Pagod Na Ako!
Ugh, I'm on an all-nighter right now since I'm posting from the bank and I worked last night at the hotel. I'm rolling through the night audit and I'm really picking it up. I can get my work done in close to two hours and then just sit around for the remaining five left in the shift. It can make for a really boring night. Then again, after reading about
this I've been a little more cautious of who I let in the hotel. Couple things about the front desk. We only have two cash drawers and they only have $250 in each one. So if you rob us you get a whopping 500 bucks, maybe, if we haven't given away change. I don't know the combination to the safe, and it's not like you can steal a nights stay from me. Could you image me checking in some guy after he threatens me and says, "Give me a room!"? Even the safe deposit boxes aren't used very often.
Some poor gentleman who was in the hotel because he was visiting a hospital in the area had to call an ambulance. They brought him and his wife down with him shirtless and on the gurney and into the ambulance out in the cold. Also, since we host a lot of airmen from Travis AFB there are a lot of young guys hanging out, trying to talk to our young front desk girls. When I answer the phones I have to transfer calls to the different guests rooms. This whole week I've received a call from a girl who almost always has a baby crying in the background and she wants to talk to her husband. I don't think he cares about answering her calls since he's rarely in his room but usually in the business center on the internet. A lot of guys surf porn and some guys even look for prostitutes. A couple of guys have bought condoms from our little "pantry". I haven't noticed any "ladies of the night" come around yet but I'll be sure to post it if I do.
Fighting off a cold
The family has been staying home this week while the wife has been sick. The boys are ok but they're home since she can't take them to school. As for myself I've been feeling the tingling in the back of my throat ever since tuesday and as soon as I get to work I get some hot tea and soothe the itch in my throat. It works and gets me through the day but sure enough the next morning it's there again. Now I'm at the hotel which is sold out but it's really quiet. I've got to do an all nighter tonight since I'll be bringing the Matrix to the shop to replace the catalytic converter (gadzooks it's expensive). Then I've got some meetings with some big-wigs but as soon as the car is done I'm hoping I can bolt from work. The wife is doing her Mary Kay thing this weekend also so I'll be solo for a day and a half. I'll be with the kids taking them to soccer practice in the morning then off to the airport to take UPSer there. I should be at practice on sunday but I've got to scabbed up knees that are still healing, ouch!
Coffee done right!
Now this is what I call gettin' your
coffee grind on!
The Long Road Back
After buying a nice Samsung DLP tv and the NFL Championship Sunday all raring to go I went to Likha practice. Instead of pro football in HD it was steamy studio in Oakland. No sooner than we arrived Rudi calls all the guys and it's knee-spin time. With all the new guys and the oldies we all lined up one right after the other turning to Rudi's rhythm. I knew I got the email but for some reason I just didn't think I'd make it out onto the floor but sure enough, me without my kneepads but wearing jeans I gave it a shot. Mind you the last active thing I've done is play softball back in October. Even then in softball I'm not moving around as much but here in the studio I can tell it's going to be a long day. I can tell that my body still knows the movement and I'm able to do them but I can feel a tingle in my hamstring just warning me be careful. Also after four or five turns in a row (thank God Moe had kneepads to share later on!) I was getting dizzy. It was almost like being at a picnic and playing "dizzy-izzy", the game where you spin around a bat and then try to run to a spot. Later, it was uya-oy which for the most part again, I still remember and can do. The hamstring was looking at the other hamstring wondering what the hell I thought I was doing with this old body. They held up though although they're making me pay for it today.
Design On A Dime (multiplied by 14990!)
What better way to redesign your family room than by adding electronics! Actually, what we did, since the wife and I have been hankerin' for a new tv in our bedroom, was look for a new one. What we ended up doing was getting a new tv for the family room and bring up the Sony to the bedroom. I had been looking for a nice flat screen to put in our bedroom. Whether on eBay or at Best Buy or Fry's I couldn't commit to one tv. The one thing I did know was that I wasn't going to go plasma even though the prices have come down like crazy. I thought about going to Costco since you can buy it from them and then return it easily whenever you're tired of it. Not that you can just go there and tell them that but the return policy is a piece of cake. Anyways, a screen size that I was looking for was 42' or bigger and a price around $1000 to $1400, but when that's the range you end up with brand names that are unfamiliar like Maxent or Memorex (you get the idea). After going to the Warrior game on Monday we made our way back to Vacaville with a detour through Concord. We made our way to Fry's and looked around and when we got to the tv's the wife and I decided to take the plunge and get one. The LCD screens are amazing and although the pictures on the screens that you see aren't a true view of what you'll see at home you can tell that the HD will be awesome. Since the broadcast of the tv signal is split so many times by the different screens they have you'll see a lot of wavy lines and what not. The bigger 42' and beyond LCD screens are above $1700 so we made our way to LCD projection. Techincally, the picture is not as nice as a full LCD but it's very hard to tell the difference. We came across a Samsung 50' DLP with 1080P HD and for the price and features saw that this was the way to go. Now, 1080p broadcasts are not out there yet, only 1080i, but that's the direction it's moving so we went with that. Also, Blu-ray does have 1080p capability and if we ever get a PS3 then we got it covered. So tuesday night my buddy from the bank came over, helped me move 3 tvs around the house, hooked up the new one and Whoomp, There It Is. We watched a little of King Kong on HD and it was really impressive. I have to say it looked better than the Sony and it's still not even 1080p. I also hooked up the Sony in our bedroom also with HD and it's really nice up there. It almost covers the wall but we need a new stand. We're doing something for the Superbowl so if you're free come on by and check it out.
