Thursday, October 02, 2008

The Musings of a Motel Clerk

I have a routine.

1. I take over the day clerk's shift at precisely 9pm.
2. From 9pm to 11pm I try to waste as much time as possible. Most of this time is spent watching television or spending copious amounts of time on facebook. Once the clock hits 11pm, I lock up the motel and make my rounds to make sure no one is trying to burn down the place.
3. From 11pm to 1am I wait on the sofa usually in a partial comatose state and wait to see if there will be any late night rentals.
4. Once the clock hits 1am I head to bed and hopefully get a solid 5 hours of sleep.
5. I emerge from my luxurious slumber at exactly 6am. It is amazing how quickly time passes when you are barely awake. I am convinced it takes me 15-20 minutes to simply brush my teeth and splash water on my face.
6. At 6:20, I head to the cash float and do the previous days accounting, have all the paper work ready for the chambermaids and also the paperwork for all those who are checking out that day.
7. By this time it is somewhere between 7 and 7:15am. At precisely 7:15am I make coffee for the lobby area and sit and waste 15 minutes till I open.
8. 7:30am is the grand opening of our lobby. Usually nothing at all happens. I end up walking back into the suite and sitting on the couch literally doing nothing.
9. I continue to do nothing till 10am. 10am is when the chambermaid comes and I chat with whoever is on shift for about 3 minutes.
10. 10:03am I continue to do nothing. Maybe I'll get a few phone calls, usually by this time I will have checked out 1 or 2 people. If I turn on the television I will usually either watch the business news or reruns of the Cosby show. Has anyone else noticed that the later seasons of the Cosby show are just completely strange? I mean I casually watched an episode where Alvin, Bill and that marine dude where all giving birth!!!
11. 11am hopefully by this time everyone has checked out. 11am is great because Conan O'brien plays on Star TV. The hour between 11am till 12pm go by remarkably fast.
12. 12pm - 2pm is the bane of my existence. This is the longest two hours of any day. I keep telling myself to do something productive like read a book or at least do some push ups and sit ups. I am rarely productive. I spend time playing facebook tetris and watching the worst sitcom ever created. I believe it's called "Still Standing" and I also am starting to think that I have just been watching the same episode every day. Every episode is the same. All the punchlines are the same. It may not be the worst sitcom ever created but it is probably the most mundane mediocre sitcom ever created which in my books make it the WORST. Yet... I watch it religiously...
13. From 2pm - 9pm I have free time which usually involves me driving home, eating, sleeping and showering.
14. 9pm - repeat steps 1 to 14.

I promise I will do something different tomorrow. Maybe I really will read and exercise!

6 more days of this and then it's over.

That's a very happy thought.