From
Nora
-- added on Monday, April 2, 2001 @ 3 A.M.
From
Nora
-- added on Sunday, April 1, 2001 @ 4:15 P.M.
From
Nora
-- added on Sunday, April 1, 2001 @ 3:30 A.M.
From Nora -- added on Friday, March 30, 2001
@ 2 P.M.
Slept for nine hours solid. Everything in
Chicago worked so well I almost hate to leave.
Almost. Discover on getting my suitcase ready for
departure that the valet service in Cleveland has
shrunk my burgundy cashmere shell. Damn it, this
was a favorite piece, and an essential building
block in my tour wardrobe. Will attempt to replace
in SF, but fear all Armani's underpinnings will now
be spring/summer stuff. Very sad. But some very
short person is going to get a very nice piece.
Or course I could get my belly button pierced
and wear it anyway......Nah.
Say bye-bye to Bill at the airport. Such a
sweetheart. He's also Elizabeth Berg's guy, and
we're going to try to coordinate so we can get her
in for our July signing. Hope this works out.
Flight's as good as they get. Better yet, it's
behind me.
Dave is the driver picking me up here, and we
know BW's plane from home arrived at the same time.
Going to find him after we get my luggage. But he
finds us first. I see this tall guy walking by the
baggage ramps! Yay.
We load all the luggage in the car and head for
the hotel. Crawl through SF traffic.
On arrival I'm told the people in the suite
they've blocked for me are still in there. Hey, it
had to happen sooner or later. They find us
another. We go up, dump stuff. Look around. We have
a fabulous view, the park, the bay, the buildings.
It's great if you don't actually look at the suite.
Which is industrial beige. Or sit on a chair, all
of which are miserably uncomfortable. Or consider
the bathroom which is the size of a postage stamp.
But first things first. Just haul out what needs
to be cleaned, what needs to be pressed. Send two
bags off. Do a four o'clock phoner.
Liz calls on her way in from the airport. She's
crawling through traffic.
We're going to go out for an early dinner. I'm
desperate for a shower. Squeeze into my tiny
bathroom and discover there's no hot water. Tepid
is the best it gets. Call Liz, whine. I must be
worn down as the tepid water, the beige walls,
beige rug, the need to put my makeup case on the
floor due to lack out counter, the general ugliness
of the room all seem huge. So glad Liz is here to
deal with it all.
Hot water is, temporarily, out through the
hotel. But there is another suite available.
Non-smoking suite. It seems, we figure out, that
smokers are punished in this hotels with ugly
rooms. That'll teach us. There's is also a sign
posed prominently on the door reminding us foolish
people that smoking causes cancer.
Oh yeah, I'm in California! LOL
We move to the new suite. Much, much better. New
bathroom with separate shower, nice long counter.
Walls here are stucco pink, and the furnishings
several steps up from the dumpy in the previous
one.
Hot water returns shortly afterward.
Liz takes us to a restaurant, The Rubicon, just
a few blocks away. So good to see her. You never
feel cranky around Liz for long. We have food and
wine and laughs. And dessert! I go out to catch a
smoke while we wait for dessert, and see this
framed newspaper article in the window. The hotel
is owned by Robin Williams, DiNero and Coppola.
Williams and his wife threw a party there for Dale
Chihuly as he's a pal and designed these big glass
flowers for the restaurant. I'm intrigued and
excited as I love Chihuly's work. Discover these
fabulous flowers were up on a shelf behind me at
the table--which is why I didn't see them during
the meal.
Stuffed, we head back to the hotel, abandon Liz
and go to bed.
Fabulous city scape that fascinates us country
folk out our bedroom window.
My body clock has me up all too early this
morning. May need a nap later. Harold gets in this
afternoon, and prior Liz and I will do a couple of
stock signings. I booked a facial as my skin is so
dry from traveling it feels ready to crack despite
drinking oceans of water and using gallons of
moisturizer.
Wine tasting event, with dinner following
scheduled for tonight. Seems like a pretty good
day.