Night Moves
I haven't posted much about my new position at the bank. There actually is a lot going on there but it's definitely not as exciting as the hotel. Just this past Sunday night there were two separate rooms that were having their own party. I came in at 11pm and was told that a guest was complaining about the noise next door and was going to call the cops. The girls who worked before me said that the noise wasn't that bad and that he was just overreacting. Boy were they wrong. Apparently this party got into the 20s with people hanging in the hallways and making noise there as well. The guest that called the police later spoke with me and questioned why nothing was done about them. Because I took the girls word on the situation I thought the best way to solve the issue was to get them a new room and move them away from the complaining gentleman. He later called me and asked if they were still in the hotel. He said that they should have been ejected and he was right but because I wasn't given the whole story I didn't kick them out. On the other hand the police did come and I think the party people got the hint as I had them remove their remaining guests from the hotel.
Later, I met some people who were here because their friend had returned from Iraq. They had a gathering but not as large but they still knew how to make a lot of noise. I spoke to them three different times warning them about their noise level and they seemed to get the hint. But sure enough at 3am a gentleman called me and yelled about the noise next door. I called up to the noise maker's room and got no reply so I called the police to help me escort them out. When we went to the room we found alcohol bottles all over the place, three guys with two girls. The cops were straight with them and knew that they were drunk. One guy on the couch had a black eye and wouldn't stop making smart comments and the guy who just got back from Iraq was scared. Here he was in a room full of alcohol and the girls were underage. So as the cops try to get info they are to drunk to answer the questions properly and they are ready to be taken to jail to sober up. I was starting to feel sorry for the soldier because I could just imagine what kind of trouble he would be in but after being lied to so many times and seeing the room in the state that it was it didn't matter anymore. The officer then told them all to take a cab home and that they were just going to be removed from the hotel. They lucked out so bad.
The other night while I was off, some guy came storming into the hotel looking for his wife who was with another man in the hotel. He went to the 2nd floor and knocked on all the doors looking for her all while it was 1 in the morning. He even called in a bomb threat to the hotel. The eventually talked and he came back and brought their kids to her. She asked to be kept in the hotel and not to be called the whole day and night. I have no idea what I would have done in that situation but I hope it would be the right thing.
One last, apparently a gal who worked with us at the Front Desk (I've worked with her a couple times), had a problem getting here on-time for her 6am shift start. Sometimes she would just no-call no-show. She was eventually fired and we wondered what she would do considering she had an apartment to pay. I'll let you all guess what she's doing now to make that money...
Back To The Hotel
I'm here again, late night/early morning at the hotel. We had such a long week and weekend, between work for the wife and I as well as taking care of the boys and preparing and going to the Likha retreat. I had been putting a lot of hours in at the hotel but this week I only worked on thursday night/friday morning. But that also meant going to the bank the following morning and then going to the retreat that night. I actually made it through the whole day and only fell asleep late friday night while at Bodega Bay.
The next day was the big retreat and it was a lot of fun. First off, the place Herna got was beautiful. Sure it was scary driving out there at night and you weren't really sure if you were following the yahoo maps correctly but if you did, you made it there within the projected time. The house was huge with several bedrooms and a bonus room upstairs. If this was a house closer to the Bay Area it would top 1 million easily and it may very well have been one even in the deep part of Sonoma county. Positivity flowed throughout the day and we achieved a lot of things as well. Hopefully it translates to a good season but so many things can happen throughout the year that you just can't predict. And although the wife and I both have a lot of things we'd like to accomplish this year outside of the dance troupe we just see it as such a big part of our lives that we can't walk away so easily.
The nice thing about the hotel is that as soon as I'm done with my end of the night duties, which is usually around 2:30-3:00am, I don't have much to do except sit here and go on the computer. I might try to take a nap but you never know when someone might show up for a late check-in. Also, other vendors like the pastries guy or the newspaper guys shows up throughout the night that you have to be ready for them. Monday morning, I was planning on going to work at the bank but unfortunately our babysitting plans fell through so I'll need to stay home with the boys. Oh well, if I can just get them to keep their rooms clean. Wish me luck.
