Pretty Woman (1990)
There's something about hotel sheets
I was in my late twenties when I got my first full-size bed.
When I lived at home (growing up and after I graduated college), when I was away at college (there were a few quarters where my roommate basically lived with her boyfriend so I put the twins together), and when I got my first apartment in Chicago—I always had a twin.
It wasn’t until I got my second apartment in Chicago, in Humboldt Park with my best friend, that I got my first full-size bed. I got it from an Aarons up north because it’s all I could afford. They delivered it, I got cute sheets from the Target on Western—and likely went to the Panera that used to be over there after—and came back and popped them on my first big bed.
It wasn’t huge, but it did take up half the room that was already on the smaller side, and I loved it. I’ve always been able to master getting the most out of a small space. I furnished most of my room at that apartment with stuff from work (I worked the overnight shift merchandising at The Gap), stuff from Craigslist, and stuff I found in alleys.
But no matter the bed and no matter the size, the sheets were always important. This was a place that on summer mornings I’d be sweating in and on Winter nights I’d be bundled up in. The place where I’d take flat lay photos of the early 2010s and post on IG, and replace them with photos of coffee-filled cups later in the decade. I felt like the girls I’d see in movies when I was younger, who were waking up as the opening credits played right before the “getting ready to leave for the job they love” set-up scene.
I don’t remember exactly when I saw Pretty Woman (1990) for the first time—where Julia Roberts plays a charismatic sex worker and Richard Gere is a busy executive with seemingly unlimited funds—but I know what scene I love the most.
Right before the infamous shopping scene, Edward wakes up Vivian (after they banged on a piano in the hotel lounge the night before mind you) and tells her it’s time to shop.
Her eyes are closed, her red hair all over her face, and she’s naked (presumably) wrapped in the blush-ish hotel sheets.
I left that apartment in Humboldt Park a few years after I got that bed, and it traveled with me to my next apartment, and then again to the one after that—the one that I loved the most right on 18th street in Pilsen. When I first moved into that apartment, all I had was a grey couch, a teal TV stand, a TV, and my bed.
I got stark white sheets for it, this time from a different Target, and a fluffy white comforter. I took my all-time favorite photo of myself in that bed, naked, with tousled hair and wrapped in those sheets.
In Pretty Woman, Viv and Edward wake up in the sheets of The Beverly Wilshire Hotel several times throughout the film. Sometimes together, sometimes separate, but draped in them nonetheless.
A few weeks ago, I was surprised with a staycation of any girls dreams. I didn’t know it was coming, but as I walked through the halls of this five-star hotel my mouth dropped with every step. I’ve stayed in a few hotels, but nothing as glamorous—or romantic—as this one. When I unlocked the door and took off my shoes, I made my way through what felt like a beautiful never-ending stroll to the window and saw a gigantic bed made with perfectly Pantone white sheets.
Eventually, we crawled in and melted into the bed, into the sheets, into each other….
it was perfect.
For nearly three days the outside world was none of my business. My world was this love, that bed, and those sheets. I was in a bubble and every single time I woke up— from either actual sleep or a champagne-induced nap—I felt like I was a dream. When I tossed about, slowly realizing that the sheets I was covered in weren’t the soft sage or rust red ones I’m used to seeing on my skin but instead, these white ones that were slowly getting familiar with our scents.
For almost a week, Viv lived in a similar space, waking up in unfamiliar sheets but leaning all the way into the dream. Outside of the hotel, her real world would try to creep in. That little mini bitch Philip kept trying her, and her friendship with Kit was a constant reminder, but every time she woke up in those sheets, I feel like she settled a little more into deserving that temporary taste of luxury.
In the end (incoming 25-year-old spoiler alert), the guy gets her (not the other way around ‘cos like…c’mon) and she presumably gets to stay in the dream wrapped up in all kinds of sheets with him forever.
