Introducing the newly redone Chevy Chase Pavilion: Thrill of the Chase!!!Last Friday I was invited by Carlis one my blogging besties and also part of the amazing duo of ladies that is Spicy Candy DC (they are definitely a dynamic duo!!!) to an event at the newly renovated Chevy Chase Pavilion.
It was the VIP Grand Reopening Party and they went ALL OUT!!
We checked in upstairs first and enjoyed the open view and got our photoshoot on at the step and repeat next to check in!!
Following that we headed downstairs to the lounge that they had built in front of the Starbucks kiosk that was all leather couches, white rose and bubbly, just our style!
*Warning, you may pee yourself laughing once you get past the horror* So I totally love to travel!!! I have wonderlust, the chronic disease edition!!! It’s bad and it is probably why I don’t have a massive savings account but I digress… I say that though to make clear that I am no newbie to traveling. I started flying solo pretty much when I hit double digits. In fact I remember one trip that was particularly traumatizing for my mother when I was about 12 and I was accompanying my 7 year old sister on our way to Michigan to visit my grandmother. All we had to do was walk from the one plane to another during our layover and my mom decided not to pay for us to be accompanied by the flight attendants. Of course for some reason that I could not tell you these many years later, we were bumped from the flight and very far from home. These were in the precell phone days so my mom demanded that was stay near the payphone as she slowly lost her mind and feared the worst. We were fine and totally unfazed but I now understand why she was so worked up. But again I digress…
So on to the point… why do I love United’s flight attendants? Let me first say that this is a new and fragile love because we had a fight a couple weeks ago when I had to change a ticket and got over charged but I will let that story wait… Let me instead tell you a story about my trip to Seattle, Washington this weekend. I went up there on Saturday for the long weekend to visit a friend. On my way home, I was getting onto my flight and the woman before me had multiple bags and was making no attempt to hide it. She had 2 purses, a tote bag and a roller bag. As she walked by, the counter attendant told her that she was going to have to check her roller and she was not happy about that but she let her tag it. Now the baglady/hobo chic thing she had going on should have been the first indicator that she might not be stable but it was late and I wasn’t analyzing (first mistake).
Once we got to the end of the ramp, she proceeded to try and take it onto the plane anyway. I was busy texting and did not even notice at first. She got a couple steps in before the attendants on the plane asked her if these were all her bags. She had already walked past here and I didn’t think she had heard so I casually said I think she was supposed to leave that one outside. Oh if looks could kill, I would have been dead on that floor!!! She gave me the nastiest look as she tried to get her bag to the flight attendant to be taken off. I had my headphones on so I just ignored it. As we began walking towards our seats, I realized she was saying something to me so I removed the headphones to see what was being said (second mistake).
Apparently she wanted to inform me that I need to mind my business and she doesn’t like people that don’t know how to mind their business. To which I responded, well I don’t care and quickly made to decision to engage as little as possible because my spidey sense was tingling. She continued anyway telling me that I needed to learn my place. At this point she was at her seat rearranging at her stuff and blocking the aisle so that I could not continue on. I waited patiently as the line behind me continued to grow longer and longer.
So at this point, I am laughing and smiling because it is so ridiculous that this is even happening… I mean isn’t it 2013?? Also don’t forget that the whole plane is lining up behind me waiting to sit down. Well apparently my smiling confused the flight attendant, Michelle, who got the impression that everything was fine. When Michelle finally approached to ask the woman to step in, she learned things were not fine when the lady responded with “I’m not moving for her” (aka me). The flight attendant immediately turned around to return to the back at call up front.
The baglady continued with her small mind rant next telling me that she was obviously better than me, “I mean look at us”.
Pause…
Now let me give you a little more information about this lady… she was a much older white woman with stringy hair, age spots, and a horrible outfit… I was looking at us and I hate to be superficial but she asked me to look so I did… and I will just say. I’m not sure what she was seeing but again I digress…
So back to the cray cray moment… After Michelle called up front, she began to return to the area and seeing her approach baglady having nothing left to rearrange finally sat down and said “I guess you can go ahead by now and sit down darkie”.
Pause…
So Dave Chappelle’s Killing Me Softly is one of my favorite stand ups and I had a flashback in that moment!!! I was shocked!! I finally made my way to my seat and got settle and tried to eat my fried rice, only to find that my hands were uncontrollably shaking… so I got up and went to the back. Michelle told me not to worry, she had already called up front but she didn’t have the whole story. When I told her she was appalled and immediately got back on the phone to the front. She apologized which I told her was unnecessary since this was not her doing. She told me that she did not like the attitude she got when she approached her and that this was the end of a 4 day tour and that they did not stand for that. She also told me to wait in the back, that I had done nothing wrong but that she did not want me to be subjected to any more abuse.
Shortly after that the attendant in the front who was also an angel but I didn’t catch her name. She went to baglady and told her that Customer Service was on the way, that the young lady in the back was very upset and that they would be accommodating her on another flight…. OH SNAP!!!
She whined but they were not having it and not budging and sure enough Customer Service showed up shortly after. That’s when the water works started but it was definitely too little too late. She protested but they were resolute. She cried that she had been traveling for over 48 hours and just wanted to get home and that she had no where to go. She also said she didn’t want any problems only to be informed that was she was already a problem and that it as time to go. She finally got up to leave only to be told no, get your things because you won’t be returning. As I watched this from the back, Michelle asked me where my seat was, a middle spot towards the back. Baglady had an aisle seat, which Michelle decided should be mine after she was booted. #Instakarma
Parting shot… BYE BYE BYE
I watched from the back and snacked with slightly less shaky hands as she was escorted from the plane. I had to fight the urge to begin a slow clap as she departed. Once she was removed, I was allowed to go to my new seat and had many much needed laughs with my new seatmate as we exchanged stories about the experience. That was when we decided that we had an SNL skit on our hands!!
