Bad day

Yesterday was a Good Day: We'd met our goal and gotten the Paymaster's Office open, and both of our newlywed couples were happy. Therefore, by karmic law, today had to be a Bad Day.

This was already going to be a busy day: We had to serve breakfast for eight, then clean the kitchen, change two rooms, freshen up two more rooms, meet the Eberly family reunion at 1:30, meet the Authentic B&B crew at 2, and check in one new guest. After that, I needed to study for a food handling certification course I am taking tomorrow.

Then, right after breakfast, Dawn's mom called because she needed to go to the hospital. (I felt a little guilty complaining about my day when someone else had to go to the hospital, but then I realized: She can write her own blog.) So Dawn took her, leaving me to manage everything else. I was making good progress but then at 1:30pm, someone honked their horn. I looked out the window and instead of the 3 or 4 cars I expected for the Eberly family, there were thirteen!

Even worse, there was a wolf sanctuary tour going on, so they couldn't park in back. Instead, they came down our driveway, and our parking lot for 5 suddenly held 15! Then, one of our guests (who had been on the wolf tour) came back and needed to leave! Fortunately one of the Eberlys knew how to manage traffic, and he was yelling and pointing and everyone was weaving in and out and somehow it all worked out.

Mr. Eberly, by the way, was a painter and paper hanger, and he installed the wallpaper in the mansion in 1946 and again in 1962. We know this because he signed the wall underneath the wallpaper twice. During the restoration, we "framed" his signature and left it exposed as a conversation piece. His children (all eight of them!) were having a reunion and wanted to come by and get pictures, so I started to give them a tour when my new guest arrived.

Now, check-in time is normally 3pm and it was only quarter to 2, and the room wasn't ready yet. I tried to send the guest away for lunch or something, but they'd just driven from New Jersey and wanted to rest a while. The problem was, I couldn't let them in that room. And I had 25 Eberlys wandering around. And then the Authentic B&B folks arrived. (In three more cars!)

The Authentic B&B association was coming to do a follow-up inspection, after they'd rejected us in August, to see if we now met their standards. Although I'm still not clear what their standards are, I was willing to bet having stacked parking, 25 people milling about, two guests waiting to check in, 1 dirty bedroom and a mountain of laundry at 2pm probably didn't meet them. So I threw myself on their mercy and explained everything that happened: The mom in the hospital, the almost full house, the family reunion, and the early guests, and the other innkeepers just looked at me and said, "So? Sounds like any other day in the business."

I brought the innkeepers in and basically told them they were on their own while I finished the guest room. (Probably not the wisest thing I've ever done, but I tend to fall apart under pressure.) So while I'm on my hands and knees scrubbing the bathroom floor, the new guests walk in behind me and say, "Is this our room?" When I said yes, they moved in, even while I was still cleaning!

I did divert the Authentic B&B folks down to the wolf sanctuary for a bit, and by then the Eberly folks had left. (They gave me a framed picture of Mr. Eberly in 1972, which was pretty cool.) I thought everything was under control and then the new guest came down and asked for a bottle opener.

We have two bottle openers, and I couldn't find either one of them to save my life. I searched everywhere except the basement, and we had just used it yesterday! (And not in the basement.) Our poor guest, who had already mentioned when booking that he normally stays at another B&B but they were full this weekend, could not get a parking space, could not get into his room, and now could not open his bottle of wine!

He went back upstairs and I walked down to my mother's to get her bottle opener (she was in the hospital, she didn't need it!) and when I returned, I knocked on his room door only to wake him from a nap! So I handed him the bottle opener and some Wilbur buds and a phone, and he was so dazed he didn't even ask about the phone. (I had stolen it to test the phone system in the basement, and forgotten to put it back.)

Finally around 5pm everyone was settled, and so I grabbed my book (I still needed to study!) and headed down to the hospital. I was there maybe 10 minutes, when Dawn asked me to take my brother-in-law home. (He had ridden in with Dawn that morning.) So I got back to the farm and realized that I was going to be gone the next day, and Dawn was responsible for feeding six people, changing two rooms, checking in new guests, all while taking care of her mom. So I spent the next four hours preparing breakfast, setting the table, finishing the laundry, even making a dessert for tomorrow. It's now midnight, and I haven't studied for my course at all.

Wish me luck. (And wish Dawn's mom luck as well. Thanks.)