I'm thinking about doing this monologue.

Valentines Day has been and gone. I have to repeat my Christmas observations. Why is it that people are more stressed out, irritable, and generally impossible to please on the days that are supposed to be the most fun and relaxing. I know why I'M stressed out and irritable, but who wants to spend that much money to be miserable.

Example

We had a lady and her husband staying two nights. On the night of Valentines she came downstairs and chewed out everyone she could get her hands on about the fact that there was no tv or cd player in the rooms. At the Alisal, we barely have electricity and everyone loves how rustic it is. Here, however, she was "very unhappy." She and her husband like to watch the news in the morning. We sent up a tv. She was also "very unhappy" with the breakfast, the room, the environment, and I don't know, the view most likely. She wanted a lower room rate. She wanted special amenities. She wanted the chef to come in the next morning and personally cook them an in-room breakfast. We finally got rid of her, and she called down from her room to say that she was "very unhappy" that there was no chart by the phone telling her how to retrieve her messages (there was one on the bedside table....). In otherwords, she was just "very unhappy."

My thought is...we had people begging for rooms that night, or just a rollaway in a conference room. If she was that unhappy she could just try her luck getting a room. There wasn't a single room in the county to be had for love nor money that night. Secondly. Its freaking VALENTINES DAY. TALK TO YOUR SPOUSE! Do something romantic! Enjoy that fact that you are out of the house, away from the noise and the distractions.

And besides. Nothing is more sexy than shreaking like a shrew at the top of your lungs for a half hour, then retiring with your spouse for a good woe-is-me session. Really put her husband in the mood for romance, I'm sure.

Another idea for humanitarian aid...the country of Haiti is in more political upheaval. Their president has lost the confidence of some of the militant groups of the country. They are uniting to try to make him step down from office. The president has declared his intention of staying in office until the end of his term in 2006. The politics are neither here nor there really. The problem is that because of the turmoil, food and medical supplies are scarce. For more information on the medical conditions in Haiti on a good day, visit the Compassion International Site and look up the country. Now, the conditions are much worse. The average person in Haiti lives in a year on as much money as I make working one job in two weeks. If you would like to donate to disaster relief, click here. The child I support lives just south of the fourth largest city. I have had no word on if she is safe, how near she is to the conflict, if she's still able to go about her life. Anyway...if you'd like to help out some people in a country in trouble, there you are. Compassion International's financial information and mission statement are online. At least 80% of the money that comes to them goes directly to the intended recipient.

Alright guys....If you've ever parused the "My favorite blogs" link, you'll notice Wil Wheaton's is on there. Right now he's trying to raise $25,000 for the Leukemia walk-a-thon in San Diego. Here's the link to his donation page if you have a dollar or two to spare. Here's the link, and I'll put one in the "Beyond ourselves" area too.....