Diary of an Innkeeper

October/November is a time for debates and differences. Whether it is which baseball team you want to win the World Series or which side of the political fence you sit on, there is always someone to debate your views with. At the inn this weekend it seemed as if there was every side of the fence to debate your views with.

First off, this weekend determined which teams would go into battle with each other in the World Series. Being in NY there seemed to be many Yankee fans. All of which would come into breakfast Saturday morning without their pennants waving in the air. But I was surprised at the tone of some of these people. "It is nice for Texas. They've never won a post season series." Huh?? And then the other fans at the inn, the Phillies fans, solemnly entered the breakfast room on Sunday morning; but they too had a similar thought of sharing the World Series love. One couple was even wearing opposing sweatshirts - (wife) Phillies/(husband) Yankees.

The other major debate this time of year is the mid-term elections. Getting closer to November 2nd, it seems as if every commercial on TV is a negative campaign ad. So it was not surprising when politics came up at breakfast. But surprisingly, a liberal, a republican, a democrat and two conservatives can sit at one table and have a very serious, very calm discussion for 1 1/2 hours and not one voice is raised. With every mention of Bill O'Reilly or Christine O'Donnell, I was just sure that something would get heated. But no! To my shock everyone seemed to enjoy the conversation. The conservative couple even commented when they left, "We want to find out when that other group is coming back. We really enjoyed talking with them." What? Really? Phew! I let out the breath I was holding all morning!


How could this be? Did George put something "funny" in the coffee? We've had more heated discussions in the past about who's going to win Dancing With The Stars. With our last weekend of the season rapidly approaching, it was nice to see so many guests enjoying one another. Now if I could just figure out that perfect harmonious concoction of breakfast items, I could send a basket of them to Washington.

That 90 year old woman and her family had stayed with us two years in a row. Yep, there were two years worth of guests that she inflicted her pain on! Last year they arrived having just bought a 4-family home that they were going to fix up. This year when they checked in they informed me that they were still working on it and that they were making it a big one-family home. Ok.....

Fast forward to Day Two of their stay... That morning they walked in asking me what do my cleaning girls use in the rooms? "It was sooo clean.... It smelled sooo fresh...." Ok.... They acted so sweet and complimentary.... A good act!...

Fast forward to the Morning Of Checkout... After they left breakfast (after being oh so friendly to me and George), they went directly over to our cleaning girls. "Do you have any business cards? We are opening up an inn next summer..." Wait, wait, WHAT???? The HOUSE that they are renovating is going to be an inn in the area?? AND they tried to STEAL my cleaning staff. I love my cleaning girls! Do Not mess with them!!

The last words this family said to me when they checked out - "See you next year." I think not! Between grandma and the attempted stealing of my cleaning staff, I can pretty much guarantee you that I will not be seeing them next year. Turns out they don't plan to live at their inn. While living in NYC, they will hire someone to run their inn and there won't be enough room for them to actually stay there when they come up. So they'll need someplace to stay. Not here! Not again! Not ever! At least 2011 Columbus Day Weekend guests can now be assured of a Eunice-free weekend!


A nasty guest I can deal with. A backstabbing lying guest.... that's a whole different story!

DISCLAIMER: I have never done this before! So for all those who may not see me in the lobby, I am not hiding. Really! I am just doing other things. Really!!

Normally, I love to talk to all of my guests. You meet so many different types of people from all over the place. It is a very interesting life. But on this particular weekend. Well, not so much. She checked in and having been here once before I remembered her immediately! The conversation started like this, "Where's George? I want to see George. You, I don't remember your name!" Oh, it was going to be a long weekend!

I was sitting at the front desk with a mound of paperwork, and in walks Eunice, wanting to know how my year has been. Actually not really wanting to hear anything from me, but just wanting to talk and talk and talk. After 10 minutes of her talking/me listening, she picked up our guest comment book and decided to read me the comments, out loud, for the next 10 minutes. I've read them all before. All of them. If my attention swayed, at all, she asked if I was listening. I felt my body starting to shake. She stopped for a second, put down the book and said she was just going to get a drink and be right back. She walked around the corner to the water cooler and I did it...


