ONE-NIGHT STAND...on a date with L.A.: ROCKWELL deliberate intentions

Friday. 10 pm. Birthday party.

Enter through a Los Feliz back alley into Big Sur serenity. Log cabin stone, candles lit, and open wood beams. No cabin fever, though, with the fresh air and artfully dispersed crowd.

Rockwell is a two-story tree house built around a magnificent tree that thrusts skyward through the center of the room. Its deliberate placement center stage evokes a sense of calm and perspective that only nature can create. Chill out, lounge about, just be yourself. No past, no future, no worries. Have a drink.

The roots of the tree anchor my feet so firmly that my eyes are drawn to the branches that frame the starless sky. Upstairs, I perch at the top and look down with a bird’s eye to scope the scene and choose a place to nest.

With one sip of my too-syrupy-sweet margarita, my aerie reverie crashes to earth, and I ask for a different drink. Maybe tequila on the rocks. But only one drink tonight. I have work in the morning and money doesn’t grow on trees you know.

Henry David Thoreau wrote of going to the woods as a way to understand what it means to live life deliberately. A life so deliberate that, on his death bed, he would know he truly lived. After my ex, Mr. Forever, turned into the Big Bad Wolf, I have deliberately dated men completely different than what I typically am attracted to. With apologies to Frost, I want to take the road less travelled by, hoping that will make all the difference.

I look over at my date swaying his head in time to the soulful beats of the DJ who hides beneath the stairway to heaven. This is the first time in forever I have brought a date to a party. Although bringing him here was deliberate, I’m not quite sure about my intentions for him. I like him, I do. But I admit I’m a bit reckless right now. I don’t know how ready I am for anything serious. I kind of just want to swing freely from the branches, make no apologies, and wear killer shoes.

But I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy him or that he didn’t make me laugh. I would also be lying if I said I didn’t deliberately try to push him away at times just to see if he would come back.

With a clink of a glass and a kiss on the cheek, my date whispers his intentions for me as I breathe in the tranquility and composure that is Rockwell. With the tree poised firmly behind me, I feel the freedom to give no answer and make no decisions. Instead, I smile, relax, have a drink, and enjoy a night well-lived at a bar built around a tree.

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