tax time.... and a few laughs

Since starting my job, I finally got two days off in a row.  That may not sound like a big deal to most, but when I work until 7:30 in the morning on my day off, I have to sleep until at least 1 or 2 to be able to awaken somewhat human.  Then, I try to stay up as long as I can that night, sleep, wake up the next afternoon and have a few hours to do stuff before it's work again.  Bleh.  Anyways, my point to all of this was that I have had an amazing couple of days.  I think it's more psychological than anything else, but whatever the reason, it has helped my mood immensely!

Had my first experience with a total "bridezilla" at the hotel.  Wow.  That was interesting.  She got all huffy right away when (god forbid) I didn't know who she was.  She walked up to the counter in her dress and everything and said "yes, I need to check in".  I said, "Ok, what's the name on the reservation?"  She gave me a big huffy sound and really snottily told me her name.  Then, I had to get her license and credit card info and you  would have thought I told her to hand over all her presents.  Geesh lady.  And then her credit card was declined.  Oh boy, that went over well.

I had another guest accuse me of being a liar.  She called around 1am Saturday morning to make a reservation for that day.  I told her we were sold out and she argued with me.  Uh hello dumb lady, why would I lie?  She said it was the middle of winter in Eau Claire Wisconsin and she didn't believe that we could possibly be sold out so I better just quit lying and get her a room.  Well, we do have a rather nice breakroom with it's own bathroom down in the basement that no one uses....

Whatever happened to the concept of being nice to someone that you are trying to get to help you?

But, my story for the week is a really young, cocky guy who calls at 5:36am from his room.  (Usually when the house line rings at that time you know it is going to be bad).  He says "Yes, I need a wake up call for 6am, 6:15, and 6:30."  I told him we can only program one wake-up call at a time but I would try and reset it if I wasn't busy.  I actually got busy so he got two out of those three calls.  At 7am, I am giving my passdown to the next shift and the phone rings again.  Same guy.  "Yah, I need wake up calls for 7:15, 7:35, 7:45, and 8am."  At this point I wanted to just tell him to GET UP ALREADY!  How bizarre?!

Oh, and I can't forget the nasty woman wearing something only best described as a cross between a homemade poncho and a snuggy.... it was just cut (no hems) and was the most hideous pattern imaginable.  There was some kind of charity benefit thing going on for kids with hemophilia so her and her six kids were staying.  That's awesome.  Have fun.  But noooooo she had to stand down at the front desk and tell me her life story while my eyes are watering from the stench rolling off this woman (B.O. and SMOKE).  I felt bad for being so repulsed but really?!  She was going on and on and on about how all her kids had ADHD, how one had hemophilia, how another had OCD, another severe asthma, and yet several others with autism.... how she was on welfare and food stamps and that the various fathers were losers.  It just made me so sad that our government enables and encourages this behavior.  Having kids IS a choice and there are MANY free birth control options out there.  And seriously -what was going on that ALL her kids had these problems?  Environment?  Genetics?  Drugs?  Poor kids don't stand a chance.  There were actually some guests that were visiting in the lobby that came up to me after she left and said "Wow, how did you do it?  How did you keep such a professional straight face?".  yah, it was that bad.

I realize these stories make me sound like a shallow individual.  But this was a really hard week of seeing a lot of mistreated kids.  I don't understand why people are allowed to have so many when they can't take care of them.

Anyways, we got our taxes done today.  Relieved to find out we have enough to hopefully get my car fixed.  It's becoming some sort of weird tradition that every year around December my car breaks down.  As in major breakdown/cannot drive it.  And in previous years, we have just let it sit until late spring before getting fixed.  Not really an option now.  We are carpooling, but Skott is either done hours before or hours after I am.  One of us ends up waiting a long time every day.  Now I can't say that I don't blame my car.  It's kind of smart, really, to break down for the worst months of the winter.  No trying to start when it's 30 below, no getting saturated with salt and road grime..... yah, I think my car has got the right idea!

On our way back from getting taxes done I spotted this road sign:

Hi, My name is Jodi and I live on Tru-Gas Road.  No, no not false gas, Tru-gas!"

Have an awesome week everyone!