something wicked this way comes

canon digital rebel xsi

On Halloween night, just a bit before 1 o'clock in the morning, about a dozen people showed up in the hallway near our room. They were making quite a fuss. To be fair, sound traveled very strangely in our room, so it took us a while to figure out what was up. We overheard talk about not having a room key, and even a lost cell phone. It wasn't until we heard the doorknob rattle that we realized they were trying to get into our room!!

Clearly they had been partying, and were all three sheets to the wind. B went to the door (in his boxer shorts) and opened it, which made them realize why the card key they had was not working. They apologized, and B quickly closed the door. Then there was laughter and a pound (on the door). It didn't take them long to figure find their actual room - right next door (or maybe across the hall). And now the fun truly begins.

As I mentioned, sound traveled oddly in this room. And to make matters more disconcerting, it would seem that the vent opening along the hallway wall was somehow connected to their room. It was like we were now all in the same room with some kind of weird stereo sound effects gone awry. We couldn't quite make out everything they were saying, but we could hear them. There was one voice that did not stop talking until after the sun came up. I kid you not - this guy did not shut up the entire night. He was truly a loud, obnoxious drunk.

So the question became what to do about this? We have been in this situation before. It happens. Hotels have no real control over their guests. I get that. But it was the wee hours of the morning. Did we really want to switch rooms? If that was even possible. And somehow the idea of sending someone to tell them to be quiet seemed like a bad idea. More than likely it would probably only make them all the more noisy and obnoxious, not to mention it would be obvious who had lodged the complaint. And of course there was always the chance nothing would be done.

We decided to just bear it. The noise itself wouldn't have been so terrible, but then they started smoking (bad pot). So much for being in a non-smoking room. It truly is like the non-peeing section of the swimming pool - it doesn't exist. Since the windows didn't open, and turning the air up would only make the room cold, we had to just put up with that too. It was really miserable. Our room smelled like a skunk sprayed in it.

I fell asleep at some point, but was awoken at around 6am when someone came knocking on their room wanting to go on a beer run. That quieted things down for a little bit, as mister non-stop talker must have gone along to get more supplies.

The fun continued at around 8am when the housekeeping staff started knocking on our door, and all the rooms around us. It would seem that for fun someone took all the 'do not disturb' signs off the room doors. How juvenile - even if we were around the corner from Disneyland on Halloween.



on the night stand :: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.