Friday, September 02, 2011

Los Angeles vol. four: missive

Dear Unspecified Individual(s) That Occupied Room 214 Of The Hotel Shangri-La On Or After August 6 In The Year Of Our Lord 2011,

Hello. Erin O'Brien (aka "previous guest") here.

You may or may not have noticed the prices associated with the mini bar items seductively proffered to guests of the Hotel Shangri-La. The only price I can recall was for the snack pack of Oreos: four clams.

Room temperature mini bar items, Hotel Shangri-La

Refrigerated mini bar items, Hotel Shangri-La
Now I know you're at the Hotel Shangri-La, which probably indicates that you can lay out four clams for an itty-bitty package of Oreos, or whatever they're charging for the fancy wine, sparkling water and super high class granola bar.

But that bottle of Stella Artois in the mini-fridge? That there is 100 percent free (as indicated by the hand written note attached to the bottle). We had dinner at a friend's place and she purchased a six pack of Stella especially for the Goat and me that we didn't finish at her house. She insisted we take the remaining three bottles with us to enjoy in the room, which we did (at least two of them), but not that last one.

Refrigerated mini bar items, Hotel Shangri-La, with donated item
What are you going to do? Try and take a bottle of beer onto the airplane and risk being detained by Homeland Security and waterboarded by Dick Cheney for the rest of your life?

You get the picture.

Anyway, I know that bottle of Stella is probably long gone by now, but I wanted to say hello just the same.

Love,

Erin

ps: If you're a Hotel Shangri-La staffer and you appropriated that bottle of Stella, that's fine with me, even more than fine.

*  *  *
 

11 comments:

Bill said...

I like random acts of kindness.

Contrary Guy said...

You're in Cali and not bringing a bottle of wine back to the room? Sacrilege! Of course you'll have to borrow a corkscrew, because the terrorists won.

philbilly said...

I finished two bottles of Stella at JFK while waiting for a delayed flight by surreptitiously pouring them in a newly empty coffee container. I swear the TSA goons were getting suspicious. Also finished the pizza that had been delivered to my room at 4am. A fine lunch on the concourse.
I love New York.

Anonymous said...

Me, I woulda grabbed the Sierra Nevada...MR
By the way, I like the way you tagged the fridge photo as yours by including the sneaker-it's your trade mark...

rraine said...

what bill said. it costs us nothing to be kind and generous. thanks, erin, for being so.

DogsDontPurr said...

I worked for a while as a hotel maid, and I can assure you that your Stella was appropriated by the staff. And I totally know you made someone's day. So on behalf of that staff member and hotel maids everywhere, I thank you!

Bill said...

you've agreed with me twice, rrain. I'm thinking about joining a Tolstoyan Anarchy club.

Anonymous said...

Spectacularly off-topic:
Erin, dump this if you wish, but I just finished reading an essay by a 28-year-veteran Congressional Republican staffer. The website is 'Truthout' and the author's name is Mike Lofgren. It is the best re-cap, in a 15 minute sitting, of the evolution (sorry, I know that pisses some righties off, but I'm sure present company is excluded. I consider myself a fairly devout Lutheran, and I believe that God created Mankind in his own image, and he decided to use evolution to do it.)of the current status of the 2-party system in our country.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll have time to read it and consider what Mr lofgren has to say in light of your own personnal experiencs ove the say, the last 30 years in our nation.
Mike R
Erin, thanks for the forum...no hard feelings if you decide to ditch it.

Erin O'Brien said...

Hey Mike, who's your mama?

This ain't no tight-ass rightie site. We practice free speech here at the Owner's Manual.

I have enjoyed any number of adult beverages tonight and haven't read the article, but I believe this is the direct link.

May the readership enjoy.

Anonymous said...

-Thanks Erin...MR

Anonymous said...

Erin-btw-I wasn't concerned about censorship so much as flying so far off topic.MR