Tucson Part 2: All's Well That Ends with Friends and Dry Heat

I opened the door of my hotel room and knew I had to get myself under control if I was going to get anything to eat. To my dismay, the wet towels from the earlier flood were piled up in the same place on the bathroom floor (where they had been since I first called the front desk at 12:30!). Already at the end of my rope with hotel, I called the front desk and politely said that the wet towels from earlier repairs were still on my bathroom floor and could they please come take care of it? Absolutely, they replied. Right away.

Mmmhmm.

Well, my dinner choices were limited at this point. It was 7:30 and I had no debit card to get cash because the bank had put a stop on our card due to travel (no complaints with the bank—they watch our account for us very well). Which is generally no problem; we just use our credit card for things until we call in to take off the stop. But I was tired and hungry and cashless. I considered ordering room service, but had no faith in the hotel to actually deliver said room service. I considered pizza, but had no patience to wait another hour for food. So, after a panicked phone call to Nate (poor Nate!) I grabbed the credit card and went down the gift shop.

Gift Shop Dinner
2 plastic individual bowls Frosted Shredded Wheat
1 small package beef jerky
1 ripe banana
1 apple
1 orange
1 frappacino-sized cup 2% milk
Spoon

The gift shop lady was SO nice. I was obviously distressed, and I told her I was buying dinner when she suggested I go next door and order something from the restaurant for dinner instead. She kept apologizing for what had happened to me, and ended up giving me the milk for free.

(Second Note: I’m sitting by the pool and Steve just came out and asked if I could be interested in a decaf double latte. Bliss. He makes really good lattes.)

I decided it was highly unlikely there were towels in my room at this point, so I stopped at the front desk on my way back up to my room to request a towel. There was a whole stack of towels on the desk, but the young man behind the desk had to go downstairs to get some more. (All day long, every individual I spoke with was extremely considerate and very friendly—almost sickeningly sweet—but none of them ever actually did anything. It was a very odd experience.)

Interestingly enough, once I got back up to my room I had 7 towels within 10 minutes. It was as if they don’t do housekeeping between noon and 7:30 p.m. I did a bad thing and left the wet towels in the hallway. When one of the two towel-deliverers brought me some towels I said, “You might want to take these wet ones, too. They’ve been in my room all day, ever since they fixed my broken toilet.”

She said, “I can’t pick them up without gloves.”

I said, “Yes, it was gross for me, too.”

“You should have called housekeeping.”

ARRRGGGGHHHHHH!! Okay, regain composure…

“I did call housekeeping: three times since 12:30.” (Or, at least, that’s what I assumed I was doing when I called the front desk and asked them to clean my room. Perhaps the front desk doesn’t have the number for housekeeping.)

Well, she did take care of them. I think all the people I was short with figured I was just a crazy lady with red-rimmed eyes and, hopefully, they noticed my baby belly and have known or been a pregnant lady at some point in time.

I ate my dinner (quite filling, actually) and tried to work on the Pulse. It was hard, though—I had been so upset and now I was really tired. More than anything I was frustrated because I knew that now I would have to spend time working on it while I was at Steve and Gayle’s house, which is NOT my idea of a good vacation.

But when Nate rounded the door into my conference room to pick me up the next day, and we walked out the door and I saw Steve and Gayle there by their car, arms wide open, I knew I was in the right place and all was okay. I must be like Pavlov’s dog, conditioned to associate relaxation and contemplation with this amazing locale and these wonderful people.

The warm, dry air is soft on my skin as I sit in the shade by the pool. The desert is beautiful, and full of wildlife. From their back porch I look out into a wash, full of Sonoran desert beauty: ocotillo, saguaro cactus, pallo verde. Rabbits, quail, and birds are most common. There are a million birds singing and hopping around, finding snacks in trees, cacti and holes in the ground. We also saw a hawk, and some turkey vultures. And, near dusk on our last day, I see a coyote strolling up the wash. The nearby rusty-brown mountains rise up to meet a brilliant blue sky, and it is beautiful beyond compare. And quiet.

Very quiet.

And all is well.