These Pretzels Are Making Me Thirsty

Was out of town for training last night, and at the hotel the company put me up at had the worst experience I've ever had at a hotel. I used to work at a place I not-so-lovingly called The Vermin Inn and I would put this on par with some of the shenanigans that went on there (but, actually, staff there did their job fairly well; clientele quickly turned people sour there, as some of you might remember from my telling of customer exploits).

Bear in mind I'd driven three hours, at least an hour of that sitting in rush hour traffic, so my take on this might be skewed by the irritation and exhaustion from the trip. I arrived at the front desk, where there were three people standing. One was helping another patron, one looked to be doing paperwork and one might have been housekeeping. I noticed the paperwork one see me, so I simply waited. And waited some more. When she finally got to me, she barely communicated verbally with me, never made direct eye contact and didn't smile. She didn't tell me where my room was, though the number was written on the sleeve for the key cards. I wandered till I found it (it was also a conference center, so there were excess rooms and halls to go through before I saw the signs).

I got to the room and immediately heard the TV was on, and a voice emanating from it. Hmm, I thought, methinks this room is already occupied. I tried the key card anyway. Fortunately, it didn't work. I trotted back to the front desk to inform the clerk there was someone in the room she just sent me to.

"No, that can't be. See, on the paper it says 115, the card says 115 and the slot here in this antiquated card filing system also says you're in 115," she said.

"Maybe so, but I assure you, there is someone else already in that room," I said.

"Can't be. You must be wrong."

I noticed there were other guests to be checked in, so I told her I'd go double check while she and her sunny personality assisted them.

"Try knocking on the door first," she said.

NO.

I had no intention of doing that and didn't. You see, that would fall under "other duties as assigned" for her job description, not the guest's! Sure enough, though, when I got back to the room, the key card still didn't work and there was someone inside. I don't know if the clerk expected that it would miraculously be any different when I tried the second time or what.

I went back to the lobby and waited for the clerk to help the other guests, then informed her again that my room is occupied. She huffed and grabbed the housekeeping key, and headed for the room to do the thing she should have done immediately (though, strictly speaking, I think she should have just reassigned me a room the first time I told her there was someone inside mine). Five minutes later, she came back and said, "Yes, I guess there is someone in there."

Duh.

Then she and another girl did some stuff, none of it involving an apology for the confusion or any kind of acknowledgment of rudeness, etc. and eventually got me into another room. Again, no real indication which room (good thing I can read) or how to get there. This is key, because the room I got assigned is tucked out of the way and I walked by it three times before I realized there was a room back by the elevator around the corner from the stairs.

I finally got into a room half an hour after entering the lobby the first time.

Was it just tiredness on my part, or was that a whole lot of nonsense?


When I got back to the office, I sent a note to the person responsible for booking travel, suggesting that maybe that hotel be scratched off the list. I'm booked there next week, in August and then random nights once or twice a month until November and I'd REALLY rather not stay there.

Now I'm home and my wifi is being wonky. Because I'm totally rational, I blame the hotel.

I don't like admitting it or talking about it, but sometimes I get blemishes along my hairline and behind my ears. It's gross. It's not that I don't bathe or anything, but hair on my neck and sometimes even an itchy clothing tag will cause problems. A bit of tea tree oil usually clears the problems right up.

Anyway, for the last year or more, I have struggled with one spot. I could feel it back there, so I'd hit it with tea tree. Failing that, the next step was glycolic acid. When that too failed to solve the problem, I'd douse it with salicylic acid. I did all of this by feel, and the bloody thing just would not go away. I actually avoided hair salons and putting my hair up because of this blemish - who wants to flash something unsightly if they don't have to? (I'd eventually have to go get a hair cut, cringing with embarrassment all the while, of course.)

Yeah. Uhm. Today I finally had the wherewithal to grab a mirror and look at this bothersome blemish.

As it turns out, salicylic acid treatments will do nothing to get rid of a mole.


LOL, how stupid am I? (Don't answer that.)

While I'm here: Murder in the City by The Avett Brothers. Nice little song, in a twangy kind of way. The last line of lyric is especially poignant, I think.