Three months. Thirteen weeks.
Ninety-two days. That’s how long this adventure has lasted. On May ninth I left
San Antonio for what I knew would be the longest time away from it so far in my
life. It was a day of mixed emotions. I was excited to begin this crazy journey
in Grand Teton National Park that has turned into an absolutely unforgettable
summer. I guess it didn’t really hit me until we crossed out of Texas the next
day. The day before felt more like a normal drive to Lubbock to visit Sam,
which we’d done multiple times before. But as I got farther away from home, it
became more real that we were going much farther than Lubbock, and I’d be gone
for much more than a few days. I honestly don’t remember feeling scared or
nervous at all; those that know me know that the times I get really nervous are
few and far between. I did, however, feel a little sad to be leaving the city
that I love so much and has been my lifelong home. I kept reminding myself that
it’s temporary and I’d be back to see everyone again in a few months. My last
day at the zoo, May seventh, I went in the morning telling myself I wasn’t
going to cry, and I was successful at that. I remember before I left though,
hugging all of the Wednesday docents and the education staff. Normally, if I knew
I wouldn’t see one of them for a while, it was because they were leaving, for
whatever reason. This time, for the first time, I was the one that would be
gone.
Now, three fifths of the way through
this adventure, I’ve had even more crazy, fun times than I thought I would.
From kayaking on Jackson Lake to grilling outside and celebrating Cristina’s
birthday to cliff jumping into the Gros Ventre River to hiking up to
Inspiration Point to camping up on a beautiful hill with some great friends the
night before the fourth of July, this summer has been absolutely insane. I also
really love the great friends I’ve made here in this park. One thing I love the
most is the fact that we’re all so diverse, especially in terms of where we
come from. Cristina’s from Florida, Nate’s from Arizona, Tanner’s from
Virginia, Jesse’s from Michigan, Brian’s from Pennsylvania, and so on. The two
new desk agents added even more places to that list: Sofi’s from California and
Felix, amazingly enough, is from Australia. It’s really awesome to think about
how I now know people from all of these different places.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post,
it kind of already feels like the season is coming to a close, even though we
still have almost two months left. I’m hearing more conversations among staff
about what they think they’re doing for the winter season. Some people have
plans to go work in Colorado or Lake Tahoe or one of the other properties that
this company runs. I’ve heard that there’s a job fair near the end of the season
to show us all the opportunities we have for the winter. I’m sure that I’ll go
to that, if I’m not working, even though I’m pretty much positive that I’m just
going to go home after this. Anyway, time to move on to recent news.
Yesterday I went in at three to work
the desk with Nate, Sofi, Felix, and Jen. We were already at full capacity when
we got there, as I know we are again tonight. We had a lot of stayovers,
though, so when we got there at three there were almost exactly one hundred
check-ins expected, which is much less than usual. There is also a wedding
going on today that a lot of people were checking in for yesterday afternoon,
as well as a couple of conferences. One issue that Jen let us know about when
we all arrived was that, although we weren’t oversold on rooms overall, we were
oversold on rooms inside the lodge building itself. All of the wedding party
wanted to be inside the lodge, so we were oversold by one of those rooms.
Thankfully we did have a mountain view cottage still available to move a guest
into. The one guest that wasn’t with the wedding that wanted to be in the lodge
was a woman with a young child. Jen called her ahead of time to offer the
upgrade to her, but she said, since she had the young child, it’d be easier to
be inside the lodge. We didn’t tell her on the phone that she really didn’t
have a choice. I was surprised that she didn’t immediately accept the upgrade;
after all, the mountain view cottage had (obviously) a view of the mountains,
while the room she originally booked didn’t.
At about nine o’clock we were down to
fifteen check-ins. Jen asked Nate first if he wanted to go home, since he was
scheduled to come back and work the morning shift today. He said he’d actually
prefer to stay though. Since the last time we were in this situation, Nate was
the one that ended up leaving early, I told Jen that I’d leave this time, which
she said she was fine with. At the time I left the woman who’d been switched to
the cottage still hadn’t arrived, so I don’t know how that turned out.
I just got back from having lunch in
the EDR. I go in at three again today, working with Rebecca, Maggie and Jen.
Like I said earlier, we’re already at full capacity tonight, but when I checked
yesterday, we only have 125 check-ins expected. That’s more than yesterday, but
still not hard. I think we have a lot of stayovers again due to the wedding and
conferences. As long as housekeeping gets the rooms ready on time, we should be
fine. I work the later shift again tomorrow, and then have Monday off. I think
that’ll be the first day of the entire season that Cristina and I have the same
day off. Maybe we’ll do something together. And, by the way, yes, the title of
this post is a song lyric.
No comments:
Post a Comment