(note from the night desk) Im not sure why we have guests from all over the world who choose to stay at the Moderately Priced Motel in Kokomo. It must be either due to our renown international reputation or the coincidence that we are conveniently located between here and there. It is of course not surprising to have our fair share of guests from Mexico and Canada, because how else will the lucrative Maple Syrup Pinata industry survive? And, as Chrysler has two big manufacturing plants close by, we do get our fair share of Germans and Italians, with Daimler-Benz well on its way out and Fiat now running the show. But the its a small world list does not end there. There are French academics from Purdue University. South Africans motorcycling to Minnesota. Egyptian F-16 fighter pilots, no, really. Nigerians, Brazillians and Chetchnyan laborers wearing curious camouflage pants. Weve had Japanese, Indians and Russians. Not to mention Koreans afraid of impending random tornadoes, Equadorans, Liberians and the random Chinese behaving suspiciously. One of my favorites was the Swede who was running cross-continent for the fourth time. I just now checked in a very loud woman who LOVES to interrupt everything I say, wearing a neon JESUS SAVES! shirt, finds everything to be blessed and is obviously from a different planet. This summer, we had a group of guests from some obscure, far-off land called Nieuw Jersay, where it would appear it is the national passion to be incredibly rude and break toilets. Being myself someone with an Dutch-American Father and a Dutch Mother and having lived in Switzerland for a while as a kid, I find it all quite interesting and routine, because people are people and no culture has cornered the market on being self-absorbed. The frustrations of the job persist, but, hey, thats why I wish they paid me the big bucks. In the Ian Fleming novel (and movie) On Her Majestys Secret Service, the villain plans to spread biological terror from a central location by sending emissaries around the world to disperse the latest scary virus. So, dont argue about room rates too forcefully with me on a bad night, or I swear I will shut this civilization down from right here, behind the night desk of the Moderately Priced Motel in Kokomo. Having spare time on slow nights, I have, for the first time, started playing an on-line economic, political and military strategy game called Supremacy: 1914 I seem to be cast as the leader of the WW1 Ottoman Empire and have named myself Sultan SprocketRun the Bedlamite. The goal of the game is world domination and destruction of your enemies. I am currently attacking Syria with 8 Infantry divisions and Artillery support. I dont let Hotel guests see my laptop screen as I decide where to place and maneuver my troops. Nor do I let them see the desk screen as I decide which rooms to assign, which is essentially the same thing. I find that somehow therapeutic.
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 00:20:42 +0000