Almost 90 years old and very opinionated. That would have been ok, if every other one of our guests didn't think she was my mother and that she lived here. She was the first one in for breakfast and the last to leave. She greeted every one of our guests and then stood at their table talking to them. Not your average, "Where are you from, what are you doing today" talk, but ..... abortion, religion, politics... all the taboo subjects that we normally don't bring up with our guests at breakfast!

When things were rearranged in our lobby, I knew exactly how they got there. We were told if plants needed to be watered and when tt (toilet tissue) was running low. (These two things were both told to George in the middle of waffle making. Fully expecting him to stop everything and attend to what she felt was important. And stop he did! To show her how much water WAS in the vase with the plant. "Oh, I thought it needed more!.") When I didn't water a plant quick enough, it ended up front and center on the lobby desk. This morning I woke up and found one of my outside plants sitting on the front desk. For 1/10 of a second I actually said, "How did this get here?" How the hell did I think it got here!!!!!! When the coffee cups got low, she told our guests (unbeknownst to me) that she was going to have me fired for letting things run low.

She asked a family with a 1 year old if she could hold their baby (1 minute after they entered the lobby). She called a 12 year old a "bum" for wearing his baseball cap into breakfast. She listened to other people's conversations and then proceeded to give her opinions on each and every subject. This after she told me she was forced to come with her family and that she didn't even want to be here. First, who would ever force her to come with them anywhere? Second, this gave her a chance to spew her judgements on many people in the course of three days. By the way, has anyone ever seen that movie Throw Mamma From The Train? That was random. Don't know why that came to mind.


Her favorite subject. Jesus. She loved to tell religious jokes. Thought they were the funniest things ever. She was a devout stand-up comedian. I'll bet she really knocked their socks off in church, but in our lobby, not so much. And you better laugh! If you didn't, you heard, "What don't you understand? (long drawn out explanation of joke), you have no sense of humor! What is wrong with you." Yep, that's exactly what she said. To me. And hopefully no one else!

I can only assume that her family knows exactly what she does. Her son asked a teenager, "Is she bothering you?" And the kid said, unabashedly, "Yes, she sort of is." Kids and old people. They say what they want without hesitation.

DISCLAIMER #2: All statements in this blog are true. Any normal human being would have had the same "fight or flight" response. And given that fight was definitely not an option....

It was beautiful and sunny and 70 degrees this weekend here in upstate NY. It was one of the busiest weekends in the area with soooo much going on. It was a Festival Bonanza - two Harvest Fests, an Applefest, a Garlic Festival, and a Kite Festival. We were booked with 1/2 our guests coming up for the Kite Festival and 1/2 our guests up for the Sharon Springs Harvest Festival. I really enjoyed my morning talks with all of my guests this weekend. And I learned a lot about kiting (and not just your average kid's kites, we're talking kites you should have insurance to fly, kites that might kill someone if they fall out of the sky!).

Well, we woke up Saturday morning with so many plans. After we cleaned up breakfast, our first stop was to go to Sharon Springs, then later to the Kite Festival and if there was time, on to the Garlic Festival. This years Sharon Springs Festival was expected to be huge. It is the home of the new reality series on the Planet Green Discovery Channel called The Fabulous Beekman Boys. It is the story of a New York City couple, Josh and Brent who buy a farm in upstate NY and become organic farmers. Josh, a writer, still lives part time in NYC and Brent, a doctor and a one time consultant on The Martha Stewart Show has moved up here full time. They buy the Beekman 1802 Farm and raise goats, make cheese and market goat's milk soap. It is a hilarious look at city boys/gone country boys. Along with Josh and Brent (and the ups and downs of their relationship), is Farmer John and his 100 goats who move onto the farm.

