The Obsessive Dilettante

I decided to back to school and wanted a job that would give me flexibility for my classes, and figured the night owl in me wouldn’t mind working overnight. Hotels are always desperate for night auditors ‘cause of the awful hours, so it was easy to find a job. Even after I realized that an expensive vanity grad school degree wasn’t for me, I stuck around because I didn’t mind the work – it was better than the office stuff I’d been doing before, plus I often had a ton of time to do whatever the heck I wanted (aka watch dramas). I’m not long on night audit but I’m still in the hospitality biz – this time with animals as guests instead of humans.

My most memorable guest story is probably the naked bride. There was also the time I busted a sweet sixteen party.

But my favorite guest was one of our regulars who had a couple of “comfort” dogs. They were trained service dogs and he’d go all around the country to places that had had tragic events and go to hospitals/etc to visit victims with his dogs. Their main ability was to just, like, gently lean into you and love you with all their adorable doggy hearts, and after the chaos some of those nights would bring, it would totally make my morning to see him on his way through the lobby with his boys, who were always excited to see me and share their doggy comfort.

Although to be honest my favorite part of working audit was all the cool peeps in the NA tag. You know who you are! *waves to the NA brigade* Quite a few of us are now just honorary members of the NA brigade, but I’ll always remember the hell we went through together, united through this weird blue website even as we sat lonely in our lobbies, trying to fend of the weird and crazy and drunk guests that would attempt to invade our space.

(PS – pssssst @kohlel @mymindsecho do you remember this? I found it when I was going through the tag to find my naked bride story, and I had to laugh. I’ve got official experience now, if we ever decide to open up our own pet hotel!)