Okay, so the glow is just starting to wear off, I’ve posted the pictures on facebook but now it’s time to talk about it. This holiday I was selected from thousands of entrants to have Celebrity Chef Michael Voltaggio, owner of Ink in LA and winner of Bravo’s Top Chef Season Six, come to Washington, DC to cook a holiday feast for me and my family. I am going down in the books as giving the greatest gift and it was definitely not a gift I could have pulled off on my own so special thanks to Buzzmedia’s Celebuzz, AT&T and Chef Michael!!
My mother is quite the hostess and I knew she would be all aflutter preparing for Chef Michael’s arrival. And prepare she did, cleaning everything from top to bottom and washing every dish in the kitchen just in case he might use it. Unfortunately due to the timing of the dinner in January my sister was already back in California and then my brother got a cold but the show must go on so a couple family friends were able to join us instead and boy did they luck out. One of the upsides to having the dinner in the district is that his brother Bryan has a wonderful new restaurant called Range located in the newly renovated Chevy Chase Pavilion. That is were Chef Michael was able to do all of his preparation for the dinner and raid their supplies. That afternoon he showed up with his sous chef, Todd from Buzzmedia and a couple tubs full of supplies!!
It takes quite a bit of stuff to pull off a five course gourmet meal for four, especially when you are a creative culinary genius!!! Chef Michael will probably not admit to being all of that. He is surprisingly humble and very very cool. He was a pleasure to have in my house and my mom was overjoyed! That is is exactly why I picked this prize when I entered, because it was a gift that had meaning to my mother and I. My mother is a self proclaimed foodie with years of food experience and travel to back it up so I knew this would be an experience that she would treasure. “The holidays often become more about giving gifts you can’t afford than giving something meaningful,” said Michael Voltaggio. “Thanks to Buzzmedia, Celebuzz and AT&T, I was happy to be able to able to give something that puts the focus back on the important things: family and food. There’s nothing that gives me greater pleasure than sharing my love of cooking.” And share he did!!
Shortly after they arrived and while we waited for them to set up and begin dinner, Chef brought in some snacks for us. It was homemade Doritos from fresh corn from California and homemade pork rinds. I don’t even like pork rinds and I had to hold back so everyone could try some!! It was delicious and I couldn’t wait for what was next to come!! Shortly after this we moved to the dining room and the tea lights in the middle were the perfect centerpieces for the night.
After we got settled, the culinary journey began!!
During the whirlwind that was inauguration weekend, sometime in the middle I did a photoshoot for Luri & Wilma’s “Love, Food” Jan/Feb Fashion Issue that recently went live. Despite running on fumes, I somehow made the early morning call. My “boyfriend” for the day was Navid and we found we had a lot in common which made the day go faster. While our coupling was pretend, the laughs we had that day were never staged which is evident from my extra scrunched laugh face here:
A sweet new feature of the upcoming Spring Issue is that it is available for print!! It is available by pre-order only here and will be released in Mid-March. Check out the Jan/Feb issue here or go to www.luriandwilma.com for more information!!
After the Macy’s event on Thursday I also went to a book launch for “Half My Size” by Caroline Jhingory. About 10 years ago, Caroline lost 150 lbs and to this day she continues to maintain it. She has a wonderful story and is inspiring people everywhere with her tale. She is also a DC native (and an Ellington grad I’ve learned through mutual friends). One thing I really like about Caroline is that she does not pretend to be any more or less than she is. She is not expert, just a recovering food addict who found a system that works and wants to share it. There are some definite gems in her system like “exercise! the drug everyone can afford” and “never begin a diet that you can’t do for the rest of your life” (AMEN sister!!). It was a great gathering and Caroline was a delight, very genuine and down to earth. It was great being able to support a fellow Washingtonian!! I am super excited to read the book and I hope you as well because one of you will get to as well!!! More details to follow… But first: I ran into some of my favorite fellow bloggers!! The lovely Angelica of Clarendon Moms | A Fashionable Playdate and Corinne of Carnelian Boutique. Host for the night was the lovely Sunni of WPGC and she was jacket matching with Angelica!! #StylingInTheWinterWhite. Continue reading →
This past Thursday, I went to the Macy’s in Metro Center to kickoff some of my early Inaugural festivities!! It is almost here, the second Inauguration of our 44th President Barack Obama. So the question on the mind of those with a ball or festivities to attend is the never ending, WHAT DO I WEAR!!! Well Macy’s wanted to give us some ideas so a fashion show is born. The show featured some localebrities like Lindsey Mask, Katherine Kennedy, Maggy Francois, Leigh Inman Macdonald (WUSA9), Allison Phoebe Brooks, Dr. Katy Nelson, Leia Warren, Sandra Oulmas, Maurisa Turner Potts, Sim Khan, Nicholas DiBlasio (News 8), Wil ” Onix” Lash, Maimah Karmo and Michael Wright DDS, MS in this season’s hottest formal trends! Hosted by Kara Allan with her tips on what to wear for your Inaugural party.
I ran into a good friend Corinne Marr of Carnelian Boutique and we had our photo taken with Drawoh Llewmorc Omnimedia’s Howard Cromwell Jr for BisScene Now.
The night kicked off with Macy’s Director of Sales who gave a few words and introduced Kara. Then the show began. Below are some of my favorites from the show!!
Last Friday I was invited by Carlis one my blogging besties and also part of the amazing duo of ladies that is Spicy Candy DC (they are definitely a dynamic duo!!!) to an event at the newly renovated Chevy Chase Pavilion.
The Funemployed 