All through the night in My Unpredictable Life ...

So this is going to be a kind of a "getting it off my chest" kinda entry versus a just rambling about nothing entry like I normally do. It's going to be a long one so you might just want to skip it altogether. I'm not writing it for your entertainment, sorta kinda, but this is one of those deals that if I don't write it out, it is going to cause me issues later on. So here goes ...

This was taken 2.5 hours into my shift on Tuesday night. Now if you remember in my last entry, I mentioned what kind of hectic day I was going to have on Tuesday. And boy howdy, it was not a fun day. At all. I got off work at 7am. Went home. Went back at 9:30 for the mandatory meeting, despite my numerous attempts to get out of it. In hindsight, I'm glad I was there for it because it was information that was desperately needed for all desk clerks. Especially for the 2 desk clerks who couldn't be bothered to show up for the mandatory meeting - Little Girl & Baby Girl. I was livid. Lack of sleep doesn't help control my mouth as it is, but when you add in anger, yeah ...

So anyway, an hour later I leave out of there, refusing to speak to anyone. I had to run to the mall real quick to pick up another set of volleyball knee pads for The Child since she couldn't find 1 to the set I bought her last year (grrrrrrr). I finally get to bed at 11:30 but toss & turn due to the residual anger I had left over in me from the meeting.

I get up at 3, take her to volleyball practice, come home & tried to catnap in between the dog barking at every noise. Hubby comes home at 5:10. We leave & go through the Wendy's drive through. Park at her school & wait for her to come out of practice. To which I discover Wendy's had screwed up my order. Not his, not her's, but mine. I call them and give them a what for, Sassy style.

The Child gets in the car, I sit there & watch them eat, while my stomach is rumbling. The Child has a meltdown over the stupidest damn thing. We go into the school and by this time, I'm just a mess. I am an introvert. I get claustrophobic if there are more than 5 people in a room. This was not a good situation for me, on top of only roughly 3 hours of sleep.

Finally get out of there, go back to Wendy's, have another Sassy Style what for with the manager. I leave out of there with my correct order. At this point, I have not had anything to eat in 13 hours. Nothing. So we get home at 7. I spend 20 minutes trying to get her signed up for her school Apple account, to no such luck. I gave up at 7:20 because I was in tears and I had to get back up at 9 to get ready for work.

I make it into work, with a total of 4 hours of sleep. Paul & I are trying to do shift change when this man comes in and just verbally assaults us. He was a guest who had checked in at 9:43 that evening. Unfortunately all the luggage carts were being used, 3 in total, by other guests. He went on a rampage because none were available. Paul made 2 trips carrying the man's stuff up to his room so that he didn't have to. Wasn't good enough for the man. Up until 12:38 am I had to deal with this man's constant verbal abuse.

My initial reaction was to cuss him back and tell him to get the fuck out. But, I couldn't do that, damn it! lol I stood there, listened to his tirade, and only answered/spoke to him when he asked me a direct question. This man totally had my "stranger danger" bells going off in my gut. No guest, in the 20 year history I have of being a hotel desk clerk, has ever set off those warnings in me. I couldn't place my finger on what it was about him specifically, but he gave me the heebie jeebies. Not that I feared for my life per say, but he just had an ugly spirit & I didn't want to be anywhere near his presence.

So because of this man, my routine was all screwed up. I was so far behind on my checklist that I had to do. My tasks are timed and he seriously set me back major big time. So once he finally went to his room at 12:38 am, I had to rush double time to play catch up. On 4 hours of sleep. There was only 1 thing on my 5 page check list that I could get away with not doing (which I did skip, not because of lack of time, but out of spite towards Baby Girl since she was my relief at 7am). I had sweat rolling all down my back from rushing around trying to get caught up on my time.

So here it is 1:20am and I'm working my little legs off and the phone rings. I immediately cringed when I looked at the caller ID. It was "his" room. I take a deep breath and answer in the most polite voice I can muster. It was his wife, saying her husband had tripped in the room and had hurt himself and needed an ambulance. Just effin great. Because I'm not behind enough as it is, I'm now going to get even further behind. I agree to all 911 for her, hang up, call them, then call Omar. He gives me instructions on what to do. I call her back to let her know that EMS is on the way. I call her when they are on the way to her room. Then here comes a police officer. sigh Then he leaves and then EMS is leaving, withOUT Mr. Rude Ass. WTF? I asked one of them if the guy was okay and they said yes. All in all it was 27 minutes from when she first called to when EMS left.

When I was putting receipts under the door, all was quiet. I put theirs under the door, finished up their hallway and as I walked past their room to go to the next hallway, there he is moaning as loud as he can, screaming out "Ow!" and "Oh, it hurts!" Really, Dude? Don't think I'm that stupid and don't realize the only reason you are carrying on like that is because you knew I was in the hallway. You wasted your breath on me.

