I set an alarm on my phone since I had to get up early to pack and see my parents off to the airport. I slept horribly, sure my alarm would malfunction. I had several dreams in which my alarm didn't go off, and I woke up multiple times checking the clock. Finally, I got up about 30 minutes before my alarm was set to go off, sure that I wouldn't sleep any more. The first thing I did was check my phone to turn off the alarm, and guess what? There had been some sort of technological malfunction in the night and my phone had done a hard reset. No alarm. Not sure if it was dumb luck, or if somehow I knew subconsciously, but I guess losing a little sleep was worth it.
Since I was awake, I decided to double check my hotel reservation for tonight. No real reason to do it. I had a specific recollection of making the reservation, but I figured it couldn't hurt to verify, and guess what? No written or electronic confirmation that I had a reservation. Seriously??? No worries, though. We were driving through a small town on January 2. How hard could it be to get a room?
Pretty hard. I checked their website, and every room was booked. I wasn't even supposed to be awake yet and already it was a bad day. I started to work on a plan B and checked the weather on our route. Yikes! The town where we planned to stop was forecast to have an evening ice storm. Good thing I didn't have a reservation after all. After a brief consultation with my patient, long-suffering husband, I made a new reservation at the same hotel we stayed in on Christmas night, a couple of hours closer and not in the storm path. Problem solved.
We got my parents to the airport, packed up the car, and were on our way. My patient, long-suffering husband suggested I call the first hotel to make sure we didn't have a reservation, and it's a good thing I did. Because we did have a reservation. They had just failed to send me a confirmation. While I was glad to know that I hadn't dreamed making the reservation, I was still frustrated. But all was well.
Since we were staying in a different town, we decided to make the most of it and searched for a good restaurant on the World Wide Web. The good news - it just so happened one of the best restaurants in town was two blocks from our hotel, so we made a reservation. The bad news - we did not have appropriate clothing. (Yeah, I know. First world problems.) This was easily resolved with a quick stop at a department store just off the freeway. Which, coincidentally, was having a fantastic sale. Just like every store in the country. We got back in the car, where I discovered I had lost my sunglasses...or so I thought. After I totally retraced my steps through the department store, I returned to the car to find they were in my purse after all, just not where they should have been. One of the dangers of being an obsessively organized person. I'm not accustomed to things going awry, so when they do, I am ill-equipped to deal with it.
Late in the afternoon, about 70 miles from our plan B destination, it started snowing lightly. Then it snowed a little more. Then it snowed like I imagined it snowed in the blizzards when I read "Little House on the Prairie" as a young girl. I started to hope I had enough layers of clothes to sleep in the car comfortably overnight. But, it stayed just warm enough that nothing stuck to the roadway, and we got to our destination with no trouble. Plus, it was beautiful. Much better than driving in the rain.
We got to the hotel to find we had been upgraded to a suite. Score! We cut the tags off our new clothes and dressed for dinner. A short, cold walk, and we had another wonderful meal. Probably the last one before a long and serious diet, so we enjoyed it thoroughly. A short walk through the historic downtown area, and then it was off to bed...or so I thought. During the walk, one of my earrings had caught on my scarf and my patient, long-suffering husband had to untangle me and find the earring. However, when we got back to the room, I discovered it was more complicated. What he had found was actually my pendant, which had also gotten tangled, and the earring was still gone. Ever the dutiful husband, he bundled back up and retraced our steps to try to find it, but with no luck.
If the worst thing that happened to me today was losing an earring, I will feel very fortunate. We just read about hundreds of people stranded on the freeway near our original destination, and local residents are trying to bring them food and blankets. I am sitting in a cozy historic hotel suite with a full stomach from a delicious gourmet meal. As it turns out, I had a very good day. My foot might disagree, but I am not speaking to it right now. I consider it to be a first world problem.
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