As a couple who courted and fell in love during Covid, we actually did a pretty good job at getting out of the house. Our first date, at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, visting the final resting spots of DeeDee Ramone, Judy Garland, Vampira and others - set a certain theme. Although we did enjoy wholesome activities such as the swan boats at Echo Park lake, we were more likely to be found running from security guards at abandoned insane asylums, asking local teens for advice on sneaking into dilapidated shopping malls, relaxing at the John Waters suite at Hicksville Pines, taking a scenic drives to various Manson family haunts, and, gambling in Vegas and eating a variety of nineteenth-century meals in New Orleans. Perhaps our most fabulous getaway, however, was the famously eccentric Madonna Inn, where we celebrated Covid Halloween. Our costumes? Victorian plague victim replete with blackened fingertips and pus-y sores (Michelle) and creepy plague doctor, featuring a black, beaked mask and a cane for warding off the desperate and infected (TJ). We stayed in the horsey Chestnut Foal room, one of dozens of kitschy themed rooms painted in garish colors and hung with insane chandeliers. We thrifted the local thrift stores, skulked about the local cemeteries, ate a bunch of pie and contemplated crashing a wedding (the foreshadowing!). And we fell more deeply in love. It makes sense to return to the Madonna Inn, with all of you as our beloved guests, to share the gaudy insanity of the place and celebrate finding our weirdo soulmate during such an extraordinary time.