Six Minutes and Not a Kernel to Show For It...

After only five days of staying at the wonderful Extended Stay in Alameda, the company had priced out, and selected a different location they wanted us to stay at. Because I like routine, and was just getting used to Room #1, I wasn't super excited. They wanted us to switch hotels on a Friday, and still work that day as well. As most people know, hotels usually like guests to check out before 11am, and for new guests to check in sometime in the afternoon. Let's think about this... I just went grocery shopping approximately two days ago, I have my dog, and that lag time just isn't accommodating for my situation. Checking out before 11am, no problemo. Now what do I do!?! I decided to go to the new hotel to see if they could at least put my groceries in their refrigerator or possibly check me in early. First, a very dirty room was available, but I would at least be able to refrigerate, then she noticed a room on the screen that was all ready to go. I was SO excited and relieved. Refrigerator for food, check. A place for Sugar to stay cool all day, check. I ran upstairs, dropped off the necessities, and left to work for the day.

After staying there for a night, we realized that California is not like Washington. Many public facilities allow smoking indoors, and we just so happen to be on the smoking floor. As the next few days continued, we also realized that our room didn't have a coffee pot (not OK for Starbucks fanatics), silverware, plates, or a garbage can, one of the light fixtures wasn't connected, in a way that could definitely cause an electrical fire, and to top it off, I put a bag of popcorn in the microwave for six minutes to not even have it result in the bag being warm. Did I mention that they reserved this room for us for the next 30 days?

Aaron and I both tried to remain positive and upbeat about the situation, and moving into a studio hotel room from a five bedroom house had put us both into ultra considerate mode. We didn't want to stress the other one out, but after the popcorn situation, it was decided that Aaron, because of my lacking a desire for confrontation, requested that we switch rooms. So... 10 days and three moves since we had arrived in California later, we were on a non-smoking floor, with a working microwave.