grrlTravels

We arrive, warts and all

The hotel.

The hotel was very sleek. It was the first thing that struck me when we arrived--the sleekness. The floors were sleek, the furniture was sleek, the reception desk was sleek, and the employees? Sleek. A tsunami of sleekness. So much sleekness I thought we might slide right back out of there unawares.

The lobby was suave in its sleekness. There was offbeat furniture. There was art. There were vases of reeds. Even the flowers were funky. There was a great art installation of suitcases in the lobby. I fell for it the moment I saw it. Bunches of old suitcases, the kind your parents had when you were a kid, in piles, filled with stuff. I wanted very badly to take a photo of it the second I saw it. But it is not ultra chic to photograph the hotel lobby.

I was curious to see the room. It was sleek, if you can believe it. Sleek and white. Big puffy white comforters and white towels and a white bathmat and a white bench. White, white, white. I get nervous when surrounded by all of that white. We are usually too goopy for so much white.

The room was fabulous when we walked in. Very soothing. Inviting. Great bathroom. Sleek. Like a hotel room should be.

I wanted to take photos RIGHT AWAY before our suitcases arrived, before we changed the kids' diapers or used the hand towels or messed things up. Life happened too fast for that. The suitcases came and landed in the room like big blots on the landscape of serenity. We were pretty much like an infestation in that beautiful room. No photos of the urban sleekness. No photos of the blight of us.

Figlet was right next door (isn't that fun?), Mrs. Figby was upstairs, and Mortimer's Mom was downstairs so we met up with them a lot. I got to spend some time in the lobby which I enjoyed because it was so sleek and hip. The couches were orange. The coffee tables were a foot off the ground. I'm not sure why but I am fairly sure that the lack of height contributed a great deal to their hipness.

There were also these slide-y ottoman/bench things. They were covered with light camel colored fur. I sat on one and the fur was bristly and vaguely uncomfortable. I wondered if it was real fur or fake. I guessed fake because real fur is so uncool. Well it's uncool here in the northeast. I lived in the midwest for one winter and let me tell you I've never seen so much fur. The freezing temps and wind cause the well heeled in Chicago to take their fur seriously. So I am stuck considering the fur in the lobby four days later. I would liken it to goat fur. Perhaps goat fur isn't in demand and therefore it is real? There are a lot of goats in this world. I'm sure those real/fake fur goat ottoman thingies are quite leading edge. (I need to ask T. about that.) Did I mention they were uncomfortable? The uber hip people of this world suffer in the name of hipness, placing their tiny designer clad bums on those prickly settees.

(One time as I perch in the lobby I sneak off and take a photo of the suitcases even though it cements my lack of coolness because I cannot help myself.

)

So we slid in and out of the hotel. The staff was lovely and attentive and helpful. (Except for the concierge who thought it ok to recommend the Rainforest Cafe as a dining option for guests with children. And then we ate there. But that is another story.) The ultra hip patrons of the hotel and restaurant despaired of us with our two children and our stroller and our disheveledness and our McDs bags but we ignored them.

We rode up and down in the elevators with the chic guests and we tried very hard not to make eye contact as that much hipness is occasionally blinding. We tried quite hard not to touch any of the hipsters. We tried terribly hard to be as inconspicuous as possible which is quite difficult with two little ones and the world's largest stroller and the whole McDs thing. I haven't even mentioned that we had to valet and retrieve the world's ugliest rental car several times.

So. Sleekness personified. The hotel. Urban blight. Us.

Posted by grrlTravels at July 24, 2006 2:56 PM