Goodbye Shalimar, hello Los Angeles

Sunday, September 23rd 2018

Shalimar, FL and Los Angeles, CA

It’s 8:30am CST and I am packing up for my trip back to LA. I am staying in a small guest apartment at the Bob Hope Village, which is a retirement community for veterans and their spouses. A list of check out instructions was left on my door last night. There are about 30 steps, including taking out my own trash. Initially I plan on ignoring the instructions, but then I get scared. After all, this is the military I’m dealing with. I complete the full check out procedure and, as a result, end up at my grandmother’s door 5 minutes late. 

I only have a few hours before I have to leave for my mid-afternoon flight. We hang out in her apartment for a little bit. I help install her new lamp shade and we marvel at its beauty. Around 10am we head out for a trip to CVS to buy a battery operated alarm clock and then to brunch. CVS is empty and the whole staff comes over to help us. They are visibly charmed my grandmother and her aversion to all technology, including digital clocks. She only wants one with hands and it takes nearly 3 people to go dig one out of the back.

Once we are done with CVS, we drive over to a cafe called Joe & Eddy’s for a late breakfast. To my surprise, the food is excellent. I order a large omelette and a side bacon and eat every bite. The coffee is just okay. After breakfast we still have about 30 minutes before I need to leave, so we spend it lounging in the coffee corner of the main lobby of her building. We small talk with the passing nurses and take a few too many selfies on Snapchat. 

Soon it’s time to go and I have a hard time saying goodbye. I vow to call more often and to come visit soon. 

The drive back to Pensacola is easy. I arrive at the airport way too early and end up drinking two glasses of Chardonnay before the plane arrives. During the fight back I am inexplicably emotional. Primarily, I feel an overload guilt, which is somehow amplified by the kindness of everyone I met in Shalimar. I also feel a sense of relief from stress that I didn't know that I had. I guess I was very worried about making every minute of this trip count and my travel problems on day one compounded this significantly. Finally, I feel great sadness for grandmother and everyone else that lives at Bob Hope Village. It's a lonely place.    

When I finally get to my car at the Venice office I burst into tears. I cry the whole way back home to east LA.