When our visit to our own little self made sancutary of luxury came to an end, I was ready to go home, but I took every memory with me. The smell of the yummy room service, the connection and words spoken, the taste of the champagne, and of course all the hotel-branded letterhead and bits I could find for my junk journal. I carried it all with me, back to my life, and back to my world. But now, when I slip into the coziness of my bed, I’ll remember the time I spent a weekend wrapped in crisp unfamiliar white sheets, making memories I’ll never forget.
My Letterboxd is your new favorite place, but here are some other movies about that have hotel moments that I like:
The Last Holiday
Hotel Chevalier
Zola
The Royal Tenenbaums
Pleasure
Extras:
Warm Take: Out of the two films where Gere and Roberts played a couple, I prefer Pretty Woman because Runaway Bride just…wasn’t good TEW ME
Pretty Woman is filled with messy moments galore, like…I don’t even want to get into the character Philip.
What I Watched:
Sliding Doors
I only watched this movie because of that episode of Kimmy Scmidt where they basically remake it? I’d seen the episode a million times but never saw the movie and…WHEN WERE YALL GOING TO TELL ME IT STARRED GWEN AND AN ENGLISH ACCENT?!
Bugonia
NOT FOR MEEEEEEEEEE
Trouble In Mind
Oh, Hi!
The Talented Mr. Ripley
GAYGAYGAYGAYGAYYYYGAYGAYGAYYYYYGAYGAYYYYGAY
Scandal
Ok so, I am watching this show for the first time…
…and as someone who is midway through season 4 I am ready to share that I am obsessed with Mellie, cannot fucking stand Quinn, think the president is a whiney baby, want to smack Cyrus, shake Olivia, and give Huck a hug.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives
THE GIRLIES ARE ALWAYS FIGHTING (not complaining)
What I Re-Watched
Bridget Jones Diary
Cruella
What I Listened To
Well, I LOVE SUMMER WALKERS NEW ALBUM AND EYE KNEW I WOULD!
I like this song a lot from Aunt Comet
IDK why but also have been listening to this classic by Katie Got Bandz
What I Read
Joe would be proud and consider me an actual reader for reading Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. So far it’s good but I’m only 3 chapters in. It would make it the second book I’ve read by
ZeldaF. Scott FitzgeraldSide Note: if you’ve never watched Z: The Beginning of Everything, you should. It’s the story of Zelda Fitzgerald, Christina Ricci plays her, and it’s incredible. It came out in 2015 and I ate it UP!
Extra Side Note: In Great Gatsby (2013) which I saw in the theatre multiple times and cried the first time I saw it, my favorite scene is when they party in the secret apartment Tom has for Myrtle. There is a picture of the real-life Zelda in the apartment!
Sunrise On The Reaping by Suzanne Collins was not very good at all to me. Maybe it’s because The Hunger Games is my favorite book series? Maybe it’s because i didn’t LOVE the Songbirds movie? Maybe it’s because for years I’ve been rewatching the fan made film about the second quarter quell (with 14 million other people) so I’ve just been excited for Suzanne to write about it but….it was a miss for me. Here’s hoping the movie is better—the cast is STACKED so…
This post by Raiessa Lin on Her Misspelled Words about friendship was VERRY VERRRRRYYYYY GREAT! I love to write and read about folks and their connection to friendship and this one about the evolution of it was increds!
Where I Ate
I ATE AT HOME ‘COS I BE FUCKING COOKING! I have been trying to cook more at home these days and Winter is the perfect season to make hearty meals. So I been making soups! I really like Claire over at Here’s Your Bite and so far I have made her Creamy Chicken Soup with Potatoes (TWICE!):
and her Lasagna Soup:
I also had McDonald’s and I was supposed to have the Grinch Fries but they didn’t give me the salt, so for the first time in my life I was let down by french fries from Mickey D’s
Oxtail with Rice and Peas made by my fiancé
Chocolate Silk Pie ALSO MADE BY MY FIANCÉ! It had an Oreo crust and was the sexiest, yummiest, pie EVER!
Etc.
How do you take your coffee? I just wanna know if y’all use whole milk. I am not Lactose Intolerant (#blessed) so I wanna know.
okay bye —
I use half and half in my coffee. If there is no half and half, I do not drink coffee. I know what I like!