Bonus post: The Watergate Hotel

The man I was talking about in my previous post was named Mickey. He was gorgeous, had a high IQ and such fun. He adored his sister, his neice and nephews and could cook. What was not to love?

We did plan to get married as I told you earlier. He did a stint in the Navy and during a break, he wanted to come down to Washington D.C. (two hours from my house at the time) and spend the weekend with him at the Watergate Hotel. We loved politics and had been intrigued during the whole Watergate business of the early 1970s. I had never seen the Watergate Hotel that I knew of but he thought it would be fun if we spent the weekend there.

I agreed.

Ugly hotel. Careers should perish here.



I was excited but quickly became tense during the checking-in process. We never had reason to utilize a hotel or motel before. There were other options. But the process of checking-in took longer and was more detailed than I was prepared for and suddenly I was mortified by the fact I was checking into a hotel with my boyfriend. Why this suddenly became a major issue in my brain, I don't know but there you are. I was only twenty afterall. After the check-in, we had lots of drinks and admired our small but pretty room. We ordered room service and sat by the window enjoying an exquisite duck dinner. Mickey had ordered wine that came in a bucket. After we had eaten, he became very nervous though I did initially mistake it for gastric discomfort since we had drank quite a bit of various kinds of booze and a very rich dinner.

The reason for his discomfort became clear: he presented me with a ring and formally asked me to marry him. I nearly fell off my chair only because it was unexpected though we had talked about marriage. I was also slightly lit.

I was so emotional about the whole thing and so was he to the point where he dropped the ring into the wine bucket. It was retrieved after much laughter and we rejoiced in the moment. He didn't exactly make a bundle at the Pentagon but the ring was very pretty and fit perfectly. (I am not one of these women who wants a big, expensive rock on my finger. I like nice things like most other women but spending more than a grand on jewelry, even an engagement ring is a waste of money as far as I am concerned. I would rather have the top computer on the market and all the gadgets to go with it than a huge diamond on my figure.) But I loved the ring. It was perfect and he had sacrificed financially to get even that. It was an exquisite moment.

When we decided to go to bed, we noticed there was a variety of gadgets to choose from. Mickey had gotten a room with a water bed. I didn't even think they were allowed in hotels but it was. It was on wheels. There was something connected to the bed that would vibrate the bed when turned on. This was all too much fun to not try. Mickey over-clicked and the vibration was in full tilt, causing the waterbed to start moving around the room. It was on wheels afterall. I was on the waterbed and trying to hang on only because I couldn't gain purchase on the damn thing. The bed was moving to and fro and without saying it, we both were visualizing the I Love Lucy episode where The Ricardos and Mertzs spent their first night driving to California in a room next to an active train track. Mickey was laughing so hard he could not find the button to turn the vibration off. He tried sitting on the bed thinking the weight would not stop the movemet but it didn't. Then we had the additonal problem of both of us not being able to sit up on the bed and now neither of us couldn't reach the gizmo to turn the vibration thing off.

Finally, we crawled off the bed and were able to stop the attack of the waterbed by turning off the vibration thing.

Then the phone rang. It was the front desk telling us that our neighbors were complaining of the noise.

And we hadn't even gotten to bed yet!