Rain Rain Go Away
Sitting by the window at work I can see the rain coming down like crazy. It was last year in Vacaville, New Years Eve of 2005 to 2006 that we had flooding all over the area. I-80 was flooded in Fairfield. In my neighborhood there was flooding all around the main roads. Over the summer a run-off ditch was built to collect the water from all the rains and it's now filled. Hopefully we don't get a repeat of that New Year's Eve but it's day's like these that make you worried, especially as a homeowner.
Big Spenders in the House
There is a banquet going on right now with over 250 people. It is a wine tasting/dinner event with an auction. I believe it is a fundraising event for Northbay hospital here in Fairfield. I could have made a killing if I had a valet service because there were a ton of "Baller" cars from Maserti's to M3 convertibles to S600's. I was thinking my buddy here at the hotel, Abdul, who is the houseman for tonight, could have thrown on a coat and tie, take people's cash and driven some impressive cars.
Several people are dressed "black and white" but I feel sorry for those who didn't. You can see their faces as the turn the corner and see the rest of the party all spiffied-up. Some lady had a Louis Vitton overcoat with insignias all over her jacket. At least most people are acknowleding us as they pass by. There have been a couple of people who just walk on by but it's all good. At $275 a plate they're not really going to care whether or not I say something to them.
My heart aches for an old friend
I was given the sad news just yesterday about Sam Largo, my friend and many others, but from that moment until late tonite did it hit me. I've lost family members much older who've spent many years on this earth. When I was in my teens I lost one of my best friends to a car accident and not a day goes by that I don't think of him. So now, to lose a friend who has lived as long as I have is heartbreaking. When someone leaves this life one of the things I think about is what were they were able to accomplish while here? Did they get to live a prosperous life? Were they able to contribute? I know that Sam did both but it hurts me knowing that he still had so much more to give. His work in the community was amazing. The stories he told me of the kids he worked with were at times heartbreaking but he showed so much compassion and care that you could feel that he was making a difference. No matter how difficult things got he still pressed on and did his life's work. I'll miss sharing the stage with you. I'll miss seeing you out of the blue when I least expected it. I'll miss your stories. I'll think of you often and pray that you're safe as I'm sure you are.
Switched hours at the Heartbreak Hotel
My buddy is leaving the hotel so that he can pursue his new found job as a real estate agent. With that change the hotel offered me the Manager On Duty for the evening shift. So instead of working 11pm to 7am, I'll be coming here after the bank at 6pm until 11pm. Here and there I'll do the Night Audit shift but this MOD position is cool because it can set me up to be a manager in the future in a bigger position. We'll see. I'll be here four days a week and with these hours I'll be mainly checking guests in to the hotel. This is the general arrival time, after dinner, when late flights arrive for business guests and whatnot.
I still worked Night Audit on this past saturday which was funny. There were two big parties that were going on. One was a surprise party for Pete Sanchez, the Filipino mayor of Suisun City. The other was a 20+ high school reunion for Vacaville High's Class of 86. Being that it was Vacaville, especially in the 80s, you can kind of guess what the crowd was like. One thing for sure is they love their alcohol. When the bartender came by to drop his cash he showed me a huge envelope with bills. I think it came out to 1100 bucks. What's cool is watching these people and seeing what time has done. Most guys were balding while many women were showing cleavage but what stood out the most was they showed their age. Time does not do the caucasian race good when it comes to physical appearance. Gotta love those Asian genes! When 12am came rolling around, they were still loud as ever straggling out in the lobby looking for the next party. All good though since it kept my night busy keeping an eye on them and making sure they didn't disturb our hotel guests. I'm looking forward to my 20 year next year!
Valentine's Day is family day!
With two kids and a long commute for the wife we decided to just chill and meet at the Fairfield mall and have an easy dinner of Mongolian noodles. The boys love noodles so it made it an easy choice. I drove by the hotel real quick to take care of something before I met them and saw that we were having a big restaurant event as well. Driving by other restaurants I could see how busy all the different places were. Parking lots were packed, people were driving around looking for parking and couples were waiting outside for their seats to be ready. It looked like a hectic time to try and have dinner at a restaurant. Even in the mall where there is a Red Robin and an Applebee's people were waiting for long periods. Although it would have been nice to take the wife out, just her and I, we enjoy our moments as a family.
