Monday, June 11, 2007

Welcome to Hotel Pretentious -- Are You Sure You're Supposed to be Here?

I made it to LA mid-afternoon on Sunday and immediately remembered what I don't miss about Southern California as Boris, the recent immigrant from Uzbekistan, eased the black town car away from the airport and straight into snarled traffic. Ah yes, welcome to LA.

Over an hour later, we pulled into the front driveway of the Mondrian Hotel on Sunset. For those of you who don't know the Mondrian, it is one of those "unmarked" hotels (like the Hudson in NY; and in fact, they are both owned by the same group) where it is posivitively painful to be as hip as you need to be in order to grace the front entrance of such an establishment. (Puh-leaze. Get over yourself. It's just a hotel and not a very fancy one at that.)

I gave the check-in attendant my name and he looked up and said, "We don't have a reservation under that name." Then, somewhat condescendingly, he added, "Are you sure you're staying at The Mondrian?" (And trust me, the italics were his, not mine.)

Pushing my sunglasses up onto my head, I looked at him with one pointedly raised eyebrow. He got the message and muttered, "right, sorry" as he punched my confirmation number into the computer. After a small issue with an inadvertently canceled hotel reservation, I was safely installed in my 7th floor room (with city views, thank you very much).

Kate came in a couple of hours later and we took the "Loser Cruiser" (Kate's affectionate name for the PT Cruiser rental) over to Santa Monica to the Third Street Promenade and had dinner at good ol' stand-by, Monsoon.

Oh yeah, AND I spent AN HOUR on the phone with the hotel's tech support because their wireless internet connection wasn't working. At all. Now, thankfully, it looks like I have at least wedged myself into a small window where I am getting at least 2 - 3 yellow bars of reception. Hey, it's only the chicest hotel in LA -- I mean, people don't actually come here to work, so what's the big deal with this "internet" thingy anyway??? Somebody pass me my drink because I'm too busy admiring my reflection in your sunglasses.

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