Missyisms

They're Back from NM

My parents had a great time with my cousin and her family and the trip as a whole went well. There were a few glitches...no hot water the first night in the hotel (they were given a discount), some issues with the rental car, and the winds. The wind was the worst they'd ever seen; Mom said they frequently had to hold their glasses to keep them from blowing off their faces! But, overall, nothing major. Then the return day arrived.

My parents called me Friday night from NM on their cell phone, which they had plugged in to charge, so we could discuss meeting at the airport. They called me back Saturday morning to tell me the cell phone was completely dead...the charger had failed. How nice, the day they had to drive through rural and unpopulated portions of NM and TX, travel hundreds of miles via three airports, and meet me at O'Hare...they didn't have a cell phone. Of course, we never used to have cell phones, but this was simply a foreshadowing.

The first part of the day went fine; then they got to Dallas and the storms got to Chicago. So while the storms pounded Chicago, Mom and Dad sat in Dallas. Their flight finally took off two hours later than scheduled and arrived in Chicago 2.5 hours later than scheduled. In the meantime, I discovered I couldn't park on the frontage road in front of the terminals and had to circle through really bad traffic. I finally gave up trying to spot them and went inside to find them. We waited and waited for their luggage. Mother finally went off to find help and was informed that their luggage had arrived several hours earlier on a different flight. Grand. How nice of American Airlines to have told us! Then we got caught in bad traffic with the highway down to one lane for several miles. We got to their home after 11:00 P.M. and I didn't get home till midnight. I guess if they had to had problems, this last flight of the trip was the one to have problems with!

The important thing is that they are home safely and are glad they went to be with my cousin.

Oh, but wait, the day wasn't over. Reggie decided to go out at 3:00 A.M.! Since the rain was coming down in sheets, I delayed trying to figure out if he really needed to go out. He kept asking, so I put on a hat and coat, put a leash on him and out we went. At least this way I could bring him back in instead of risking him deciding to play in the rain! I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear we overslept this morning. 

Little Hotel Soaps

This is one of the funniest things I have ever read. It's supposedly true, but I've never researched it. Whether it's true or not...it is hysterical. (I should put it in the extended entry, but it deserves front-page attention.)

 

Those Little Hotel Soaps

Below is some correspondence which actually occurred between a London hotel's staff and one of its guests. The London hotel involved submitted this to the Sunday Times. No name was mentioned.

 

---

   

Dear Maid,

 

Please do not leave any more of those little bars of soap in my bathroom since I have brought my own bath-sized Dial. Please remove the six unopened little bars from the shelf under the medicine chest and another three in the shower soap dish. They are in my way.

 

Thank you,

S. Berman

 

---

 

Dear Room 635,

 

I am not your regular maid. She will be back tomorrow, Thursday, from her day off. I took the 3 hotel soaps out of the shower soap dish as you requested. The 6 bars on your shelf I took out of your way and put on top of your Kleenex dispenser in case you should change your mind. This leaves only the 3 bars I left today which my instruction from the management is to leave 3 soaps daily.

I hope this is satisfactory.    

 

Kathy, Relief Maid

 

---

Dear Maid,

 

I hope you are my regular maid. Apparently Kathy did not tell you about my note to her concerning the little bars of soap. When I got back to my room this evening I found you had added 3 little Camays to the shelf under my medicine cabinet. I am going to be here in the hotel for two weeks and have brought my own bath-size Dial so I won't need those 6 little Camays which are on the shelf. They are in my way when shaving, brushing teeth, etc.

Please remove them.

 

S. Berman    

 

---

Dear Mr. Berman,

 

My day off was last Wednesday so the relief maid left 3 hotel soaps which we are instructed to do by the management. I took the 6 soaps which were in your way on the shelf and put them in the soap dish where your Dial was. I put the Dial in the medicine cabinet for your convenience. I didn't remove the 3 complimentary soaps which are always placed inside the medicine cabinet; for all new check-ins and which you did not object to when you checked in last Monday.

 

Please let me know if I can of further assistance.

 

Your regular maid,    

Dotty

 

---

Dear Mr. Berman, 

 

The assistant manager, Mr. Kensedder, informed me this A.M. that you called him last evening and said you were unhappy with your maid service. I have assigned a new girl to your room. I hope you will accept my apologies for any past inconvenience. If you have any future complaints, please contact  me so I can give it my personal attention. Call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM.   

 

Thank you,

Elaine Carmen, Housekeeper    

 

---

Dear Miss Carmen,

 

It is impossible to contact you by phone since I leave the hotel for business at 7:45 AM and don't get back before 5:30 or 6PM. That's the reason I called Mr. Kensedder last night. You were already off duty. I only asked Mr. Kensedder if he could do anything about those little bars of soap. The new maid you assigned me must have thought I was a new check-in today, since she left another 3 bars of hotel soap in my medicine cabinet along with her regular delivery of 3 bars on the bathroom shelf. In just 5 days here I have accumulated 24 little bars of soap. Why are you doing this to me?  

 

S. Berman    

 

---

Dear Mr. Berman,

 

Your maid, Kathy, has been instructed to stop delivering soap to your room and remove the extra soaps. If I can be of further assistance, please call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM.

 

Thank you,    

Elaine, Carmen, Housekeeper

 

---

Dear Mr. Kensedder,

 

My bath-size Dial is missing. Every bar of soap was taken from my room including my own bath-size Dial. I came in late last night and had to call the bellhop to bring me 4 little Cashmere Bouquets.    

 

S. Berman

 

---

Dear Mr. Berman,

 

I have informed our housekeeper, Elaine Carmen, of your soap problem. I cannot understand why there was no soap in your room since our maids are instructed to leave 3 bars of soap each time they service a room. The situation will be rectified immediately. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.