Guitar Hero II Rocks
I went out and bought Guitar Hero II for PS2, even though I don't have a PSII. I figured I would just borrow one from my buddy who has been stuck playing his Xbox 360 and neglecting his PS2. I've been seeing it at Best Buy and playing the demo and I just knew that it would be a ton of fun. I was right. From the get-go, the songs they chose for the game just rock, there's no other way to describe them. From Motley Crue to Cheap Trick to Black Sabbath, the music just keeps coming. I've been playing songs at a medium skill level but I have yet to get a five star review. I can pass the songs and have been going through the different types of rock styles which gives me more and more music to try. I think my octavina playing helps a little with the fingering as well as my knowledge of the songs themselves. One key if you start playing, practice strumming up and down instead of just down all the time. Andres is rocking out on the game also. It's amazing how natural he looks playing the game. He must get it from his ninong OJ!
Props to my Mary Kay gal
The wife has been working hard with putting her Mary Kay business together. I'm really impressed by how organized she's been. Keep in mind that this is someone who is still working full-time in San Pablo, 45 miles away from our home. We've had event after event and she still keeps her smile rain or shine and I'm having fun supporting her in this adventure. Even Andres and Emilio are into it as well.
Slow start to the DJ season
I haven't had any gigs ever since the end of the new year. It's kind of been a nice break but at the same time, I miss spinning and moving a crowd. I'm still hoping for a new laptop, one that will give me the speed to run my Serato to the best of its ability. There's been so many new improvements to it that it may be time to bring out the real MKII 1200s. We shall see. I do have some upcoming gigs in March which will be nice. One is a wedding for an old classmate from my grammar school days. She's actually a year younger than me but I know a lot of the people who will be at the wedding so it should be interesting.
New hotel horror stories
Okay, so I worked on Saturday night at the hotel after being there thursday night/friday morning. Saturdays usually have wedding parties in the hotel or some kind of party people since they get the hall for whatever event they may have. My buddy who got me the hotel job was still there finishing his shift and was waiting for another buddy of ours to come by since they were going to go out. So of course I'll be by myself doing my thing. At about 12:00am, a group of youngsters come by, 3 of them, asking how much a room is. My buddy helps them but because they are a little suspicious he tells them it's $199. It was actually at $129 but if someone will pay it we'll take it, so long as the credit card works and they're over 18 years old.
So they say they'll take the room, he get their credit card and an id and they past all of our hurdles. When one of them comes by with some food and drinks from our pantry I smell something distinct. The time is now 4:20. (Wink Wink!) They ask for a smoking room which happens to be on the first floor. That kind of helps me because if they're going to party and be noisy nothing will make me happier than to have to call the cops to get them out and still make them pay. After they got their room two young girls came to the front desk asking where the gentlemen went and I direct them to the room. So as the night goes on it's just me and the houseman. I had some people go by the room to check on the noise and smell but so far no problems. I had them do this about 4 separate times just in case. I didn't get any calls of complaints, we couldn't smell anything funny and for the most part they were quiet. I go home, sunday rolls along and I'm not working at the hotel, and I don't talk to anyone from the hotel.
Monday morning I meet up with my buddy who works here at the bank as well as the hotel, the same guy, and he tells me about room 104. Sunday they wanted to extend their stay and check out on monday. One guy comes by and wants more food from the pantry and wants to charge it to the room. When it's posted the credit card fails. This is the chance to get them out of the hotel since we don't allow a stay without a valid one. At 8pm sunday they check out and we have the room looked at to prepare it to be cleaned. It was a mess...
Someone threw up on the carpet. The furniture for the room, a double-bed room, was moved all over the place. The bathroom was also a mess with condoms on the floor. It was all jacked up. The room had to be placed as out of order which sucked because we were sold out that night but couldn't make this room available to anyone. I'm not sure if we'll be able to recoup any of the losses incurred from carpet cleaning and whatnot. Usually, when that happens and since we have a credit card we can charge a gang-load of things to them. I'll update later when I know what final steps we took on them.
Now, I'm someone who likes to give people the benefit of the doubt and a lot of times I feel that's part of my downfall. I don't like to think the worst of people because I like to believe in the good in them. I can actually be quite gullible. In this case it was like watching a car wreck in the rain because you had all the factors of a perfect storm in play: three guys (they were from Richmond), illegal drugs, young females and a really late check-in. We both wanted to say no and that we were sold out but wouldn't we be proving someone right of a charge of racism? At what point does common sense/perception & a racism claim become valid. What happens to the next set of people who might "fit the description" but mean no harm? Maybe they're too drunk or high to continue on the road and are responsible enough to realize that they need to stop driving and get a room. I do know that with all of the factors from this last event we should have said we have no rooms but it's too late for that. I do know that they've ruined it for anyone else that may be like them but legitimately need a room.
