A Golden Girl Who Turned Blue

By: Gabriela Yareliz

When I got to the hotel after our walking tour, I had my work cut out for me. My navy linen dress had melted onto me. My chest and arms were blue (thank you, Banana Republic).

I started with makeup remover wipes, moved onto a wet towel and then, showered.

My evenings in the hotel consisted of four things:

Working. I was busting out contracts like a machine off of a weak hotspot (but bless the hotspot because my laptop refused to connect to the hotel wifi). Life is better in the south. If you are connected to wifi, you are not living.

Working out. I would go to the gym on the third floor. Usually, there was like three of us in there. I was the only woman I saw walk in there. I am someone who works out at home. The last time I was in a gym was in high school during my weight lifting class. I wandered around examining the machines with intrigue. One guy was on a treadmill and the other one was holding dumbbells but hypnotized by the World Cup game. Every time I would go down there, he was holding his dumbbells and staring up at the tv, not moving. He does realize not moving doesn’t count as a workout, I wondered to myself. I eventually mastered the stair master and sweat my heart out down there. I was able to lift weights. Usually, when I would go to the rack, the guy holding the dumbbells would snap out of it and leave to watch tv from his room, I can only assume.

Calls with my husband. I hated being away from my husband at this conference. What was worse was it was impossible to FaceTime or have a non-staticky call. My signal was terrible; the wifi was pathetic. I missed him terribly, and my frustration grew as the calls would go in and out.

Golden Girls. After a shower that would wash away the eternal sweat sticking to my skin (and sometimes clothing dye), I would raise the thermostat and turn on Hallmark where they would play Golden Girls. (Side note: Is it just me or do hotel showers always have weird water temperatures?) Anyway, I would let Blanche, Rose, Dorothy and Sophia put me to sleep eventually as they overpowered the screaming bachelorette parties in the streets below.

Soon, though, it was time to go home.