“It's 6 – time for up.”
My clock says 5. My cellphone says 5. “Stop messing with me. It's five.”
“Time change Kricka. No more daylight saving now.” Great. Since the US changed up a couple of years back, we aren't entirely in sync all year long with daylight savings around the globe. The US starts a week earlier and ends a week later now than Europe.
“Thank you. Thank you.”
“I call back in fifteen.” Do whatever you want, pal. Oy.
I got into the shower. If I didn't I wouldn't get out of bed at all, most likely. I rationalized that if I didn't know about the time change, and I hadn't warned my peeps, then they weren't going to know either. We'll just have to wait an hour later for everyone to come down. Then I could tell them to re-set everything related to clocks. At least they weren't leaving today. That would really mess everything up. I had spent most of yesterday morning believing it was their last day. Then it dawned on me. Durrr. Where is my head? I'm so ready to be done with this tour that I am omitting days, I guess.
Got out of the shower to the phone ringing. I grabbed it with “Yes Mother. I'm awake.” He laughed and hung up on me.
I saw Ms London at breakfast. She didn't want to talk to me. Imagine that. A little later as we were leaving out the front door on our walk I saw Ms London at the concierge desk talking with Marco, his manager and the hotel manager. What now, lady? Never have I wanted to eavesdrop so much. Or drop someone from the eaves. I'm sure I'll hear about it later.
Most everyone in the group had shown up an hour later as I expected. It didn't really weigh on our walking tour though. No problem. I reminded them repeatedly to change their clocks when we got back to the hotel. (A) we needed to meet up at 6:30PM in the back corridor by the hotel bar so we could get to our farewell dinner and (B) they need to go home tomorrow morning early. Pack your bags before breakfast tomorrow. I will continue to warn you all!
I was exhausted already but since it was my own fault for staying out late, I was bound and determined to get through the day without taking a nap. This is my penance. I readied myself for going to the hospital. As I was crossing the lobby, Andreas the manager called me over.
“How are you Kristina?” Great. How can I help you?
“You already have, I think.” Oh really? “I think you had a conversation with a guest who was not happy with us.”
Oh crap. Am I going to get in trouble with the managers here for speaking my mind to that horrible woman? Are they going to yank my groovy privileges? Crap on a cracker. I screwed up.
“Yes Andreas. I apologize if it caused you any problems. She asked my opinion of the situation and I gave it to her.” Please oh please oh please don't let there be more problems.
“I want to thank you for speaking your mind. She has returned the recompense to us and apologized for the... disturbance she caused in the lobby yesterday. The scene. She had had time to think and see the error of her thinking at that moment when she was upset by the situation.” Oh realllllllllllly...
“Andreas, I didn't give her my name. How did you...?”
“She came to us this morning and described the woman she spoke with. She said she was with the large group in the breakfast room. Tall American woman. Red hair in black. I knew. Thank you for being a good friend of the hotel. I will see you later – let us have a glass of prosecco together this afternoon before your party.”
Ok then. Yeah. Take that, lady. Verbal smackdown. I win.
I got over to the hospital floating on a cloud. Mister Man was there. I stayed for about an hour, until the priest came to give her Mass. If Mamma don't come to Church, the Church comes to Mamma. Marco and I took that opportunity to skedaddle. He needed to get to sleep and I needed to get out in the air to keep from going to sleep. More coffee please.
On the vaporetto he punched me in the shoulder. What?
“You. You did not say anything to me. Why you didn't say what you told that woman?” Um, yeah. I told him I hadn't had the chance.
“No, you saw me last night when you arrived back at the hotel. You said nothing.” I don't have to tell you every conversation I have throughout the day do I?
“When it was a conversation I told you about, you should do that.” Oh, I'm not going to argue this. She was bitching in the bar. Even if I hadn't heard the story from you I would have arrived at the same conclusion. She was terribly rude.
“Thank you Kricka. You are the best friend.” Yep, I'm pretty good at being a friend. Most days.
The farewell dinner was so much fun. We had gone through some stuff together. The Bickersons turned out to be fabulous people, they just needed to be reminded they were in front of non-family folks. We persevered through changes thrown at us. Things were a little crazy and while I'm glad to get some time off, I did enjoy these people. For the most part.
2 comments:
*Standing O* on the vindication. Awesome!!! Proud of you, so few people would have had the guts for that.
So inspiring. I admire your restraint. I would have been happy to tell her my opinion, but I don't think I could have been as cool as you were. Brava!
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