It just after 6:00 am on Friday, June 25, 2004. I have been up for more than an hour, havin' awakened early today followin' havin' fallen asleep about 7:00 pm or so last evenin'. I was surprised at my utter weariness, but as I had done quite a bit of walkin' and was still under the influence of those two margaritas* I consumed with yesterday's lunch, I was just layin' there readin' a book I bought at a book signin' by another lawyer at the convention when I felt myself about to fall asleep. As I was already layin' in bed, it seemed to be no problem, so off to dreamland** I went.
Given that early to bed scenario, I found it regrettably followed by an early to rise endin'. I awoke sometime around 4:30 am, but fought the urge to arise as much as possible. I finally did arise and went to the lobby, walked all the way across and into the Rivercenter Mall connected to the hotel so as to go by another Dr. Pepper, as it seems all the soda vendin' machines in the hotel seem to be filled with Pepsi products. Thankfully the hotel concierge pointed me in the right direction night before last when I stopped to ask where the nearest place to buy a Dr. Pepper. Funny thing, however, was that I had to make two trips to get one, and ended up with two bottles of Dr. Pepper and one bottle of Diet Coke.
On my first trip, I was still a bit groggy, walked across the lobby floor barefooted and about halfway across, the bone spur on my right heel started botherin' me really bad, so I was kinda walkin' funny and hurryin' a bit to get the errand done. I watched the machine eat my dollar bill and pushed the button. I heard the bottle drop, took it out of the machine and came back to the room. I then went down to the ice machine to fill the bucket. I came back to fix my cup so as get my much needed mornin' caffeine fix. It was then, and only then, that I discovered the bottle I had carried all the way back was full of Diet Coke. I muttered under my breath about the inequities of the whole scenario as I repeated by trip to the machine, fed it another dollar and punched the other button marked to vend Dr. Pepper. I looked down into vendin' slot just as I pushed the button to see there was already a bottle of Dr. Pepper sittin' there. It was too late to stop the other sale, so I ended up comin' back with two bottles of Dr. Pepper to join that bottle of Diet Coke. I decided, on the way back, that the person who had paid for and not gotten that Diet Coke likely got a worse deal than havin' to make two trips across that large lobby floor. I also did notice that the only other room that seems to be occupied on this floor had a tray sittin' in front of the door with an empty Diet Coke can sittin' on it, so if I see the person stayin' there, I will likely make a gift of that unopened full bottle of Diet Coke to such unknown occupant.
Upon gettin' the cup filled with ice and Dr. Pepper, I took my treasure and went down one floor and climbed into the hot tub whirlpool and let the swirlin' water work all the kinks outta my muscles, then came back to my room and took a nice hot bath to wash off all the crud that might have been in the hot tub water from all the prior people who had been sittin' in that same water. I took extra special attention to make sure my navel was very clean and not filled with any crud of any kind. After all, it is still the star of this show, right? Of course, ya'll can't see it or this report currently, but as soon as I find an good Internet connection, I will do my best to assist you with gettin' your Nightly Navel Gazin' Report fix. End of report.
Posted by Tiger at June 25, 2004 06:02 AM