Sure, it’s Read Free Sunday at The Diary. Enjoy.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Saturday, January 27
The first ten-hour shift is in the books, and the initial returns are positive.
Our goal was to put the first hour to work for us…The Assistant Front Desk Manager (AFDM) would be there for the first hour, so it wasn’t reasonable to expect to dive right in on nite audit duties, nor would it be considered good form to retire to the back office, so we dove in on processing the registration cards for the next day’s arrivals, something that usually takes a good chunk out of the middle of the shift…There were three dozen of them and between helping a couple of guests and doing the registration cards, almost the entire first hour was taken up…This is key, because this is less work to do later in the shift.
The hour passed pleasantly enuff…The AFDF had the latest hotel gossip for me and he was grateful to have someone here for his last hour because attending to guests while he is trying to wrap up his shift can keep you busy…(This is another reason ol’ Sparrow can’t just sashay in and start doing nite audit stuff…The audit switches the business day in The System and the AFDM does his work in today’s business day, so changing it would screw him up.)
Later, a couple of guys came looking for stuff at the sundry stand and after no small amount of time looking at stuff they decided not to get anything…One guy said they had some popcorn in their room and that would OK…Ol Sparrow, tho, is always thinking sales, always trying to move some product.
You got enuff popcorn???..I mean, we’ve got plenty…
To emphasize this vital point, we nodded off to our left, in the general direction of the sundry stand.
It worked!!!…I am not making that up…They reconsidered the matter and while they decided they did, indeed, have enuff popcorn, they were severely lacking in other essentials, namely soda and snacks and we sold about $15 worth of goodies.
The big news is we had to lay the hammer down tonite and kick 148 out…I am not making that up…They had walked in and rented a room with two queen beds about 0100 and later 146 calls to say there was a concert going on next door…We go and sure enuff, there is; there appears to be a couple of guitars going…So we knock, with some authority, and the music immediately stops, but it takes more knocking and some encouragement from ol’ Sparrow to get them to open the door…Their check-in experience had been pleasant, so they were apologetic and assured me they would shut it down…I did tell them tho, that people were trying to sleep and if I had to come back they would have to go.
146 called right after Morning Coffee Service had gone out…They were at it again…All he really wanted this time was to change rooms for Saturday nite and he didn’t want to be a problem but we actually grossly violated protocol and interrupted him, saying I was here to provide him a good nite’s sleep and if he’s not getting one, I’ll take care of it.
Tho this was the first time we can remember kicking a room out here, this brought back fond memories of doing so while working security in Sin City, where this was done as a matter of course…We were cordial – we’d be cordial going to the electric chair – but when they answered they were buzzed enuff to attempt to cop and attitude, but even the beginning stages of inebriation wasn’t enuff to block out when the law was coming down from Mount Sinai and we eventually got them out without incident,
The end of my shift overlaps an hour with Tammy and she was glad for the help, too, because with ol’ Sparrow there to attend to guests and keep Morning Coffee Service (MCS) fresh, she was able to dive in on her regular AM shift duties…We have some zero clue what they are, tho they do involve assigning rooms and checking for requests for the day’s arrivals, but they are numerous…Without having to bother with fussing over guests or MCS, Tammy reported that what she got done would usually have taken her until 1100, a wonderful savings of time.
And there’s no shortage of guests to take care of, either, after 0700…Good gravy, between checkouts and those going to breakfast needing coupons and skiers waiting for the first shuttle to the mountain at 0800 who are buying things – not to mention draining MCS – there was generally always something to do.
There was good strength in the gym tonite, however, what there wasn’t was a lot of was time…We were up at 1830 (see Sleep Log below) and recall we leave an hour earlier for the hotel now, giving us an hour less time in the gym…We dove in doing both weights and cardio, but about halfway thru it became apparent we were going to be running late if we kept this up, so the cardio sets were dispensed, and we just moved some weight…We were strong, tho, and overall it was a good session.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1000 Saturday until 1830 Saturday…8.5 hours for the day and 49.0 hours for the week…This is a subpar figure, of course, but it was to be expected after last week’s Herculean 57-hour week, a figure that was a mere two hours off our PB.
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The Diary of a Nobody is a novel. All elements are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Anything else is a coincidence.
It was inspired by the 19th-century British novel of the same name.
Coming soon! Gaylon’s books in actual book form!
