All Good Things Must End…

But I wish they wouldn’t.
The Special Olympics are leaving. In some ways Im relieved because being at 100% occupancy in the most historic (aka oldest) hotel in Boise is scary. But we’ve survived the past two weeks actually with minimal problems… There is no way I can state how happy I am about this. But Im sad that the athletes are leaving because it means a return to regular business. After working with a surprisingly self-sufficient special olympics- I don’t really want to go back to the regular cliental. Today is the first day in two weeks we’ve checked non special olympic people in and I had almost forgotten how high maintenance some guests can be. But that’s the hospitality industry for you.

Untapped Potential

Some people run from it.
Find ways to sabotage it. For others and themselves.

Some people want it though.
To strive for the highest.
To be the best.
To find out what their Untapped Potential is.

In retrospect

I shouldn’t be surprised that these things come to me while Im sitting in the quite of the front desk… Here’s what ran through my mind.

Its amazing how one event, one set of words, one action, or even one thought can have so many emotions and reactions depending on your mood and point of view.
Last night/most of yesterday I may have taken a few things out of context and probably misread a few things, but I felt like I was square on the money. If I was wrong (and In a way I hope I am) Im going to feel amazingly sheepish and embarrassed, but I suppose if I was right, I suppose I wont feel all that great either.
I dont want to be too forward, but I guess the only reason I get upset and emotional when it comes to what Im talking about is that I care that much. I feel I have a need to apologize, but Im not sure for what.

When the guest elevator goes down

thats when you find out what type of employee you are, and for a while I was pretty sure I made a decision that could have gotten me fired- but it turns out I made the right call all along.

Its amazing where the mind can wonder when there is nothing to do.

Only at the Hotel

Only at the Hotel will you have:
1. A Stripper check into the hotel and have screaming sex for an hour and a half shortly there after.
2. Drunk people fall asleep at the front desk while trying to get a room.
3. Stereotypical Rednecks ask if they can park their motor home in our compact car zone.
4. A kid on those “roller-shoes” skate right into the automatic door and try to play it off as nothing.
5. Hotel guests try to get it on in the lobby restroom.
6. Drunk guests shove a quarter in the dollar slot of the vending machine because they couldnt find the coin slot.
7. A “pimp service” come in and try to get some business connections.
8. A Drunk guest jump into the swimmng pool- empty in the middle of the winter.
9. Guests that cant figure why the toilet is clogged after trying to shove a pillowcase down the drain.
10. Police come in and say- “Dont worry, we’re sure the suspect isnt in the area, but just in case…”
11. Guests that parody SouthPark Characters.

and maybe best of all-

12. An old lady pull a superman down the stairs and roll over on her back and scream “Get me the F*uck up!”

Some of these may sound crazy, but Im serious- Only at the Hotel could you possibly have stories like this.

A sea of grey was all I saw

From about 11am to noon today at work. The I.H.V. convention let out about eleven today I had probably about 40+ checkouts in that time frame. It was like they let open the gates and they just kept coming. It was insane.
And after they all had checked out, philosophers started arriving slowly but surely until we had just as many Philosophers when I left as we had Hospital Volunteers when I arrived.
And the best thing is- I get to go in and do it all over again from noon to 8pm tomorrow, Which in some ways is better when you consider I was supposed to work 5pm to 11pm- However Im now working more hours. Meh- its Money and at this point, I’m ok with that I suppose.

“Thank you for calling The Owyhee Plaza, How may I direct your call?”

“Ok, One moment please”

Thats basically how my first day on the job went.

Actually, If was a great day. I got the offical tour of the hotel and got to meet a lot of the other people that make the hotel go. I really enjoyed getting to know my supervior and the other front desk agent that was working today.

I know that its going to take some time to get everything down and I think I made great strides in mastering the usage of the phones and all their extentions. Im glad that I was able to take to it fairly fast and given maybe another day or two of work I’ll hopefully be able to do Online Reservations and such. My supervisor said it could take a few months before im completely ready to actually work the font desk, so right now im perfectly fine working in a supporting role until i have all the right skills.

And now- Ive got myself a Valentine!

Here’s a helpful piece of advice

If and when you ever have to take a drug test, make sure you’ve had a lot of water and you DONT go to the bathroom before you’re going to take the test, like me.

It really sucks standing there holding “the container” and waiting.. and waiting.. and waiting, knowing that you cant do what is asked of you.

As a result… I was allowed to go to the lounge/bar and I drank what must have been close to a gallon of water. That did the trick for sure.
Lets just say- I passed the test and was officially hired on today as the newest desk agent, however- for about two hours afterward I was using the restroom every 30-35 minutes.

So PLEASE, if you ever have to take a drug test, take my advice and hold it!