It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Tuesday, February 4
Here is the Coke order (CO) for the week…Considering we’re not as busy as last year, it’s about all we can expect…The Dasani order lags, and already we’re expecting it to be unsatisfactory…We know you are, too:
Coke Order
2/4/25
1 Vitamin Water – RED
1 Vitamin Water – PINK
1 Vitamin Water – PEACH
1 Powerade – BLUE
1 Sweet Tea
1 Monster – BLACK
1 Monster – WHITE
1 Smartwater
4 Dasani
Thanks and have an Excellent day!
The Front Desk Supervisor (FDS)
The big news – and it is H-U-G-E HUGE – is that for the last couple of weeks, we’ve actually seen the CO being delivered!!!
I am not making that up.
The Kid used to arrive right at 0800, but now – perhaps realizing the fate of the free world is resting on his shoulders – he pulls in around 0745…The FDS, in his infinite wisdom, now emails him our order, so he has the first part (generally Dasanis, Smartwaters, and canned drinks) in the lobby before we head out.
That was the case today, and as he dropped off the first part of our order, The Kid asked me if we would like to try some of the exciting new Monster flavors…Offhand, we were intrigued…I mean, you would be, too, under similar, desire-to-move-product circumstances; you have to keep things fresh for guests…Still, tho, the hard question must be asked:
– Does ol’ Sparrow have that kind of authority???
We chuckled to ourselves and actually noted this to The Kid…For emphasis, we scratched our chin…For his part, The Kid noted the new flavors.
– Wow…I don’t know if I can do that…
I mean, yeah, sure, I have vast, sweeping powers as a nite auditor…I can take care of guests left and right, whatever it takes to ensure management gets a good night’s sleep and no one has ever said Word 1 about it…But overrule an Official FDS Coke Order???…I don’t know, and we suggested that if there was a charge for them (there was) that it might be best – since email contact has already been established – to take this up with the FDS…The Kid, showing the type of brilliance that might well take him strait to the top in the topsy-turvy, cutthroat Beverage Distribution Racket (BDR), agreed.
Dray the Dairy Delivery Driver (Dr Dre) was on his previously announced vacation, so tonite was an authorized absence with no write-up required.
There has been a credit card saga going on with Mr Y for the past couple of nites…He had a room reserved for a Sunday arrival, but his credit card was declined when we checked him in before doing the nite audit, so we canceled the reservation.
About 0100 he calls…He had been notified about declinations and says the card had been turned off, that the problem had been rectified, and could we run it again???…Of course we could, and it was authorized for the amount of the one-nite stay…He added a woman would be checking in around 0300, and she would have a dog with her…She did, a pretty blonde woman whose perfume was as fancy as her K9…She added she might be staying a second nite, and we said – between breaths because she had A LOT of perfume on – to let us know because her assigned room was already booked and she might have to change rooms…She waved a hand dismissively and said she understood with a grace born of privilege and we found ourselves wondering exactly why one Mr Y was putting her up at our mid-range, franchise hotel.
It turned out she did extend for a second nite, and Tammy worked it out so that she did not have to move, but when we went to bill the room – a bill that now included both the second nite and a restaurant charge – the card was declined…All right, this happens sometimes when a stay is extended bcause the second nite hasn’t been authorized…What you do then is go to the reservation in The System, get the approval code, and get another authorization.
The original approval code, however, was not included on the reservation…I am not making that up.
If you do some digging, tho, you can find it, so we added it and the card was declined again…We were going to defer the matter to Tammy, but Mr Y called around 0500 because the bank had notified him his card had been declined…I tried to enter the card manually but that was a no-go, too…Finally, he said he’d come by and pay it in person, which he did an hour or so later.
In Getting Anna To America (GATA) news, we have been obliged to implement Plan B…This really isn’t a bulletin on a couple of fronts, one, circumstantial and the other intrinsic.
Circumstantially, life often conspires to render Plan A’s moot…Intrinsically, the new GD effing administration long ago indicated they were going to shut down assorted immigration/refugee programs…At first, it appeared the Ukranian parole program would be spared, at least until their war is over, but that isn’t the case…This is too bad, because after making Anna Mrs Sparrow, we could have immediately put in for a green card.
Not any more…Plan B is to have her come over on a tourist visa and then we’ll get married…You have to be careful here, tho, because while there is no prohibition against getting married on a tourist visa, you cannot apply for a green card when entry into the US was on a tourist visa…You have to go through the usual process for getting a spouse into the country and if the tourist visa – which can be extended – ends before her green card is approved, then she has to return to Ukraine…Nobody wants that, but we will roll these dice if need be.
Another fly in the ointment is her passport expires in three months, and the government requires a passport that is valid for a few months after your scheduled departure date…This is a temporary wrench, tho, because Ukrainian law requires all citizens to have a passport beginning in their teens, and Anna reported getting a new one will only take three weeks.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1230 Tuesday until 2000 Tuesday…7.5 hours for the day and 22.0 hours for the week, both solid totals.
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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.
The Diary of a Nobody was inspired by the 19th-century British novel of the same name.
Coming soon! Gaylon’s books in actual book form!
