My Old Friend; The Jon

I remember my first semester in collage, waking in the night and racing to the toilet to throw up. I didn't make it. I almost did. But not quite. Now I think perhaps most people have experienced something like this in collage. But for me, well, I went to BYU-Idaho (only way back then it was called Ricks Collage). A church school were we didn't drink or "party" at all. Ok, we DID party, but it consisted of making cupcakes and going to school dances and making crazy balloon hats. No really! I had a roommate who could make balloon animals! It was pretty awesome!

balloon birthday hat

So there I was, sick as a dog, with a mess to clean up. Now my roommates banged on the door and offered to clean it up for me because they were an amazingly wonderful group of girls who I still love. But I couldn't ask them to do that for me! So I locked the door and cleaned it up myself. Then I proceeded to throw up again. Luckily, as I was already in the bathroom, I made it just fine. At that point I went to bed. I don't remember anything else of that flu bug so I must have just slept.

When I was still at Ricks I had an amazing opportunity to take a trip to Paris with the Interior Design Department. When I was in one of the hotels, the toilet clogged and threatened to overflow. I called the front desk. The maintenance guy (Hot Maintenance Guy) who came to fix it had a mop. But when he walked into the bathroom he stopped and looked at me with shock. The toilet hadn't overflowed! Perhaps flooding was common? I told him I had turned off the water. Again, shocked French Man in my room. Was it that I was just so cute, or that a 19 year old American knew how to turn off a toilet? Hello! I didn't want that on my bathroom floor! And THANK YOU Dad, for sharing some handy plumbing tips!

But many people seem to think that they are paying for someone to clean it up anyway. Besides, it's not like they leave the cleaners under the bathroom sink for you to help yourself to! While the hubby and I were managing the Bed and Breakfast, years latter, we got a call from a room that needed a mop. My Darling Adventure Man attended to the guest who had had some kind of food poisoning. When he came back DAM was pretty grossed out. This is a man who hates to changes diapers because, as Bill Cosby says, "He doesn't like surprises."

We, after almost 17 years of working in hospitality have most always worked in boutique resorts. This means they are usually small, remote places. Usually privately owned.  Could you imagine doing housekeeping for one of the big resorts in Las Vegas? Where too much alcohol consumption would more than likely mean that making it to the toilet was hit or miss. (I imagine mostly miss.) And with a society that expects housekeeping to take care of things, I have to really admire the men and women who do it.

Sometimes we can't help it. Sometimes we do it to our selves. Sometimes it's just bad seafood. But whatever it is, leave that sweet housekeeper a tip. You wouldn't want to clean up her mess!

x