hotel manners, naps are golden, & a rare-treat

When I woke Mini to get showered and ready for Curly's big day, she told me that there was lots and lots of loud nonsense out in the hall that disrupted her sleep.  Curly and I had the noise maker in our room.  Poor Mini.  She was exhausted.  She said that a mom in the next room was talking on her cell on speaker phone after 11 pm.  She said she was essentially shouting.  On the other side of us, men were having crazy loud conversations well past midnight, and kids were running up and down the hallway.

This is the hotel hallway - this
 room had two dancers
 and our room across the hall
 and down had Curly's
 sign on it.  I am guessing the hotel
management loves us. 

At Irish dancing competitions, the girls get signs from their friends (typically older dancers from their dancing school) cheering them on and wishing them luck.  They hang the signs on their hotel doors.  As we left our hotel room, I made a note of who was sleeping in the rooms on either side of us.  Hey, Reese from Louisville - we will hunt you down where you sleep at the next competition.  We will knock on your door at all hours.  You've been warned.  (I kid, of course.  Kind of.  Only because last names were not on the little signs, not because I would not retaliate.  In my world sleep is a coveted commodity and people who are stupid enough to be careless in hotels should sleep with one eye open).

Between my middle of the night starvation issue and Mini's misbehaved hotel neighbor issue, we were TIRED!  Since Curly had a hard time falling asleep, I let her sleep an extra 15 minutes from the original plan.  I had some extra time worked into our schedule.

When we saw a small window between Curly's 2nd and 3rd dance rounds, we bolted back to the hotel to rest.  It was like a 10 minute walk.  We had to be back for Curly to hear which dancers were recalled (Are you catching this lingo?  Starting to feel like you could hang at a competition and know what was about to happen next?  You're welcome, cause I am confident that is a life skill you always dreamed of having).  

This was our meal the night before Curly danced -
see her hair in the little poof ball pony tails.  She is
sitting weird because her leg tanner
 is not dry yet.  Are we still friends after
I tell you all the nutty crap we do for
 this 'authentic' past time.  We were
watching The Wedding Singer. 
Living large here.

I whipped up lunch for the girls, who sat there and willingly allowed me to hobble around getting them things.  

Me:  Who said crackers?  Yogurt?

Curly:  Oh, I wanted the crackers.

Me:  Do you want Gatorade or vitamin water?  Mini can have one piece of leftover pizza - Curly wait till you are done dancing and then you can have the rest.

Mini:  OK, can you get me a spoon for my fruit cup?  

Me:  Oh, I found another cheese stick.

You get the idea, right?  My brain hurt from sheer exhaustion.  I was dying to lie down.  By the time lunch was consumed, we had 16 minutes before we had to be back at the venue.  Curly parked herself in front of the TV in the living room and woke Mini and I up 16 minutes later.  I think I slept about 9 minutes.  It felt wonderful, but that rested feeling wore off faster than you can say "I need a REAL nap!"

I fluffed my suffering hair and limped back to the venue.  I did not ride a bike that morning, because hello - 5 am wake up call.  So the knee was about as big as I had seen it.  Mini stayed back to finish her nap, because Curly was going to dance at the end of the next round anyway.  I burned with jealousy as I watcher her roll over and get cozy.  Cozy!

After Curly's set round, we saved seats at the awards area and made our way back to the hotel.  Our room keys (plural) would not work, and I got housekeeping to let us in.  People!  I called the front desk.  They apologized.  I asked them about whether or not they were going to give me a night free for the smoking issue, and they said they were.  It had already been removed from my bill.  

Room service - practically unheard of for a
Shenanigan.  Please note - I did make the girls
 clean up after that meal.  Easy - because everything
 was disposable.  I could not handle being
awake for another minute.

The girls and I had chili packed in the fridge for dinner.  I called room service and told them I had two fee meal tickets.  How long would it take to get room service?  30 minutes or less.  I was all 'Let's do this,' and my traveling buddies were fully on board.  Shock.  We ordered and I removed my sweater so it would not get wrinkled this time.  I thought the food would take 30 minutes and I NEEDED to sleep.  

The instant I fell asleep - like less than 10 minutes later, Curly burst into the bedroom to tell me the food had arrived.  I fumbled in the dark and ended up putting on a dark brown sweater inside out.  The girls just about died laughing as I settled up with room service dressed like a bum.  I ate my salad and ONCE AGAIN laid down.

This time I think I slept about 30 minutes before the girls woke me up so we could go back to the venue and prepare for awards.  That 30 minutes was glorious, people - GLORIOUS!  

Guess what is NOT good for a hair day that started out on the good side?  Multiple wink-and-a-half naps followed by a decent nap.  I looked like I needed to borrow an Irish dancing wig, but hey -at awards no one fought with us for our seats.  So, there's that.  

What is your worst hotel experience?