It was Scott’s birthday (February 16th) and it was 2006. I was living in a raw space unheated artist loft near Staples Center in LA. Big Loolie was still with Scott, his constant companion. We woke up and Scott had a mischievous look on his face. He had the whole day planned to do fun things on his day. First he wrapped our heads in vintage Indian gauze silk turbans. We had running suits on with sneakers and these turbans…I also was wearing aqua colored Buddha earrings that hung down from under the turban. We both wore sunglasses,too…quite a sight, right?

We proceeded with Loolie to walk all over downtown LA, our goal to try to go as far as we could without touching the sidewalks because LA has several skybridges that connect the buildings. Loolie was off leash, following Scott’s commands the entire way. After doing all the skybridges we kept walking, people averting their eyes when they saw our turbans. It was freaky and only 5 years since 9/11. People still frightened. We went into the Bonaventure Hotel to ride the glass elevators, Scott leading, Loolie and I following. We walked the heart of the City of Angels for a few miles that day. I don’t remember where we had lunch that day but it was probably a little cool Asian place that we used to frequent near some galleries downtown.

We went to the LA Cathedral to see the architecture and the carved Robert Graham doors. At this point we were thirsty and went into their gift shop where they had plastic bottles of holy water. It was our intention to buy a bottle and drink it but we never got the chance.The sister saw our turbans and chased us out of the store! Imagine our reaction to this bigotry. We could not believe it. We were not planning to provoke, but we did. One of the many things Scott and I have in common is our love of cultural diversity and our belief that all people are created equal. We even purposely chose a racially mixed neighborhood when we bought our first home together in North Carolina.

It was an extremely cold February day in LA. We headed for Santa Monica and rented seqways. after a half hour lesson we were ready for the bike path. Still turbanned, we rode up n down the much more liberal Venice Beach without incident. Our hands were freezing but we were both exhilarated by the freewheelin’ seqways. Big Loolie was waiting patiently for us in Scott’s truck cab. The photo of the turbaned duo is back at home but no doubt all of Scott’s friends will remember and recognize shown here the prettiest female Scott ever loved 🙂