Vacation

Alright People! I've almost made it. 23 minutes until I'm officially on vacation. Discount everything I've said about how freaking long the monday night shift is, because it's almost over and I'm not dead. Or killed off by some slasher maniac wandering around an empty hotel at night. It's a good thing I've never seen all of the Jack Nickelson movie about being trapped in the haunted hotel. What was that called again? It was creepy enough having to go into a dark kitchen to get a bottle of champagne for a guest.....

Anyway. All you out there, you know where to reach me....My cell will be on. I'll be on a train until Wednesday afternoon, and then in a car (assuming the passes are open). Yakima folks, look out -- here I come!

Small wonder I like this book so well. It's by the same man who wrote "The Agony and the Ecstasy."

Work

Toughing out the last eight hours...

I hate this shift. There's not a soul here. It's warm, quiet, and I have a new book in front of me (that was supposed to be saved for my trip tomorrow, but is being utilized now...). Everyone has gone home. The guests are in their rooms. The phone has mercifully stopped ringing....I'm getting sleepy.

I'm having difficulty with my attitude. I don't want to be here. I should be home packing and cleaning, and leaving lengthy notes to my cat sitter. Instead I'm just sitting....

Quiet

Lonely..and peaceful.

Reading the fictional history of Jessie Fremont...wife of an explorer (now, although he became quite famous later). She was quite a woman. Independent, but not radical. Emotional, but clear thinking. Intelligent and well educated, but not overly aggressive.... Determined in pre-civil war Washington DC that a marriage should be an equal partnership. Each contributing to the other. The woman not relegated to the domestic sphere, but standing shoulder to shoulder with her husband. Supporting, helping, guiding...no small feat in that day and age....I'm impressed so far.

New favorite quote from the book....John Fremont comes back from a six month expedition to his nine month pregnant wife.

"I'm sorry I'm so bumpy, darling. It would be nice to be ravishingly beautiful for your return."

"If you hadn't been so ravishigly beautiful before I left, you wouldn't be so bumpy now."

I hate this shift. I'll enjoy the money when I return in a few weeks, but right now I'd rather be doing anything. Travelling already. Something....

A Woman in a lonely Home
Hearing like a sad refrain
Be faithful, love and love will come
In the gentle falling rain.