Have You Ever Seen The Rain

Clouds covering the top of the Grand Teton itself 

Christopher and Jen, my adorable supervisors

Nate and David, men of the front desk

Brian striking a pose. Would you like bell service today? 

            The rain here really isn’t like any rain I’ve seen in San Antonio. Whether it’s coming down really strong like last night or gently like right now, it just seems like a different kind of rain than any I’ve seen before. This place is still absolutely beautiful, but in a slightly different way than it is when it’s sunny out.

Yesterday instead of going to the EDR for dinner, I went to one of the conference rooms, where there was an optional employee career development meeting. This company offers free career development classes for its employees that meet every other Thursday evening, starting yesterday. Cristina, Nate, and some of my other coworkers said that they were going, so I figured I’d join them just to see what it was all about. There were quite a few people attending, and some speakers included Zach Myers, the director of operations in the hotel, and Alex Klein, the vice president of the company. He actually sat at the same table as me and the other front desk agents, and at the end we all just chatted with him about all of our experiences in the park so far. For being the VP of the company, he’s an incredibly approachable and easy to talk to guy.

Yesterday evening after dinner it had stopped raining, so I took my camera out to the back patio of the lodge’s upper lobby and spent some time admiring the mountains and taking pictures. The dark, ominous rainclouds made for some great pictures! Some of the clouds were hanging fairly low, so they totally covered the tops of some of the higher peaks. The light also seemed to make Jackson Lake look even bigger than it is. There were some elk walking the Willow Flats that I also got pictures of. It was a really beautiful evening. On my way back I walked through the lobby and took some pictures in there as well.

            Not long after I got back the rain started up again. Cristina, Jesse and I sat out in the covered area of our back patio and admired it. Tanner came to join us for a while too. One of the most amazing things about it was that the rain had a smell in itself, but it also seemed to enhance the smell of the pine trees around us, and the blend was unlike anything I’d ever smelled before. I couldn’t get over it. It was a really great way to end my weekend.

            I go back into work at three today. It’ll be my first actual shift to work with David. Nate will be working with us too, and Jen will be the supervisor. I just got back from having lunch in the EDR with Cristina. She’s working the morning shift today, and said that we’re expecting about 190 check-ins, which will make for a pretty busy day. Housekeeping has been doing a really good job with getting the rooms ready in time for check-in, though, so it shouldn’t be too bad, and getting to work with Nate always makes for a fun shift. I do have to go back in to work at seven on Saturday morning, though, which is often hard. I may come back here and take a nap when my shift on Saturday ends.