In the Hotel

A wide variety of people end up in close proximity in hotels.  If your stay is a brief overnight, you may not be particularly aware of other guests, but when staying for an extended period of time, the odds of encounters seem to increase.

We are in an extended stay hotel for a week while Bill participates in the National Senior Games.  Over the last few days, I have repeatedly heard a child crying out, “yee, yee, yee.”  The cry does not seem to be one of pain, but there is distress in the sound.  I am guessing that a family in a room near us must have a child who is either brain damaged or slow developmentally.  Bill hasn’t noticed this at all, but being a mother and a nurse my ear is differently tuned.  I am thinking about the difficulty of traveling with a child who presents challenges, and the difficulty of staying in a hotel room…even one that has a kitchenette and is spacious.  It would still be confining with a child who is needy.

Yesterday Bill had a lengthy conference call in the room and since the business was none of my business, I decided to give him privacy.  When I received a phone call, I left the room and went outside to talk.  As I returned to the hotel and passed through the lounge area, I saw a man sprawled in a chair, legs extended, arms dangling off the sides of the chair, head lolling to one side…totally out.  His color was good and he was breathing so I assumed he was just exhausted and sleeping.  The amusing thing was that he had a dollar bill and a piece of candy perched on his abdomen.  I chuckled to myself about whether those items could be lifted without him waking up.  I didn’t try.

Earlier, I had been sitting in that same chair crocheting.  The lounge area is a sort of balcony just a few steps above the entry and office area.  A couple had come in while I was sitting there.  The man was jangling a handful of metals.  He was old enough to be in the Senior Games so I commented that he must have had a good day of competition.  Turns out he speaks very broken English, and it took several exchanges between us before I figured out that he was a cyclist.  A few minutes later his wife, who also speaks English with difficulty, showed up at the office.  No one was in the office and she became very angry about this.  She needed to do some laundry….from what I could gather it was probably her husband’s sweaty clothing.  She needed change for the machines in the laundry room and expected to get it at the office, but no one was there.

She came up the few stairs to where I was sitting and expressed her anger to me.  I said, “I know that a few days ago….”

She snapped, “I don’t care about a few days ago.”  She managed to get that out very clearly despite her broken English.

I said somewhat sternly, “I am trying to explain to you that a few days ago, when they were short staffed, the person in the office was also doing some of the cleaning, so I suggest you look in the hallways for a cleaning person.”

She muttered something I couldn’t understand, so I then said, “Exactly what do you need?  Maybe I can help you.”

She held out some singles and said she needed quarters.

I told her to wait there and I would go to my room and get some quarters….I knew the change purse on my wallet was about to rupture.  On my way back down to the lobby, I passed a staff person in the hall and mentioned to him that no one was in the office and a guest was looking for someone.

I was able to give the angry lady 7 quarters plus the change to make two dollars and then she was happier.  Also, before she stomped off, someone showed up at the office and she got a bunch of additional quarters, so she was smiling again and said ‘thank you’ to me as she passed.

Yup…the world is full of interesting people.  Since Bill isn’t running today, I think we may go to the zoo.  Probably won’t be much different than the hotel.