The Loews Hotel in Denver KNOWS how to make a garbled graduate student feel like a purposeful, put-together person! At my check-in the lady behind the desk says, "Give me a minute, let me upgrade you to the mountain view." I thought I misunderstood her but for once my face didn't belie me and I think I was so stunned that my mouth wouldn't move because my mind was and it was thinking, "Are you looking at the right screen because I'm only paying $99.00 for this get-up and I'm pretty sure the mountain view comes at a higher price than the discounted room rate I got because I was inadvertantly visiting the University of Denver." So up I go to the tenth floor mountain view room, which I can now definitely say should come at a higher price than $99.00. It was like nothing I have seen before. The city is sprawled out below but my room is just high enough so that the starting-to-age strip malls are not picked up by my peripheral vision and then there are mountains. Denver is a very strange city in that way. On one side there are miles and miles of flat lands and the buildings look like someone dropped them out of the sky and then you turn your head and there are the mountains that we sing about in "America the Beautiful."
On top of the mountain view upgrade, they shuttle you EVERYWHERE, for free. I understand the necessity of a driver when you're in a strange place, on a tight schedule, or when you've had too much to drink, even a special occasion. (Admission of truth: I always snubbed those who had drivers on a daily basis. My thoughts were this: "Do something to help someone with the money that you're spending to do something that you can totally do yourself but think is beneath you.") Harsh, I know! With every harsh assumption there is a harsher reality... To all of the wealthy and moderately wealthy people who have drivers on a daily basis, I am sorry for judging you and even thinking less of you because you have more and choose to have a driver with the extra more that you have. I don't understand the having enough more to have a driver but after my stay at the Loews I realize that my snubbing you is in all reality a previously unrecognized mask of envy. Please accept my apology and if you have an extra seat in your luxury execucar and you are ever in the Oxford area please know that I will gladly accept an invitation to accompany you, wherever you may be going.
But I do have an etiquette question: If the shuttle/limo service is provided by the hotel, are you supposed to tip the driver? I was constantly feeling the need to go to the atm and retrieve huge sums of cash to give to these nice men-boys that were making me feel like a million dollars, dropping them a twenty was the least I could do for them in my mind!
I am envious of these people for many reasons, the first being that they never have to park. No 16 point turns in their lives or 'I think I can make it if I turn my wheel hard and pray' moments or I better back up and try again that's a Mercedes next to me not a hoopedy wagon. No cursing the guy who got their license without passing the parallel parking task or the parking between the lines task for that matter (it's kind of like coloring between the lines, you need to have that mastered before you move onto markers, with driving, you should be able to park between the lines before leaving the driveway and moving onto Wal-Mart parking lots). Not only do they not have to park, they don't have to park and WALK - ever! Not in the rain, the snow (a new, seemingly regular phenomenon in my quazi Southern life), not when they just need to grab something or drop something off. And lastly they never get lost or make a wrong turn, for those of you who know ME that is reason enough. I am unfortunately one of those people who knows the true difference between getting lost and making wrong turns because I spend alot of time getting lost and turning around. But don't they say that life's about the journey...
One of the places that my chauffeurs dropped me off was Cherry Park maybe Creek I can never remember. It was a Towne Center on steroids and with a touch more sophistication not our beach bum version of an outdoor mall. Since being in Mississippi I have come to realize that yes, Charleston is in a bubble but Oxford my friends is under a rock. I can't explain to you the joy and comfort that just seeing these stores brings to my life now. I don't even need to buy anything, the comfort lies in knowing that it is less than an hour (typically more because of wrong turns and missed directions) away and that if I need or want something I can not only try it on but return it or sleep on it and buy it the next day. It is ridiculous! I am a consumer and a firm believer in retail therapy though that has changed drastically while living in Oxford. Unfortunately I think it's due to the fact that we have little more than Wal-Mart, a handful of overpriced boutiques with the same clothes, and Belk in our quaint town. I am like a homeless person who has just won the lottery when I get into these places for the first time after a few month hiatus. I don't even know what to do with myself. For the first half hour I just walk around gawking like I've never seen new clothes before. It's kind of embarassing. Total overstimulation, I have to do mental exercises just to get my mind right and focused on the task at hand which unfortunately is to NOT spend money like an OC housewife with a black AmEx. I have come to learn how to shop in these places now:
1. Allow for 30 minutes to adjust to the new surroundings
2. Get your bearings and make a route
3. Do the skim of the store - make a loop, try on, and peace out - If it didn't catch your eye the first time you're not going to like it on your body
4. Give yourself a time limit. There is only so much self-control one can have in these situations. Two hours is my limit before I start impulse buying. Thankfully Anthropologie didn't have a queen size in the new bedding that I fell in love with, I really hate checking bags now that you have to pay to do so!
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