Of Hotels and hotel rooms...

As my loyal reader well knows, this is my fourth week of traveling for work. I'm enjoying the work - testing the new computer system we'll be getting very soon - but the hotel part - well, let's just say not so much. I'm staying at a Holiday Inn that has seen better days, but is in the process of being renovated. The staff is excellent - everyone I've dealt with has been super nice and very friendly. But the rooms seem to have gone downhill as my stays have progressed. It's somewhat to be expected - at first I was booked into executive rooms - very nice - king-sized beds, a nice desk, couch, roomy bathroom, refrigerator and microwave, and popcorn and bottled water left for me. Wow. Very comfy, except for the room the second week, which had a leak in the bathroom ceiling that went drip, drip, drip all night the first night. No big deal, though - I put towels down to muffle the dripping noises and left a note for the housekeeper to have maintenance look at it, and by the next night I was good to go. So I can accept that after this, I might be a bit spoiled. The third week, I was in just a regular king-sized room - no couch, but it still had a decently comfortable chair and a fridge and microwave. However, the bathroom had gone from roomy to one you couldn't swing even a very small kitten in and no popcorn or water (which I didn't need or use in the executive room anyway). Oh yeah, and it's an outside entrance, making it a little harder to go swimming in the pool or relax in the hot tub which isn't currently operational. OK - I can deal with this - not too bad. When I checked into my room this week, I officially hit rock bottom. The room has two double beds - not a problem, since that's what we have at home, but they're basically not very comfortable for actually sleeping in - two straight-backed chairs more appropriate for a torture chamber, and a slightly smaller bathroom than the previous week's. Oh, and by the way, the bathtub doesn't drain well when you're showering. There is also no refrigerator, which is kind of a problem for me, since I've been bringing my water and storing it in the fridge, which gives me something cold to imbibe at night. I did check with the travel arrangers at our company today, and they've changed my reservations for the remaining time to rooms with refrigerators. Hey - a girl's gotta have some comfort, right? All in all, I'm happy with my traveling and with the hotel - especially since I'm earning triple points for my stays, which should give us some nice free nights for the next vacation we go on. Yay!!

The plus side of traveling is that I get to visit places and people that I've never seen/don't get to see often. For example, last week I discovered a paint-your-own-pottery place and painted a mask for myself, which I picked up today and am very pleased with. Last night I trekked up to Novi and had dinner with Kate and Kevin, got updated on the wedding plans, such as they are, and had a generally great time. We ate at BW3s, then sat around and talked for another two hours. A good time was definitely had by all!