Nightmares

So last night's hotel experience was the stuff of nightmares. Not a true horror nightmare, but a nightmare light of sorts.

The hotel was hot and crowded. The kids tried to swim, but the pool was overrun with a church group of yelling kids, some drunk guys with cases of beers, tons of families with little kids, and who knows who all else. The workout room was packed, people smoked a variety of things out every door, and getting an elevator too forever. Our room of 5 people received two towels and at one point I had to make an emergency toilet paper run to the front desk. Amidst all this chaos we needed to get some sleep for today's 9 hour drive.

The noisy, packed hallways didn't empty until far too late in the night. The church kids burned some popcorn resulting in a stench in the hallway and about 10 rooms of kids emptying out of their rooms to check it out. The one poor chaperone seemed confused and did nothing to shush them. The room across the hall from us remained propped open for the entire day, but we feared asking what might be behind the mystery door. 

About 12:30 the racket reached a crescendo we could no longer ignore. I dragged my tired self out of the pit in the saggy bed and crept to the door, realizing that all 3 of my kids remained awake. I peeked out the door to see 2 shirtless baseball players in the doorway of the room across the hall. Annoyed, I stepped into the hall and asked, "What are y'all doing?" They replied, "Did they knock on your door too?" Then went on to explain that they had a game in the morning and wanted to sleep, but someone had banged on their door repeatedly. 

I looked down the hall to see all of the church kids out in the hall screaming and yelling, pointing at each other and hurling accusations. In the midst of them a hotel employee handed out towels looking oblivious to the zoo. A single chaperone (for about 50 kids) ran up and down the hall yelling over them all, "It wasn't us. It wasn't us! We are a church group." as though being a church group somehow absolved them of the ability to knock on a door and run.

A confused group of workmen exited the elevator, each man carrying a case of Modelo. They looked at the chaos, waded through it to a room, and all 6 of them filed in closing the door quickly behind them. Something made me think that they needed that much beer.

Despite being barefoot and clad in a nightgown, I ventured down the hall to hopefully calm things down. Since no one seemed to take note of anything, I hopped into the elevator recently vacated by the beer drinkers and rode to the lobby. I skirted a family with about twelve toddlers to appriach the front desk. It was closed, empty, and looked like it had been that way for some time. Two teenage guys in hoodies were raiding the snack shop, and seeing no way to pay for their treats, walked off with them to the stairwell. I contemplated calling the police since the hotel clearly had lost control, but decided to go back upstairs.

Eventually I boarded an elevator and returned to the third floor where most of the occupants still crowded the hallway. I walked up to the hotel employee and explained that we were unable to sleep due to the commotion. She looked surprised. I could not fathom why this would come as a surprise to her, but I proceeded to explain that the situation was unacceptable and that we would need either an environment in which we could sleep or a refund for the night. Somehow this seemed to spur her into action and she declared, "I'm going to take care of this right now!" I tried to stifle a laugh at the absurdity of this woman in a navy blue suit distributing towels to a hallway full of teens while promising a woman wearing only a nightgown that she would settle things down. About this time the church lady ran by yelling, "We're a church group!!"

Unable to stand it any longer, I stated to the employee that the church group kids had been in the hallway all night and that they were likely violating the hotel's policies by not having an adult in each room since the kids appeared to be about 12-15 years old. Since they had been in the hall all night, not one other adult had been seen. As the hotel employee looked at them more carefully they all suddenly felt the need to return to their rooms where I hoped they would remain. I noted the 2 guys from the lobby standing near the elevator acting odd, but decided to let it go as I wanted to go to sleep. I marched back to my room and received the thanks of the baseball guys as I entered my room.

Not one minute after closing the door, I heard noise in the hall again. I opened the door in time to the the hoodie guys dart into the stairwell. I followed them, peeking in just in time to hear the ground floor door slam closed. I turned around to see some more of the baseball guys (not our neighbors) in the hall. Annoyed I said, "Don't y'all have a game tomorrow?" They turned in surprise revealing their coach who looked embarrassed and quickly apologized for them being in the halls. He said that they were helping to catch the troublemakers since they had been awakened multiple times. I thanked them for their help, pointed out the guys in the stairwell, and retreated to bed. Luckily after that the noise quieted and I slept soundly all night. 

This morning breakfast looked like it had been attacked by the church group, hung over workers, and a U17 baseball team, but the staff worked hard to keep the food stocked and maintained pleasant attitudes throughout. My family joined the crowd and devoured like locusts as well. The food was hearty, if bland, and we hit the road fueled for the day.

This whole experience reminded me of a couple of things. First of all, when sharing a space (hotel, restaurant, bus, etc) be courteous to those around you, even if they are different than you. Second, remember who you represent. People see you as your church, your school, your team, your city, etc. Consider the impression you leave. And finally, have some grace. Employees give their best, and sometimes they are badly outnumbered. Take a step back, look a the whole situation, and be kind.

**Shoutout to the U17 Warhawks from Ohio. These young men exemplified respect and kindness on a very challenging night. Best of luck to them this week!