We Didn't Start The Fire

Elevator of the week. Thanks to my boss, Rob, for giving me this. And for misspelling my name :)

            So yesterday was a rather interesting day at work. Nate and I started walking over to work at about 2:45. As we were walking over we saw someone we know that works in the Pioneer Grill walking back towards the dorms. After saying hi, she said, “Oh, by the way, the fire alarm’s going off in the lodge again.” Nate and I looked at each other with a look that said, well this should be a fun day.

            When we got closer to the lodge we saw all of front desk staff, activities desk staff, reservations department, and bellmen sitting under some trees near the flagpoles, where we’re supposed to go during a fire alarm. We went over and sat with them, wondering if this was just a drill or if there was actually a fire. While waiting we saw two fire trucks drive up to the lodge with their sirens on, followed by several NPS cars, so apparently there really was something going on inside the lodge. Soon after we arrived, Emily and Jen said that the agents who’d worked the earlier shift could go home. They also said that, since Nate, Haley and I couldn’t go clock in, they’d adjust our times so we’d still be getting paid starting at three. Not long after they said that, Alex Klein came over to us and said that it’d probably be at least an hour before we could go into the lodge. In a way it was nice to just sit outside under the trees and talk with everybody, especially since we were getting paid for it. On the other hand, though, it meant we’d be really busy with check-ins when we were allowed back in.

            It turned out to be close to five o’clock before we were finally allowed back into the lodge. There had been some electrical issue upstairs, and it had taken so long because they’d had a lot of trouble finding the direct source of it. Just like we’d all predicted, once we got back, there was about an hour of craziness with guest trying to check in. There were five of us at the desk checking people in, and all five of us constantly had guests in front of us for about an hour. Finally it died down a bit and, one by one, we went to dinner. I wasn’t sure if we’d get to go to dinner at all because of how busy we were, but we got a lot of check-ins taken care of pretty quickly after the lodge opened up.

            When we arrived, there were still about eight rooms available, but by the time our shift ended we’d taken in enough walk-ins that we were at one hundred percent capacity yet again. We’d really wanted to sell all the rooms- being at full capacity looks good for the lodge overall (and maximizes profit, of course). Thankfully, we were also able to avoid becoming oversold. So, after the mad rush before dinner, it was a pretty stress-free night.

            I just got back from having lunch at the EDR with Nate, Maggie, and a few other people we know. I go into work at three again, working with Nate, David, and Jen. I’m pretty sure we’re at full capacity again tonight. Maggie told Nate and me at lunch, though, that we have seven groups coming in today, five of which are batch check-ins. So with all of those groups, all we have to do is check our computer system to make sure the rooms are clean, then hand the key packets over to the tour leaders. It’s a really easy way to take care of a lot of check-ins really fast. Considering that, there’s a pretty good chance that one of us will be allowed to go home early. We’ll see.

            Every week Rob picks one of the desk agents as the “elevator of the week” and puts their name on the board in the small office beside the front desk (which we call the fishbowl). I noticed a couple of days ago that my name is up there this week. I think it’s probably mostly because I loaned that couple my camera charger.