A Night Away Part 1

As many of you know I am a single parent to 2 kids ages 19 and 15.  They have been my life for the past 5 1/2 years.  My daughter has been unable to stay by herself until recently due to her disabilities.  So, that means Mom doesn't get time away or time to herself.  Her Father isn't much help when it comes to her unfortunately.  So, after several years, this past weekend the man I'm now seeing and I decided to get away for one night.  He planned the whole thing out and didn't tell me what or where we were going.  I was sooooo excited!!!! 

Let me tell you a few things about each of us before we get started with this little post.  That way you can get some insight as to where this little adventure might go.

First of all... So the innocent may remain nameless for the time being imagine the movie "Pretty Woman."  OK I know you are all old enough to remember it.  Sheesh! You know Richard Gear and Julia Roberts... every girls dream movie. Yeah that one!!!!

Well, the man I am seeing is Richard Gere.  He works in an office where he wears his dress pants and polo shirts to work in the summer except Monday's where he must dress like this (without the tie) lol...  by the way he would really wear this lavender color.  Please keep in mind I  have NEVER dated or married anyone who has ever dressed like this other than for a funeral or wedding.  LOL  He is very into clothes and even worked at JcPenney's years ago in the men's department.  UGGGHHH trust me I thought the very same thing.

 

Now, me on the other hand, I am Julia Roberts not a hooker though LOL  OK I wish I was that beautiful!!! Anyway, I am nowhere in his league when it comes to fashion.  I have a fashion degree, but that's as close as we get.  When I am in uniform I look like this at work...

 

 



On my days off I dress like this... I really think every girl needs this sweatshirt by the way. LOL  OK I wear jeans too. But you get the idea.  Very casual comfy barefoot kind of girl.  I do own big girl dress up clothes but rarely pull them out.  LOL

 

 

 Are you starting to see where this may cause a slight issue when you are dating someone like Richard Gear? LOL 

 

For our little getaway I was told to pack some dressy clothes as well as comfy clothes for this trip.  Now I must tell you he is a planner.  Me on the other am a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl.   I know him pretty well and figured out we were going to Cleveland for the evening.  Small town girl in the big city EEEKKK!!!! He thrives in this kind of environment.  Me not so much.  I hate big city driving and big city crowds.  I'd rather pick up salt grain by grain off the floor than go to Cleveland!!! BUT I must step out of my comfort zone and try new things or so he says. What does he know anyway???

 

Saturday afternoon came and he came to pick me up.  He had told me to dress comfortably for the ride up and that we would have time to change later at the hotel for the evening.  I can do that.  I had my cut off jean shorts and a t shirt on with sandals.  It was lunch time so we stopped at Chick Fil A.  I know what you are thinking. Mary, we do not need play by play.  BUT what I wanted to say about this was this was my first time ever going to one and I LOVED it!  OK, happy, we are moving on. LOL

 

Please keep in mind we are going to CLEVELAND! There are thousands of hotels... OK hundreds maybe...lol.  Richard tells me he has been calling hotels for the past week trying to make reservations for us and everywhere is booked and he is not paying over $300 a night for a room.  Not so much Richard Gear there in that statement LOL. Anyway, he said he did find one hotel that did have rooms and told me where and the name of it.  I had to Google it to get directions and saw this...

 

 

Hmmmm.... that picture looks a little outdated.  Kind of grainy... right?  OK OK maybe they just haven't updated the picture.  Then I look and see 1.5 stars out of 5... I'm starting to get a little suspicious. 

 

Me: "Ummm... Richard did you know this hotel only has 1.5 stars?" 

Richard: "Honey, I wasn't looking at that when I called.  I was looking for a hotel with a room available."

Me: "OK well we will wait and see I guess."

Richard:" Now what exit are we suppose to get off?"

 

We get off the interstate and head to our preplanned destination which is about 20 minutes away from Cleveland.  No big deal.  As we pull into the driveway of the hotel we do not see the office right away so we drive around the building and this is what we see.

 

This too is a very old picture let me tell you!  This is not a picture I took.  I found it online!  The doors are now all painted poop brown and are dented in.  There are no screens on any windows.  They offer rooms for weekly rates (and I'm guessing hourly ones as well) LOL.  We see someone's humble abode with their door hanging open and a baby gate in the doorway.  I am not sure if it was to keep people in or other things out. LOLOLOL.  I look at Richard and am trying to be nice about not wanting to stay in this hotel.  The nicest thing I could come up with was "I am not staying here because I don't want bed bugs"  He said "Well, just hold on let me go in and check.  This hotel is the only one with rooms babe.  Besides look at the sign it says rooms have been remodeled."  Now when a man sits in the car and doesn't really want to get out himself there might be a problem.  Let me tell you about Richard he does have to travel with his job and is use to 5 star hotels that know his name before he even gets there and calls him "Mr. Gear", has a car waiting for him when he needs one, and orders room service. LOOK at this place!!!! not a 5 star by a long shot!!!! So Richard finally gets out of the car and heads to the office.  He is waiting in line about 10-15 minutes at the desk when a man comes running into the lobby screaming "I need a plunger my toilet is overflowing!" From what Richard said he wasted no time in heading right back out the door.  In the meantime, I have all doors locked and cell phone in hand hoping I don't get any roaches, bugs, or DNA on me that might come crawling out the door of one of the rooms. I was also looking up other hotels in the area that we would be checking out for cancellations.

 

The other places we checked were completely booked.  No room at the inn for Richard and Julia. :-(  Now what??? We pulled into the gas station for some gas and I looked at Richard and told him it was ok if we came back home.  It was getting to be 4-4:30 in the afternoon.  He said no way that we had tickets for a show at 6:15.  WHAAAAAAT?!?!?!? a show???? First of all I still need to change and put make up on. Second, we have no hotel to do this.  Alright Mr. Planner you had better have a great plan!!!! "Hey babe could you google some hotels in the area and call and see if they rooms?" he says.  What?!?!!? this is your plan is to start calling hotels "nearby" and try to find some place when I have to be ready less than 2 hours.  You can't be serious????  Let me tell you he was!  I called and he called and nothing!  We were bound and determined we were not going home to sleep.  We wanted to have a full night out.  He is so romantic right??? Let me tell you where we finally found a room.  We found a room in a hotel in the same city he lives in!  Yes you heard me right, which is only 15 minutes away from my house.  Let me let you in on a little secret.  This hotel is 1hr and 15 minutes away from Cleveland!!!! There is no going to this hotel to change my clothes before the "show" because it is now going on 5pm.  I am sitting quietly in the passenger seat as he is giving his information to the girl on the phone to make the reservations.  I am sure when he gave her is address she stopped and wondered why he was giving an address in the same city.  Maybe it is just me, but wouldn't you think if you were the girl on the other end of the phone you might think that he might be having an affair?   I know my brain works weird but that popped into my head!  UGGGHHH I even work in that city!!!! Let's clear the air here.  We are both divorced!!! LOL I know you were going to ask.  The thing about this is when he travels with work there is a travel department who makes all reservations and arrangements for him.  He never has to do it. I have a feeling I won't let him do it again for us either. LOL

 

Sorry this was such a long post.  Can you see this one night away is going to be fun?!?!?! LOLOLOL.  I will save the rest of my evening for tomorrow.  I want you to digest and savor this part until then.