Mr. Friendly Neighborhood Sniper Guy came down at his usual 4am on the dot for his coffee. Lucky for him I had it ready. He took one look at me and said, "What's wrong, Babe? And don't tell me nothing, or that you are just tired. Something is seriously wrong, so tell me." So in between him following me around all over the place as I am still rushing to get caught up on everything, I gave him the gist of what all had happened. He didn't disappoint me when he said, "You should have called me when he was on his tirade. I would have come and dealt with him. He had no right talking to you like that." Seriously guys, why do you automatically think women are weak and we need a big, strong man to defend us? Sheesh! I know his heart was in the right place, but I'd had my full of egotistical males at that point. Women get tired of the "Me Tarzan, you Jane" crap.

So anyway, 7 am rolls around, I had gotten everything done, minus stocking the sweet shop. I even managed to eat a 6 oz. container of yogurt. Bob (regional manager) came down to check out so I filled him in quickly by having him read my incident report I had written out (because I had plenty of time to fill that out!!). He gave me more advice and off he went. I kept praying to God that I would not have to see that man before I left. I literally could not stomach the idea of having to listen to him one more time. And even though Baby Girl was 5 minutes late, I was lucky that I didn't have to see him before I left.

I had known since last week that Baby Girl was going to be my relief for a change. Usually I come in after her. So I had started planning then that I would give her a taste of her own medicine. And I did. I didn't tell her anything except to tell Omar to call Bob. I didn't give her a heads up on Mr. Rude Ass. I didn't tell her anything about the 2 rooms with declined credit cards. I just left her to deal with a headache. Had she showed up early, or even on time, I might have taken the few minutes to fill her in. But since she was late and it was the first day of school, I left her ass high and dry. Buh-bye.

I rushed home, took 1st day of 7th grade pictures (how the hell did she get to 7th grade?? Where did my baby go????) then took her to school. Since I was unable to get her Apple ID created the night before, I had to go in the school with her. See, 2 weeks ago, the school was supposed to e-mail the parents a link to create a password for the account THEY would create for her. Yeah, that didn't happen. Luckily, we weren't the only family.

So I deal with that and rush back to work. Omar was coming in the door as I was racing out so I didn't have time to do shift change with him & give him my incident report. I get back to work, walk to the back office, sit my fat ass in a chair and promptly start crying. Omar started freaking out asking me all these questions. I held my hand up and said, "Stop. I'm okay. I'm still pissed from yesterday's mandatory meeting that them 2 couldn't be bothered to show up for, I got a total of 4 hours sleep yesterday, and then I had to deal with Mr. Rude Ass and all his problems he created for me all night long. This is just my way of getting it out of my system. You'd be very wise just to ignore that I am sitting here crying and lets get this shift change over with." So in between my sniffling and blowing my nose, I get him caught up on everything, including things that I didn't put in the incident report. Finally, it was all said and done and he suggested we go "leave work at work" - code for smoke break - and outside we go.

As we are out there, a man comes out & starts talking to Omar. They head back in and I follow because my phone & keys are still in the office. Next thing I know, I'm being introduced to the Corporate Auditor and before I can say, "Hi, my name is Sassy ..." I am spending the next 2 hours going over audit procedures for our hotel.

Are you frickin' kidding me?

As I'm leaving, Linda asks me to join her for a smoke break. We are standing out there when the new breakfast attendant, Mrs. Bad Ass herself, comes flying out the door, "Sassy, your Mr. Rude Ass is up at the counter cussing Omar out right this very minute." I looked at them both and said, "Yep, that's my cue to leave." And I walked my fat ass to my car and left without a glance backwards. I found out this afternoon that they ended up having to call the cops and have them remove the guy & his wife from the property.

When I finally crawled into bed at 11:30 yesterday morning, I hurt so bad. Mentally, physically, spiritually, it all hurt. I'm much better today, but I still feel a bit bruised. Of course, 1.5 hours into my sleep, the house phone rang to remind me of my Dr. appointment (that I totally forgot about and didn't show up to today!) & then a telemarketer. I forgot to plug my cell phone in so it died while I was sleeping. I had set my alarm to go off so I could get up & cook dinner but since the cell phone died, I didn't wake up till they came through the door. Then I had to rush to get dinner ready.

Needless to say, I was very thankful for yesterday to end. I hope like hell I never have to deal with another guest like that ever again. I guess I thought I was immune to people like that since we have a higher class of clientele. Goes to show that rich folk are just as human as poor folk.

Till next time ...