Hotel Restaurant Weirdness

I was recently talking to a friend about my noticeable lack of writing. We came to an agreement that my lack of creative content generation is directly related to my buying a house recently. Me, my wife, and my children have been working on it with every spare moment and I honestly just haven't given much thought to writing. I'm alive and well, you can relax. So I opened my writing ideas notebook in Evernote and checked out what I've put in there lately... It's not much, but there are a few little stories I think you may enjoy. Here's one now!

Was in Edmonton, Alberta for a weekend event with our Canadian team a few weeks ago. It takes awhile to fly from Orlando to Edmonton - longer than it takes to get to London or Frankfurt, so I was already in a droopy eyed haze when I arrived at the hotel to check in (No sleeping on planes for this guy!).

This is good, being droopy eyed while travelling. It brings my appreciation circuits online and allows me to absorb a little more around me by interacting a little less (or whatever).

I paid the cab driver and headed inside where I discovered the LED lighting in the ceiling was blinking one bulb at a time in sequence. The doorman told me that about ten minutes before, there was a loud bang and the power had gone out. The elevators were down and I was hungry, so no problem - lunch time! Left my bags with the concierge and headed to the hotel restaurant. 

After being seated next to the only source of heat in the building, a large gas fireplace, the waitress shared with me that the gas in the kitchen was not working and therefore nothing could be cooked. No problem, I asked her what was available without it. The chicken club with lobster mayonnaise sounded different interesting, so I went for that. 

I took note of a man and woman across the restaurant. She, with her laptop, and he with his incredibly loud look I'm the boss voice (think Gaston from Beauty and The Beast).

She was trying to present the guy with information of some kind related to their job. He was trying to present her with information of how important he was and clearly making moves on the poor girl. The only other person in the restaurant sat on the other side of the open fireplace from me reading his newspaper quietly, the lights blinking in sequence overhead. 

♪♪bbbBBBAAAABBY ITTT'S COLD OUT-SIDEEEEEE!♪♪

The speakers overhead blared and skipped out a chunk of a Christmas song (it was mid February) and then cut out again. Unsettling, but perfect for me in my droopy eyed state. I cracked a smile, drinking it in. 

About that time, Randy, a good friend and coworker from the Canadian office sat down at the table to join me. He was still busy organizing the next morning's event, but came by to fill me in. We chatted for a few and ♪♪SSSSSSiiiillENT NIIIIIIIiiightT♪♪ Randy asked if I would like to join him to a hockey game the next evening in the new arena. I agreed and he got busy ordering tickets from an 800-service.

Apparently the voice recognition wasn't working particularly well, so Randy joined the cast of my little observation circus (He may or may not be aware of this. Sorry Randy). 

Randy into his phone: Oilers. Hockey Tickets. OILERS TICKETS. Edmonton Oilers.
 
Phone system: Sure, did you say Disney's The Lion King?

Randy: NO! OILERS! HOCKEY! TICKET PURCHASES! REPRESENTAT- 
♪♪iiiiiIIIIITTTTT's BEGININNNNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMA♪♪

Girl sitting with jerk: So, if you'll look here I think you'll see that there is still lot's of potential in the southern region.

Jerk: THAT MAY BE TRUE, MAYBE WE CAN TALK ABOUT THAT OVER DINNER THIS EVENING WHEN I'M DONE WITH MY MEETINGS.

Randy: OILERS OILERS OILERS HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY



This is all of this story I feel like telling right now.

Love and peace,
Austin