Saturday started off well enough. We left the house later then planned but still made it to the winery in time for a tasting and some hanging out on the piazza. Beautiful place and I took some photos with the new camera. Yay!
We checked into the hotel, which was way older and way bigger than expected. Also, it was overrun with some international teen convention of a very conservative church group. The bumper stickers in the parking lot are the things nightmares are made of - anti-gay marriage, anti-choice, etc. Scary. And yet they were all dressed like total skanks-in-training...
For dinner, we decided to walk to the chain seafood restaurant next door where we enjoyed a yummy (but loud) meal along with some fabulous martinis.
It was after arriving back to the hotel that it all went very wrong. Suddenly my stomach rebelled and I spent the night quite sick. Joe went on a hunting expedition to find me some ginger ale and tummy meds (first and last time to travel without them!) while I lay on the bathroom floor praying for death.
I crawled into bed around 10pm, exhausted and miserable and in desperate need of shut-eye. Sleep, however, was spooked away by the screaming coming from the pool outside the hotel. I tried to be patient - surely it would close at 11pm, right?
At 11:20, I became that old person. Yes, I called the front desk and
Note to hotel: get scarier looking security. These dudes were in suits and the guy doing all the talking looked like my grampa. I might've laughed at him. Or asked him to go get me some cookies. The other guy looked like he was there to fix my computer.
It was quiet after that and while I still had trouble sleeping, it wasn't due to the noise.
Also, when the knock came at the door, I was pretty sure it was going to be the kids from the pool, here to do an exorcism or something. But I guess I would've heard them coming.
14 comments:
I know this post wasn't really about bumper stickers, but that's sticking in my head, so here's my take on it.
In "real life" I think most of us can have friends who have opposite views from us on things like gay marriage, abortion, gun control, etc. Because we can sense whether that person is respectful of us and our views, whether they are trying to force their views on us or not, etc. I know I'm always happy when I can have a respectful friendship with someone even though we disagree--it makes me feel like I'm NOT living in a bubble full of only people like me.
The problem with bumper stickers about such emotionally-charged issues is that there is no (or very little) nuance in a bumper sticker. It would be like trying to explain my feelings on such an issue through Twitter--except bumper stickers are EVEN FEWER characters. So we make judgment calls...that car must have someone in it who holds wonderfully high moral standards, and that one must contain a non-showering tree-hugger atheist. Or that car must have a closed-minded religious fanatic in it; that other driver is a sensitive conservationist. (And that's two very different people, looking at the same two cars!)
So I'd prefer that I tell people what I believe (when it's appropriate, and in a respectful way) instead of letting my CAR do the talking for me.
Oooh, I think I feel a blog post coming on. (Actually, I think I practically wrote it here--sorry for the ramble!)
Well, first of all, your photos were fabulous!
Secondly- I have also been the "old person" too! and it is usually when my sleep is deprived!
I can seem VERY old when I'm sleep deprived!
i have no idea when we got old, cate.
one night @ the bar with my drink in hand bopping my head to the music and trying to look like i'm all that i stopped for a moment to take in the scenery.
it was then i realized that i could totally be all the other patrons mother.
so i went home to bed.
andy:)
p.s. i totally would've called the front desk also...but next time find out what room they're in and when you wake up @ 0630am start banging your bags and sh*t around right outside their door. it's all about payback, you know.
I woke up 'old' one day a few years back and I haven't quite figured out how or when it happened.
pictures are gorgeous! looks like a nice place to try to spend some quiet time. I honestly think they need to make big group hotels for groups like these teens, etc. We've stayed in the DC area twice, in separate years, when it was the end of school and everyone descends on DC for their class trips, and both times have had the joys of kids running up and down the halls, etc. I think chaperones give up after a bit in trying to keep them quiet and respectful. hotels want the business so they usually don't say too much, like try to control your charges, when the rooms are booked, so therefore, I think there should just be separate hotels where rowdy school/church groups should be allowed to book rooms.
sorry you got sick though and had to put up with the noise plus not feeling well; that would be a nightmare
I think I started realizing I was old the first time someone called me "ma'am" in a store and I looked around to see who the old person was and realized they were talking to me; I was all of 39, certainly didn't think I was old
betty
I would've called front desk too - there were some young people making noise outside our house late one night and I called the police twice to get rid of them.
Sigh. I'm one of the old people - and I'm only 22! :(
What a way to ruin a lovely weekend! I have to say though that I fall in the "old" category, too, when it comes to annoying kids, especially of the middle-school variety. I go up to our neighborhood pool every afternoon to swim laps. I've noticed a lot of annoying cherubs of a certain age have been hanging around. I wish they'd just go away!
A bunch of my employees texted me last night why I didn't join them at our local hangout bar after work.
I texted back...getting too old for this crap. I gotta wake up early and be a mother. Not nurse a hangover.
YUP...I became old in that text. Damn.
:) Hope the sickness didn't last too long.
Did you say martinis???
I'm alive, my friend!!
Just bust out some 80's music on you ipod. They would quickly run away! :)
and that was my 6ws post :) It just hits at random moments and you think, I am that old lady! ARGHHHHH!
I'm with Andy, I would totally have been knocking on their doors or dropping stuff in front of their rooms.
Well, at least they calmed down a bit afterwards. But you'd think even a group of teens could consider the fact that maybe once you get to 11:00 pm people will be starting to consider sleeping.
Hey, I've been that old person since I was 12!
Once I hit 40 I got old...without meaning to!
I hide it well and dress like I'm 30 so most people don't know it though ;-).
I've seriously been being old since college. I was surrounded by five frats in my grad school apartment. The police loved me.
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