Last Thursday evening, I found myself on a plane to Los Angeles, on an emergency Mommy rescue mission. Two days earlier, my 21 year-old daughter had arrived in LA for a week-long vacation from college. She was so proud of the ridiculously low $200 air fare that she had found, and couldn’t wait to experience the land of the TV and movie stars she follows in the tabloids. Her delight turned south when she began to get severe abdominal pains. I got a call that night, my daughter in tears. I told her to sleep on it and see what she felt like the next day.
Wednesday, she called me in such severe persistent pain, that I sent her to the hospital to rule out appendicitis or kidney stones. Eight long hours later, she was finally diagnosed with a large ovarian cyst that was hemorrhaging. The pain was excruciating and would be ongoing for up to a week. The cure was rest and time. Armed with strong pain killers, my daughter went back to her friend’s cousin’s house to rest. The next morning, she realized that the best medicine would be some mommy loving, so I canceled all appointments, including a wedding and a bat mitzvah, and hopped on the evening flight to LA.
Six hours later, as I was hugging my sweet daughter, my heart broke as she looked up at me and said, “Mom, we finally have a chance to take a vacation together. Isn’t that exciting?” I wasn’t thinking vacation, but my daughter saw the blessing in this emergency trip. “G-d wanted this to happen”, she exclaimed, “so that we would be able to have fun together, just you and me!” Never mind that our dream vacation was to Paris or Florence. Or that she was still cramping and on pain killers. This was the vacation that presented itself right here and now, and we would make the best of it, pain or no pain.
For breakfast the next morning, we went out to a better-than-Starbucks (sorry Starbucks fans) LA coffee chain store, Coffee Bean, and I had a yummy chocolate croissant, heated to perfection, the chocolate oozing out of it’s center. A client of mine called with a too-good-to-turn-down offer, the hospitality of her cousin, offering us a free stay at her home. We checked out of the hotel, found a great car rental, bought a GPS, and made our way to the cousin’s with a pitstop to dip our feet into the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica.
At the Santa Monica pier, eagle eyes daughter spotted the movie trailers, shrieked and headed (slowly, painfully) over to see what they were filming. Had I been alone, I would have just noticed the gorgeous ocean, the mountains looming in the distance, the pier with the ferris wheel, rides and stores.
Turns out, they were filming a Teen Nickelodeon TV show starring Meryl Streep’s daughter, Grace Gummer. Hobbling back across the sand, stopping to breathe through the pain, we made our way over to the pier where they were filming. How cool to not only watch them filming, but to also be extras in the shoot! In spite of the pain, this was a cool genuine LA experience, and we were having fun!
A few other surprises: Sunday, still in pain, she was still not able to do much walking. So, we plugged addresses of the stars that my daughter had looked up on line into the GPS and began our stalk-a-thon. Driving to the Playboy mansion in the rain, we stopped to squint and catch a small glimpse of the luxurious Beverly Hills home through the high iron gates, when much to our surprise, out walked three smiling Bunnies, a vision of bleached blond hair, red lips, thin legs balanced on high heels, strolling nonchalantly onto the street, past our car, waving at us! We were so shocked when they suddenly unexpectedly appeared, that by the time we recovered, we were only able to capture them in a photograph from behind.
The morning of our flight home, with just a few short hours to try and experience a little more of LA’s unique charm, we headed out for one last breakfast at Coffee Bean. As we enjoyed our muffins and coffee, my daughter suddenly turned beet red and whispered while fanning herself, “Mom, that’s Kristen Wiig from Saturday Night Live. She just entered the store!! I can’t breathe!!!” And sure enough, there she was, nobody recognizing her except for eagle eyes.
My daughter spoke to her for a few minutes, telling her what a big fan she is. (She is our favorite, and our family is always doing her routines). I got some great photos of the two of them on my daughter’s phone. Kristen couldn’t have been nicer and more humble. We shared our own claim to Saturday Night Live fame, with my ex’s brief stint as a cast member before the writer’s strike when everyone was fired in the early eighties. Kristen immediately knew about the strike and said she saw my ex’s photo up on the wall of cast members! Pretty cool!
And one last dose of coolness. At the airport, I am reading, and my daughter is on the lookout for one last star or two. Suddenly, I hear her shriek, breathless again, pointing to a woman making her way to our gate. She has short blonde hair, a sleek black coat and black leather boots.
Unmistakably, this is the Tabatha from the Bravo TV show, Tabatha’s Salon Takeover. Soon, we are passing her seat in First Class as we make our way to coach, and my brave bold daughter says hello and tells her that she is a big fan. Tabatha is a lot nicer in person than she is on TV, where she is a tough salon owner, whipping floundering salons into shape as she completely takes them over and usually makes a few people cry with her tough love approach.
Although this trip began as a medical emergency Mommy rescue mission, and I was glad to be able to provide love and comfort to my ailing child, my star-gazing daughter and I found a way to have a much needed fun-filled vacation. She is right, without the emergency, I probably would not have gotten on a plane going anywhere, let alone across the country to spend precious alone time with her. I would have told myself that I couldn’t afford to take the time or spend the money. And yet, I found a way to make it happen, and in spite of her pain, we both had an awesome vacation!
I believe that deep down, there is a blessing in every challenge that happens in our lives. Sometimes we need to dig pretty deep to find the silver lining, but it’s there for the treasure seekers among us.
I would love to hear of an experience where you found the gift in the challenge.