 

Martin L. Kenseder, Assistant Manager   

 

---

Dear Mrs. Carmen,   

 

Who the hell left 54 little bars of Camay in my room? I came in last night and found 54 little bars of soap. I don't want 54 little bars of Camay. I want my one damn bar of bath-size Dial. Do you realize I have 54 bars of soap in here? All I want is my bath-size Dial. Please give me back my bath-size Dial.

 

S. Berman    

 

---

Dear Mr. Berman,

 

You complained of too much soap in your room so I had them removed. Then you complained to Mr. Kensedder that all your soap was missing so I personally returned them. The 24 Camays which had been taken and the 3 Camays you are supposed to receive daily (sic). I don't know anything about the 4 Cashmere Bouquets. Obviously your maid, Kathy, did not know I had returned your soaps so she also brought 24 Camays plus the 3 daily Camays. I don't know where you got the idea this hotel issues bath-size Dial. I was able to locate some bath-size Ivory which I left in your room.

 

Elaine Carmen, Housekeeper   

 

---

Dear Mrs. Camen,

 

Just a short note to bring you up-to-date on my latest soap inventory. As of today I possess:

• on shelf under medicine cabinet, 18 Camay in 4 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
• on Kleenex dispenser, 11 Camay in 2 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 3.
• on bedroom dresser, 1 stack of 3 Cashmere bouquet, 1 stack of 4 hotel-size ivory, and 8 Camay in 2 stacks of 4.
• inside medicine cabinet, 14 Camay in 3 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
• in shower soap dish, 6 Camay, very moist.
• on northeast corner of tub, 1 Cashmere Bouquet, slightly used.
• on northwest corner of tub, 6 Camays in 2 stacks of 3.

Please ask Kathy when she services my room to make sure the stacks are neatly piled and dusted. Also, please advise her that stacks of more than 4 have a tendency to tip. May I suggest that my bedroom window sill is not in use and will make an excellent spot for future soap deliveries. One more item, I have purchased another bar of bath-sized Dial which I am keeping in the hotel vault in order to avoid further misunderstandings.

 

S. Berman

Did You Know? (I Didn't!)

I had no idea that today in 1930 Laura Ingalls Wilder became the first woman to fly across the United States! How wild is that? It was a nine-stop journey from Roosevelt Field in New York to Glendale, CA.*

From Little House on the Prairie to Big Scribe in the Sky! That's just too cool!

*According to a blurb in the Chicago Tribune.

Chicago Bean Dip

I started this post the other day and was going to accent it with pictures posted on Flickr, but got foiled in the process. Flickr is now owned by Yahoo!. So to get a Flickr account, you have to sign up for Yahoo!. I have a Yahoo! account, but never use it and it isn't in the name Missyisms. When I tried to sign up for Yahoo! with Missyisms as the ID, I was told some yahoo had taken that ID.

How rude is that! I don't want to have a blog with one name and a Flickr account with another. Ugh. So, I'm thinking about ways to get around this. In the meantime, this post was originally about my trip to Chicago on Saturday. It went as follows:

Today I had a flying visit past Chicago's newest public art. You might have heard of it? The Bean. a.k.a., The Cloud Gate. I've posted about it before here, but this was the first time I've see the Bean up close and uncovered.

I only had a few minutes, but as it was a beautiful day here in Chicagoland, I managed to get a few pictures I like. It really is amazing just how perfectly reflective it is (see the 2nd image below, the Bean is on the right). Here are a few images, from different angles, "de"optimized for web viewing. (Click for bigger versions.)

 

Is it just me or isn't it really, really strange...(continued in the extended post)

Apollo 13

The movie Apollo 13 is on cable TV right now. Is it just me or is this movie much more difficult to watch since the space shuttle Columbia disaster? Especially near the end of the movie where they are explaining the heat shields and re-entry. I don't think many of us need that explanation any more. That part of the movie is still almost two hours away, so I don't think I'll stay up to watch. We all know the endings.

Traveling These United States

Bleh. Spent much of last night in the bathroom. Most of this morning and afternoon in bed. Plus lots of this evening curled under a blanket watching TV. Bleh. But I did manage to play with this map some. I've seen it or similar maps on other blogs and decided to give it a try. The red states are the ones I've visited or been to at least once.

Create your own personalized map of the USA (NOTE: To make this fit, I had to crop the source map. Hawaii and Alaska are not shown; I have not been to either state.)

I'm not sure if this is completely accurate or fair. I'm not sure if it's accurate because I can't remember if I ever went to Mississippi or the Carolinas during my childhood. I'm certain the rest is accurate. I'm not sure if it's fair, because some of these states I've only been to because I had to drive through them to get where I was going. But driving through a state can take a lot of time, think of the east or west drive through Nebraska, and as long as you're paying attention, you do see a lot.

I'm actually surprised by how much red there is on this map! If I'd had to mark where I'd been in each state, there would be a lot less red! Someday I want to travel more and see more of these United States (and other parts of the world)!

 

 

Pride and Prejudice Links

Yes, yes, more about Pride and Prejudice, but not the same old stuff. 

First, if you want to visit the locations from the recent movie, which was shot entirely on location, check out this article from the Chicago Sun-Times. (No online subscription needed, but I don't know how long they'll leave it up.)

Second, if you like to read movie scripts, Mags at AustenBlog told me that two websites are selling a script for Pride and Prejudice. What makes this script interesting is that it isn't the shooting script, but must be one of the late drafts because it is very similar. I haven't read the whole script, but so far it uses more of Austen's dialog. Using more of Austen's dialog would have improved one of the weakest issues in the film. The script is available here or here. The second location will ship or send a .pdf file, which eliminates the shipping and handling costs and is faster.