enjoyment

It was December in California, and we had flown in from

Texas to visit our families for the holidays. The days between our arrival and Christmas Eve brimmed with a flurry of last minute activities.

One evening we all hustle into the car to drive to a Christmas party at the home of family friends. We were a little behind schedule because my mother, sister, and I had gotten home late after spending a long day writing checks, signing charge slips, and bringing hysterical grins of joy to the faces of local merchants at a nearby mall.

My mother looked across the front seat at my dad and said, Whew! What a busy day! I feel like I haven’t seen you in a week!”

My dad grunted, checked the rearview mirror, and changed lanes at something approximating the speed of light.

My mother reached over and twirled a lock of my dad’s hair around her finger. “ I know! Let’s look at each other for just a minute in the eyes.”

My dad responded this time. He groaned. “Honey, I’m driving.”

“Ten seconds. Five! I haven’t seen you all day. I need to look into your eyes. Are you ready?”

He shook his head.” I can’t look right now. We’ll have a wreck!”

“At the next light.”

At the speed we were traveling, we hit the next red light in no time. And sure enough, holding hands across the front seat, my parents turned and gazed into each other’s eyes. “Hi,” My mother said. “Hi,” my dad said warmly back.

Then the light changed, the gas pedal hit the floor, and the race was on again. Nothing had changed, and yet everything had changed. Most of all, I was silently moved by what I had witnessed; a small harbor of reconnection in raging hurricane of activity and distraction.

Rodeo Drive doesn’t sell cheap stuff. Even parking isn’t cheap! But at

KowLoon –Mong Kok the Metro Park Hotel is cheap hotel 

which offering happy hour drinks Monday through Friday from 5:30 to 7:30pm with a $3.60 martini menu in honor of the bar name and the hotel’s street address. $3.60 martinis include a fresh watermelon martini, made with fresh watermelon, watermelon vodka and lime juice, or a refreshing Cosmopolitan.To go along with the banquet, the hotel’s executive chef RaShon Smith has put together small plate dishes such as lobster rolls, lamb lollipops, and fried green tomatoes & fresh burrata. Another good thing? Parking is two hours free with validation. Let’s just hope Gummi Bear isn’t passing out here.Note to the Metro Park Hotel: When you open a new swank bar in hopes of attracting a young and hip crowd to the hotel, you should probably keep out Jason “Gummi Bear”

Davis as this photo posted on Perez Hilton is pretty self-explanatory. A tipster in the hotel world says that while Gummi was passed out with his shirt open and his sunglasses on inside the hotel, tons of people were sitting next to him snapping pics like this one. That is gross. We were considering visiting NINETEEN12 but not if Gummi’s gonna be passing out on the hotel grounds. We don’t care if his grandfather Marvin Davis owned the hotel for one year back in the 1990s, take a lesson from Ian Schrager and ban him and his ilk.