And it's warm! With luck I should be out of
winter now.
Nora
From Nora
Busy. Liz and I did two stock signings on Friday
morning, then I had 50 minutes to shop.
Zipped to Union Square. Got a terrific Armani
suit--not quite green, not quite gray. Bagged a
navy jacket. And told the clerk what I was looking
for in a leather jacket. Black, about mid or
three-quarters thigh length. Took her five minutes
to find exactly what I was looking for. I LOVE this
coat. She loved me as I got all this in about 30
minutes.
Traveling had just wrecked my skin this time
out. Got an 80 minute facial. Suffice it to say I
went to heaven in just over an hour. I hope I
didn't snore.
Got back to the room just after Harold arrived.
Did the hair thing, tossed on a little black suit
and headed out to Julius's Castle for the wine
tasting, meet and greet event.
Absolutely lovely and great fun. Lots of
booksellers, distributors, Frank the rep, whom I
love, and his lady and so on. As well as a woman
who's husband had e-mailed me awhile back hoping he
could bring her to meet me for a drink. Such a
sweet guy, who adores his wife and wants to make
her happy. She was definitely surprised, LOL. He
didn't tell her where they were going. I really
enjoyed meeting both of them.
The wine was gorgeous. I loved the vintners--a
wonderful couple from Sonoma.
The weather was fabulous, and we spent most of
the evening out on the terrace admiring the view
while we sampled the local wine.
Off to dinner after with a fun group. More wine,
great food, late night.
A couple of drunk guys hung around the
limo--harmless and silly--until the driver sent
them on their way. Came back to the hotel and fell
into bed.
Up early--and Harold that sweetie, came up to
blow dry my hair. Headed south to San Jose for a
ten o'clock Cosco signing, then half way back to
another signing, with a quick lunch first.
Hit the usual nightmare of traffic back in SF.
Running late. Met the sweet husband and his wife in
the bar for a drink. Now it's time to change for a
group dinner.
Spring forward tonight. Thank God I have the day
off tomorrow. And a massage booked.
Nora
From Nora
Tour World changes when you have Publicity Liz
and friends along with you. Hmm, perhaps it's time
to become Diva Nora and demand an entourage. LOL.
Frank--Supreme Sales honcho from SF and his lady
Kristy, Liz, Harold, BW and I caught a couple of
cab in the cooling SF evening and went to dinner.
Great food, weird service where the poor, dim
waiter had a hard time getting anything right. A
twist in Harold martini rather than olives, for
example, as he wanted to be able to tell it apart
for BW's and Frank's martini. Interesting.
But we ate much and ate well before piling into
another car and heading for our highlight of the
evening: The Tonga Lounge in the Fairmont Hotel.
It's hard to do justice to The TL. Big, crowded
club, Polynesian style with a kind of shallow lake
on the other side of the dance floor. The band--two
Don Ho clones and a girl singer ride out on a big,
covered raft during a rainstorm. The play in the
lake, and ride out again, though another storm, for
their breaks.
You really have to be there.
Drinks are served with many umbrellas and in
many strange colors, and can be ordered in bulk in
large decorative bowls that resemble miniature
toilet bowls and come with multiple long straws for
sharing. We stayed at the bar to watch the dancing,
and I lost track of the number of odd group drinks
ordered through the evening.
BW and I dance, he drinks the toilet bowl
drinks, and after one sample, I stick to Diet
Pepsi.
While the band is a show in itself, more
entertainment comes from a couple of working girls
and their out-of-town businessmen clients who dance
wildly and poorly. Business guys are pretty ripped,
as is one hooker. Other obviously prefers other
chemical enhancements. She's wearing some tight
zebra striped top that shows off lumber jack
shoulders and impressive man-made breasts.
After an hour or so, drunk hooker is taken aside
by security. I just catch part of it, but realize
they've been tagged and are quietly being asked to
depart. Business guys go out, and a pretty young
Oriental security girl talks to them. For quite
some time. Her pleasant expression never changes.
Business guys don't wanna leave. More tough-looking
security types come down for discussion.
