By Our Twentieth Anniversary We Hope To Have Acquired A Full Set Of W Linens

On July 24 Rigel and I celebrated our twelfth anniversary! I would wager to say that ours is a successful union, especially when you figure it has lasted eleven years and 364 days longer than Britney Spears' first marriage, and possibly eleven years 364 days and twenty-three hours longer than I'm figuring the Cruise/Holmes marriage will endure. But I'm so negative! I must take more vitamins.

I'm tempted to tell the story here of how Rigel and I met, but I'm sure all of you who know us are pretty sick of it by now, all our blabbing about "Dinner...third date...Paris...pledging of eternal souls!" In fact, we are getting so tired of telling it, we're thinking of changing it. You know, something like, "Ralphs...salad bar...jicama...clean-up in aisle three!"

We celebrated by leaving town, alone, for a whole twenty four hours. My niece, who was one of our flower girls at our wedding and is now in college, watched the girls for the weekend. (There is something ironic, and full-circle-ish there, but I'm not sure exactly what.) We were spared the usual guilt-tripping by our crafty little ones, since said niece had successfully filled their porous minds with promises of mall excursions, movie matinees and lunch at the Wiener Factory (if you've ever been to the Wiener Factory you would know this is a SERIOUS BRIBE.) I was sad to leave them though, and spent a long time with the goodbye hugs and kisses, while Rigel ran naked and screaming up and down the block yelling "We're FREE! We're FREE!"

We went to the W Hotel in San Diego. We love the W Hotels, mainly because of their beautifully designed rooms, but for me it's all about the awesome in-room souvenir stand, filled with everything from Skittles to W tank tops. The one in this room consisted of a large fiberglass box, but in a previous W Hotel it occupied it's own custom alcove, positioned smartly above the mini-bar. That way, once you were done procuring an expensive, thimble-sized bottle of alcohol below, you would stand up and immediately be faced with copious amounts of overpriced merchandise to tempt you. Having downed what amounted to a $175 gin and tonic, you would mysteriously find yourself signing away your husband's money on W cds, a W postcard set and a seven dollar can of Pringles. Not that this happened to anyone I know.

Let's continue with the in-room goodies! And oh, the looting!

The hotel also has a host of impressive bathroom supplies, all from Bliss Spa in New York. Unlike the cheap bottles of generic goo found in most hotels (and in my bathroom at home) their little bottles boast names such as (I couldn't make these up) 'Supershine Shampoo with Wheat Proteins and Anti-Static Actives' and 'Lemon+Sage Soapy Sap Fresh-Foaming Shower Gel' All the products were packaged in a nifty zip-top cosmetic case. You see where this is going. I couldn't have just one. And so, while the housekeeper was busy cleaning up the room next door, I peeked out and saw MANY of these lovely cases sitting on her cart. Unattended. Let it be known that I did call out a "Excuse me? Can I have some more foaming face wash? Oh, look, here it is!" before I whisked a case into my purse. Let it also be known that Rigel, not wanting any part of this criminal activity and weary of twelve years of hotel-induced kleptomania, proceeded to walk faster, way ahead of me and pretending not to know me. (I'll bet he'll be a little more supportive when I finally stuff that plasma screen into my suitcase.) I wish I could say it stopped here, but my purse filled with W pencils, W coffee, W die-cut post-its and an assortment of Tazo tea bags, it would make a liar out of me.

Lest I give the impression that the W is an oasis of all that is good, let me say that some things are just plain creepy. Like the following placard in our room. Where most hotels may simply 'Make up your room' or, in the case of some of the places I've stayed, 'Hose the roaches off the bed', the W takes it to a whole new level: "...to insure all our rooms receive the proper attention with regard to styling, we are just just dropping a line to let you know that we style rooms, everyday, until 6pm...if for some reason you need your room styled at a particular time, simply write in your preferred styling time in the space provided on the reverse side." This frightened us, and we left the 'Dreaming' sign ('Do Not Disturb' to you peasants) on our door for the entire weekend. We were afraid that should the W Stylists enter our room while we were still there, they would descend upon us, re-dressing us in tight suits and uncomfortable shoes, teasing my hair into a bouffant and carving a couple of sideburns into the side of Rigel's face.

Back to The Anniversary! It was a great weekend. For the record, I would like to say that after twelve years of marriage it is still possible to have a fun, romantic, exciting relationship (If Rigel were doing the voiceover here he would add sarcastically "with your husband.") I feel incredibly lucky to be with someone who I care so deeply about and who feels the same about me, and is such a patient loving father to our girls. Happy Anniversary Rigel! I've got lots of bath products to share!

Archive File: Married | This Life

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