Bloggin' the Swing Shift

WARNING: This is actual live blogging of my Sunday Night shift. It is boring and rambling. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Hola, dear readers.

I am working at the hotel again tonight, covering for Wendy whose husband only comes home once in a while from working in the middle east and is home this weekend. Or something like that.

Last night by the time I went home at 11pm, my back was killing me and it only got worse when I got in bed. So I got up and found an ice pack for my obviously-swollen sacro-iiliac area and lay down on the floor with my legs at a 45-degree andle on the couch, trying to think my way into feeling better, trying to relax each muscle in my back and stop the pinch, ache , and tingles. The ibuprofen finally kicked in around 1:00am, but I still didn't sleep well.

This morning mid-way through dressing the munchkins, I realized that going to church wasn't the best idea. I found a substitute for Primary music and stayed home with James. I did a little Denise Austin yoga and took some more meds and felt a little better but SO TIRED. James didn't want me to nap, though, so I am still draggin' bootay. To do my penance I have read the Ensign and Friend almost cover-to-cover and got all the April music stuff ready, incuding visual aids. Luckily it's slower than heck here and there is very little laundry to break my back.

I am watching the sun go down as the mountains get covered in some serious snow. It looks like January out there with the wind and the strung out, frothy clouds hanging over Livingston Peak.

I just had a couple of trippy time warps listening to our local AM Radio station. Whoa--I went to the Stake Dance for a few minutes there! First there was "She's Always A Woman to Me" by Billy Joel, which provided another memory besides a quad-stake dance in Tucson. I just now remembered (probably for the first time) this one night when I was dating a once-and-future boyfriend's little brother, lounging on a loveseat in his parents' living room while he serenaded me at the baby grand. He eventually broke out in this song, throwing my name into the lyrics and being pathetically, irresistibly (and eventually, annoyingly) charming (he also did a mean "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" which made me swoon, although I hated Poison with a passion). He fed me ice cream after that. What a weird memory of a weird time.

THEN..."When I'm With You" by Sherriff came on! Holy Cow! I'd forgotten all about that song, but it was a classic slow dance at the stake dance (just like Scorpions' "Still Loving You" and The Cars' "Who's Gonna Drive You Home", which still tend to give me the adolescent butterflies). I'm not a hairband fan, but that is a GREAT power ballad. It made for some dangerously romantic moments, if I recall correctly, and not just for me and whomever I was with, but for lots of folks. Frankly, I think this song was way more provocative than, say, "Devil Inside" or "Let's Go All the Way," which were, of course, banned from church dances.

8:11 pm-I just made a new key for a guy who also locked himself out last night. He kind of reminds me of Dennis Quaid and he's kinda flirty, but he's here on railroad business and squawking on the cell phone a lot. [9:53pm: he just walked thru the lobby in a hoody and gave me The Dude wink & nod]

Oh, dude! Hello, eighth grade! It's "Straight From the Heart" by Bryan Adams. Get out your lighters! Everybody sing along! "...tell me we can make another start/ you know I'll never go/ as long as I know/ it's comin' straight from the heart..." you go with your synthesizer! "...I'll see you on the street some other time/ and all our words would just fall out of line/ while we're dreamin'..." Now it's "Carribean Queen." I love being old enough to have my own oldies station. I used to think it was so lame when my mom would go off about certain songs on the 60's & 70's station ("Oh my gosh!...'Jeremiah was a bullfrog/ was a good friend of mine!' This totally reminds me of driving around with my seminary friends and blasting this song! It's so great to sing along to...!") I totally get it now. It's like you're still "wet cement" during adolescence and music, especially, makes deep impressions that are still very tangible decades later--part of who you are, interwoven with all your formative experiences.

9:32pm-can you say CRAZY!? The OWNER of this property (Larry, whom I have never met) just came in with his family to swim around 8:20, then I went and changed loads in the wash, and as I began to fold towels a NUTTY-as-a-fruitcake lady came in whining about the roads in Yellowstone being closed and needing a family discount without a discount card. She had such a fit that Larry made arrangements for her to stay and have her discount card faxed over and now she is gettin on my last nerve! She begged for a suite and now she wants me to go get her some milk! WTF? No good deed goes unpunished!

10:01pm: "Girl, I want to be with you all of the time/ All day and all of the night"...this makes me happy after the past stressful 90 minutes. That snow in the mountains came down to town and made lots of people pull off I-90 and check in here for the night. I've got 13 rooms filled tonight--that's a lot for the winter (usually 4-8 rooms). [10:41pm--three more families coming out of the snow--that's 16 rooms!]

I am brainstorming another treasure hunt based on President Monson's Ensign message for April. I'll post what I come up with. I am so excited for conference--new prophet and new apostle and lots of guidance and edification--yum, yum!

10:14pm: Just checked in a weary traveler from Renton, Washington. She's nice. Stevie Wonder "Superstitious" makes me want to boogie. My throat hurts, but my back seems better. Of course I took more ibuprofen at 7:30. I'll have to get adjusted tomorrow! Drinking Montana Treasure Peach flavored water. It's pretty good. Crazy Lady just asked for directions to Utah--she's taking an elderly care job in Centerville. I told her I was headed down to Utah on Thursday to visit family and she asked me for my sister's phone number so she'd know someone in Utah. Ummm...no. I told her that she woudl meet lots of nice people there. She said people keep telling her that Utahns are nice and that they will make her a Mormon. I told her that would be a great thing for her, and that her new neighbors will take good care of her whether she's Mormon or not. I hope that's true! ;)

Oh heck to the no! "Voices Carry" by til tuesday featuring one of my fave musicians, Aimee Mann on vocals circa 1985. Must. Resist. Singing. Along..."he wants me/ but only part of the time/ he wants me/ if he can keep me in line/ hush, hush/ keep it down now..." do you have any idea how many til tuesday songs I figured out on the piano? LOVED THEM. Aimee Mannis Sean Penn's sister in law.

10:24pm: I am going to go clean up around here and count out my money while "Roxanne" plays (and I will try really hard not to sing along to this song, too!). I believe this concludes my live blogging of the swing shift. Hope you loved it. Have a Happy Monday!