filled with junk and old items. Whether or not they are actually classified as antiques is questionable. B. is mildly interested, but at least he can say he went to the antique store.

12:30-1:00 – We walk back to the car and leave.  Although I’ve said nothing about it in the blog, I’ve been plagued with near-constant hot flashes this entire trip.  Today is the worst and I actually text L. that I think I have Covid because it feels like I have a fever, then I’m cold (uh-oh…chills?), then I’m boiling, etc. My anxiety is really high…L. kindly texts back and says it’s just menopause.

1:00-2:30 – Driving

2:30 – 3:30 - B. drops me off. L. is not due back from her trip until tomorrow so I leave everything scattered on the kitchen floor, to include my open suitcase [I hope the dog doesn’t drag any items out].  The dog is super happy to see me and the house looks okay. L. arranged for her friend, N., to visit with the dog last night and this morning.  I take her outside and she goes potty.

It’s very unlike me to NOT unpack immediately, upon return from a trip, but I’m having these horrible hot flashes and I need to lie down and it’s just me the rest of the weekend anyway. I warm up my chorizo breakfast burrito, take two Advil, and sit in my chair in my bedroom.  I read Dead Wake and start feeling a little better.

3:30 – 4:30 - The garage door opens! L. is home?? I hear her come inside the house and say to the dog, “Where did Mom go?”probably as she’s surveying the mess I left.  I walk downstairs as if I’m in the process of unpacking my suitcase and say hello to L. I tell her I expected her tomorrow, but L. says she was always scheduled to arrive today.

I bring my suitcase upstairs, unpack everything, and start a load of laundry.

4:30-5:15 – I take the dog for a walk.

5:15-5:30 – I pull my clothes out of the washing machine and hang them up.

5:30-7:00 – I check my DE class and try a few more attempts at recording a video on Canvas.  No matter what I do, the audio is still bad and the video grainy. I ask L. to come in my office so she can see the latest project I’m working on and troubleshoot.  L. proclaims that I need a new microphone.  She figures out which type of microphone to get, then orders it on Amazon Prime – it should arrive by Tuesday.

-I check my French Cinema class to see if it’s published.  Still nothing.

7:00-8:30 – I eat the turkey burger salad I made on Thursday and read Dead Wake.

8:30-9:30 – L. comes in to tell me about her Valentine’s Day with R. They stayed at the Hoxton, in downtown LA [a hotbed of Covid] and their room was really nice, to include a walk-in shower with marble accents. L. and R. had dinner reservations on the rooftop. Unfortunately, when they arrived, wait staff said they were battling 30-mile-an-hour winds and were doing the best they could to serve dinner. L. said the food was good, but the winds were awful and their hair was whipped all over the place. L. said that R. had a scarf on that kept getting wrapped around his face. Dinner was short and they took the food back to their room.

The elevator at the Hoxton has signs advising no more than 4 people to a car. During one ride, L. entered the elevator on her own, only to have 8 Russian bitches run in. L. pushed her way through the dirty Russians and stepped off the elevator. The nerve!

All-in-all, L. says they had a good time.

9:30-10:30 – I finish Dead Wake. This was a tome -505 pages- but much better than expected.  I learned a lot about WWI and especially President Woodrow Wilson. I make a note to send an email to the student thanking him for the recommendation.

10:30-11:15 – Night time routine. Bed.