ME, ME, ME...not you, ME

Free to Be...you and ME. Bitches.

Years ago I worked at a fancy hotel in the small ski town of Telluride, Colorado. The guests were very well heeled. The service level at this hotel was correspondingly high, and one of the ways it was kept high was comment cards- taken seriously and acted upon. Occasionally a kook would write in about ridiculous "problems" for which the hotel was "responsible". The 2 that come to mind are: 1) the woman who wanted reimbursement for her lost diamond earring to the tune of $10,000 (she distinctly remembered having on before skiing for the day, and yes she wore $10,000 earrings while skiing...) and 2) the woman who wanted the roads to this mountain town "straightened" because they were too curvy for safe driving, and the hotel seemed the proper venue for this insight.I mention this because here, on the Monterey Peninsula, my wife and I both work for (separate) fancy hotels, and the woman who wanted the roads straightened must live here. You heard about the rain, and while it was danged inconvenient to be without power for 3 solid days, we suffered thru and made coffee with a campstove and put blocks of ice into the fridge so's not to lose hundreds of dollars in groceries, and heated the house as well as could be with the fireplace and wore sweaters, and used candles, and did what you do. And knew we were efffing lucky to have hundreds of dollars of groceries to save (not making this up, children gotta eat), and to have a fireplace to heat the house. And so Boba Fet goes to work, and the comments are that they should be closed- not open for guests and members to shower (no power in their homes, generator power at the hotel) and eat, or relax at the spa- because this woman got lost and scared on the way to the hotel. There were power lines down and trees across the routes she was familiar with, so she got lost and scared, and broke into tears while relating this to the front desk...or that it was unacceptable that the steam room was not running (it takes a lot of power to run it, and the one floor elevator) which wouldn't happen in a real 5 star hotel...or that the fancier of the 2 fitness centers on site(which has a generator) was not totally opened to the members of the less fancy fitness center(which doesn't have a generator and so was closed)- this woman ( different one) was bitter that she could only shower and get coffee- what did she care that there was no power in people's homes and they weren't able to get clean (she was one of the few who retained power) she wanted her workout, not a shower (she actually said these things out loud, was mean about this to the staff, and wrote a letter to the GM about how unacceptable this all is).And so, in light of all this, and having ridden thru the rain yesterday, and seen the 4+ foot diameter redwoods down across roads, and the dark, cold houses...I think these women are not ladies, they are bitches. I think they must think (if they think) Barbara Bush was correct and right in her remarks about Katrina victims' comfort levels. WTF? How can these people have come to be full grown, and have these attitudes? Have their lives been so padded, the wheels so greased for them that they cannot see other people as people? Can they not be glad it wasn't worse? Holy crap. These are the people who'd run me down and be upset that I'd left a bloody smear on their grille.


Not long ago, as we were riding bikes, Old T___ said my kids were gonna be tough as shoe leather due to all the kidbiking and camping and such. I hope so. We're teaching them some manners, too. Well heeled does not equal well mannered.