The day began with a plumbing malfunction in our hotel room: clogged toilet - we're not pointing any fingers here. I spent about 30 minutes of my day dealing with that. No school, just exploring new books found at 1/2 Price Books, yesterday. Fairly uneventful. Then I almost burned the hotel down.....
We started to get things together to head for the park = 70 degrees today, thank you very much. I called Sweet Man to get his lunch order and settle on a time to meet. All good. Then I made 2 fatal mistakes. I put something in the microwave to cook and I left the room. The kids were safe in the car when I walked up to our 2nd floor room and heard a beeping. I got closer to the room and realized the beeping was inside. Aaaack - smoke, not so thick I couldn't see, but smoke had set off the smoke alarm. I went to the microwave - sure enough I had scorched 3 potatoes - I saw embers. The display didn't work, so I think I ruined the microwave. I threw the dish in the sink and doused it, then tried to wave a blanket to get the alarm to stop wailing. Bathroom fan on...crazy hotel windows propped open with Matchbox tracks. Still wailing...good alarm. Satisfied that the potatoes would not combust again, I threw them into a trash bag and tied it up to throw in the dumpster. Got kids out of the car and went to the front desk in tears. Very gracious people here in Houston. The manager met us back at the room and they got some big honkin' blowers a'blowin. They wanted to make sure the kids were safe so they let us sit in a bigger room (yeah, 2 separate bedrooms - the point was not lost on me even in my crisis, but I digress) down the hall but lunch was in the car. So we shuffled back to the car and I called Kevin to cry some more and explain that we would be late. I was so upset and embarrassed that I had caused all this trouble. I worried that other guests would be bothered by the smell. And the other guests are all State Farm employees - Sweet Man's co-workers. The manager has already been to our room 3 other times to look at our faulty fridge gasket and to fix a cupboard door. We have become "those people in Room #210." Anyway, the assistant manager encouraged me to keep my lunch plans - they would take care of the smoke - just check back with the desk before we head to the room.
So we went to the park; a lovely one we discovered yesterday. Sweet Man came and talked me off the "proverbial ledge" of "I don't want to go back there. I'm so embarrassed. It's one thing to burn something in my own house (not going to pretend it hasn't happened,) but here all these others are affected." He was perfect, of course. Hugging me and softly chuckling. There was a moment that it occurred to us that we might be moved to a bigger room - yes, please - that's worth the cost of a microwave, right?
Oh well, we're back and the smoke has cleared and they even sprayed some lovely smelling scent in here. My senses may be acclimated, but I can't really even smell it now. When I checked in at the desk, the night clerk mentioned, "Oh, yea, it usually only takes an hour to clear the room out." "So, it's happened before?" I said. Good. Someone explain to me why that makes it better....
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