Um… Did the power go out? – June 19

Ok, so it’s not really normal for me to post an entry for a single day. Not enough interesting happens every day on one of these trips. It’s usually the same old routine: get up, shower, go to work, work/lunch/work with liberal surfing inserted randomly (or maybe it’s intense work inserted randomly into the liberal surfing), back to hotel, 2-hour dinner, talk to family, go to bed. Lather, rinse, repeat. But tonight, something a little more interesting happened.

Let’s not get too overtly specific about things, but I was in the bathroom. The door was closed and there I was doing my thing when I hear this loud popping sound right outside the bathroom door and the lights all go out. Of course there’s no window in the bathroom either. It’s on the hall side of the room rather than the outside world side. Good thing I had my cell phone in my pocket or I wouldn’t have been able to see anything. Unfortunately, it didn’t provide enough light for me to get situated to go out in the room area and figure out what the hell was going on, so I fumbled around and got the door opened. I finished doing my business, washed my hands (VERY important, too many people don’t recognize the importance of a little soap and water after any kind of bathroom event) and went out to start flipping switches. I flipped the ones next to the bathroom off and on again a couple of times, nothing happened. I went over to the bed and flipped the switches there a couple of times, still nothing. Finally, I gave in and called the front desk to ask if there was a problem. They said that someone would be right up to look at things. A couple of seconds later, no more than 30 max, the lights all just popped on again. So I called the front desk and told them not to bother sending anyone, everything was apparently cool. They said “ok, thanks” and hung up. I put the phone down, and the lights went out so fast it was almost like they were connected to the handset. So I called the front desk again and asked them to send someone up anyway. Hang up, lights on. Grrrr.

After a couple of minutes, the Mr. Fixit guy shows up. All the lights are off at this point and I’m wandering around in the dark because I’m not smart enough to open up the drapes and let a little natural light in. As soon as I open up the door, the lights come on. He tells me to put the key in the slot next to the door, which I haven’t had to do for the entire first week, and says that it has to be there all the time for the lights to work. Shut door, lights stay on. I pull out the card, and the lights stay on… for just long enough for me to get across the room to the desk and sit down. Then they turned off. So I went back over and stuck the key in the door. Everyone’s happy now that I’ve got the key in the slot. The lights are happy because they have something that says “this room is occupied.” I’m happy because the lights are happy, and I should remain that way until the time comes that I forget to take the key with me when I leave. That’ll probably be tomorrow.