It's not what you lost...

The e-mail simply read: Are you getting on an airplane? I wasn’t. But…maybe I should be? I mean, why not? So at 3 pm I booked an evening flight to Los Angeles. I booked the hotel just minutes before a taxi whisked me and my disorganized suitcase off to the airport for one seriously last minute adventure.

But I think I should really back it up a few steps before I get into the details of this trip, which was considerably impulsive even by my standards.

For those of you who don’t already know, my job will be ending in a few months as my employer has made the decision to close their Toronto office leaving most of their sixty employees without work…including me. One might think that I’d be angry or frustrated or sad or even scared by this situation. And, while I am certainly sad to part ways with my amazing friends and cool job, I am honestly quite okay with how everything has turned out. I am happy, healthy and extremely grateful for the amazing fourteen years I got to spend working on something I am very passionate about, with some amazing friends and seeing a bit of the world along the way. Most people rarely find the time (or money) to pursue something new in life, especially at my age. So I plan to make the best of it.

And I get to leave on a high note…how very Costanza of me.

But what does this have to do with my trip to Los Angeles?

I actually got the news about my job right in the thick of a press and promotional event I had been planning for almost an entire year, with special guests and friends flying in from far and wide. But what should have been a sad and awkward weekend ended up being one of the most fun and special experiences of my career. Mostly because of the great group of people I got to know over the course of the weekend. So, when one of my guests invited me to another press event in Los Angeles, I thought, why not?

After landing in L.A. and smartly taking the affordable Super Shuttle ($16/person), Lyndsey (my colleague and travel partner-in-crime) and I checked into the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel and were surprised to find that I had been given the exact room I had stayed in on my last trip – 924 – directly beside the room that is supposedly haunted by the ghost of Montgomery Clift. You can read my previous visit here. The 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom suite was perfect. How lucky! After ditching our bags in the room, we made our way down through the beautiful, historical lobby to 25 Degrees and indulged in a martini and a delicious green chile cheeseburger (veggie burger for Lyndsey) with fries AND onion rings. With the time change, we were eating these burgers at 2 am – which meant it was 5 am in Toronto. That's my kind of breakfast.

Another colleague – Kelly – arrived on Saturday, just in time for some lounging in the sun by the Roosevelt’s famous pool with a steady flow of margaritas, mojitos and prosecco keeping us cool. Following that we headed out to our evening event – a screening of a film directed by our friend. After technically working the previous event back in Toronto, it was nice to be at this event as a guest and show our support for our very talented friend. It was a super fun night topped off by drinks at a local pub and finished by yet again another green chile cheeseburger.

Unfortunately I somehow forgot to bring my camera in my packing haste but I did get a few snaps on my blackberry. I guess I will just have to go back to LA to get another pic of that burger.