Zebra girl is finally scooped up by one of the
businessmen, and looking scowly and
confrontational, struts toward the bouncers.
Business Boy, looking chastised and panicked, drags
her away.
We don't get to see this sort of entertainment
in the woods.
We see several rain storms, and the group shares
several bowl drinks. Dancers range from an obvious
profession on a busman's holiday to the painfully
typical white urban male overbite strut. Some
people come in from a wedding reception in their
tuxes and gowns, and another group sneaks in from a
theater in the hotel where they'd performed The
Music Man. They have tall, fuzzy blue band hats and
batons! I get to play leader of the band for a
moment.
Liz joins a conga line.
We walk back to our hotel, where I'm forced to
remind Liz to Spring Forward. Much sadness over
this lost hour's sleep.
I believe Harold's going to snip at her hair
this morning before they head to the airport.
While I intend to enjoy my day off shopping and
getting a massage, I'd rather have Liz and the gang
for the duration.
Tours don't get much better than The Tonga
Lounge.
Nora
From Nora
Such a day. Had the gang up for hair cuts and
coffee. Our Liz and Harold have flights leaving at
the same time so will ride to the airport together.
Liz is obsessively punctual with flights, so
they'll leave here in time enough to spend, oh, 90
minutes at the airport.
Replay Tonga experience. Liz is convinced Zebra
Girl was really Zebra Boy in drag. Hmmm. Shoulda
looked closer, but with shoulders like that, it's a
good possibility. Frank points out that she and her
associate danced like Elaine of Seinfield fame.
LOL. It's absolutely true.
So sorry to say goodbye.
BW decides to walk along with me down to Union
Square for shopping. I am surprised. He hates to
shop, but he does want the walk. Hit Saks,
searching for a nice bone bag. Nothing hits me.
Shoes. Find several possibilities, but only end up
with one pair. This is a bad omen.
Make up for this, thankfully, with a good haul
of cashmere. Must replace ruined pieces, and while
we're at it, add more. Nice blue, terrific green,
lovely purple and so on.
My skin's just wrecked this tour. Really dry,
dull, awful. Load up on Le Mer products in hopes of
putting it back in shape.
Haul toward Neiman's, with a stop in the Levis
store for BW.
Find the bone bag, nice roomy Gucci. Buy lovely
silver and pearl earrings. Head up to rendezvous
with Mary Beth from the other day, and she has
several more sweaters pulled for me. Well, why not?
Textured ivory mock turtle, more shells soft as
clouds.
While we load stuff up for shipping, she asks me
why I'm in town. I tell her I'm on a book tour. She
puzzles over this as I use my married name on my
card. But when I tell her I write as NR, her eyes
pop out. She LOVES my books. I never get this, LOL.
But this gal really reads my books, and tells me I
got her through her pregnancy. She's been really
sweet and really helpful in our two encounters, so
this is a nice little experience for both of us.
We catch a cable car back, a fun trip, then walk
the cross town block to the hotel. Get a little
snack as we're both still pretty full from the
meals of the past two days.
Then Mark arrives for my massage. He's a soft
voice little guy. Sets up the table in the bedroom,
lower than I'm used to. And then, he begins.
He has hands like an angel. I can get pretty
relaxed during a massage, but rarely, rarely zone
out with a strange therapist--especially a guy.
With Mark, I'm in LaLa Land in about five minutes.
He gets to my problem areas--neck and
shoulders--and takes this job seriously. He talks
to me in that quiet voice, telling me to push here,
let go there, and I hear the knots grinding. LOL.
What a sound. By the time he's finished, I have
more movement in my left shoulder than I have in
some time. He could do more, but not in one
session.
I'm going to remember Mark.
I think BW and I will watch a movie, have a
light dinner and just relax.
Work starts up again tomorrow. Somehow, that
doesn't seem quite possible. I've got a couple
radio phoners, a TV thing, then drive to the
evening signing. From there it's onto Sacramento.
Nora
Nora's The Villa Tour
2001 