Well, if anyone has ever been up to this area and visited Sharon Springs, it is a sleepy little town, about 15 minutes from our inn. A one time bustling spa and resort town, it is now home to several huge abandoned hotels and an abandoned sulpher spring spa. In the past years, several businesses have popped up to begin its rejuvenation. Josh and Brent bought the Beekman Farm about 3 years ago, but this past summer was the premiere of their reality show. Last years Festival drew 300 people. This year - 3,000 to 5,000 people came and the majority came for one reason - The Beekmans. Yep, and that's why I went. I am a closet reality show watcher and the Beekman is one of my favorites. Josh and Brent (my new best friends in this area) well, actually, I haven't really met them yet, but when I do, I just know they are going to be my new best friends, have breathed a new life into that town. When we got there, there were about 100 people in line with about a 1 & 1/2 hr. wait to meet and greet them. What!  Damn! Well, I'll come back next week, when there is only the usual 3 or 4 people in town and try and meet them then.

Several of our guests came from out of state to see the Beekmans. Two couples came from Massachusetts. The odd thing was that I don't think these guys even knew each other and it wasn't until after they all checked out that I noticed that they lived 2 minutes away from each other - in the same town. Weird! Another guest came with her daughter (they watched the show together). The last guest that came for the Beekmans drove 5 hours and had talked her cousin (who had never heard of them) into coming with her. She was soooo excited to be here and I told her she seemed a little stalkeresque! I told her not to do anything that would involve the cops and our inn being on the news. Well, maybe that could be a good thing. Any publicity is good publicity. Maybe. All throughout the day there were film crews filming next season's show. I think we may have strategically placed ourselves into some (ok, many) of the shots. I'm sure we will be cut out, but maybe one shot will end up on the show. Damn! Why didn't I order those Meadowlark Inn t-shirts we had talked about. We could have been like "Where's Waldo". "Oh I see them again. There's those weird Meadowlark Inn people, right there, in the background!"

So there we were, stalking, I mean enjoying the Harvest Festival, and boy did the time fly. Next thing we knew, it was 4:30 and we missed all the other Festivals. But that's ok. We had a great time. The weather was beautiful. The food was great. We met some really wonderful people. It was a perfect day. And it was nice to see new life breathed into a town that hasn't seen that much action in years. Hopefully, for Sharon Springs sake, they'll stick around for a while. And in the meantime, maybe we can do lunch!!!!!

I debated on even writing about this one. I worried that at some point in all of this, maybe I would end up sounding like a complainer. But I see it not as complaining, more like storytelling! So, a few days ago this lovely couple arrives at the inn. Checking in for a few days, they seemed to like it here immediately. And I liked them immediately too. They brought their things to their room and were back in the lobby licketey split. "Oh they loved it here! It's just lovely!" "Did I have any ideas for them for dinner for their two nights?" After discussing all the possibilities, we decided on two places that I would make them reservations at. A few minutes later, they came back in and wanted to see menus so that they could decide on what they wanted before they arrived at the restaurants. Ok, check. Dinner reservations and menus, done.

Then a couple minutes later they came back in and needed a luggage rack. All the rooms have luggage racks in them, but what happened to the one in their room? Gone. Ok, don't know what happened to it and we're not exactly in an area where I can run out and buy a new one. "Well, what are we going to do?? We can't possibly put our luggage on the floor?" I'll find something, a chair, something for you to use. When I arrived at their room, they already had their luggage on one of the 5 chairs that were in their room. Luggage, check, all taken care of.

A few minutes later, they were calling me from the lobby, "Tina, Tina", they couldn't get their remote control to work. Battery check, they're fine, reprogramming needed, maybe. I told them I would take care of it while they were at dinner. "Do you have any ice?" Of course! A little while later they came in, "We're off to dinner." Great, have fun! The next morning at breakfast they came in to find all the tables taken. "Where are we supposed to sit?? Can you get an extra table and chairs?" Why, of course, and can you wait a couple of minutes while I build an addition to put them in too? Another lovely couple overheard them and asked them to join them at their table where there where two extra chairs. "Oh that would be lovely!" A couple of minutes go by. "Do you have any plain oatmeal? There only seems to be oatmeal with fruit." I am sorry but we only have what is out. How did I know that of all the 58 things we have to choose from at breakfast, she would want the one thing that we didn't have! A few minutes later, "Can you check the times for the art museum for us?" Why of course. I would love to.

After breakfast they left the inn for a while. Now, this evening, I have already made reservations at a restaurant for them. All taken care of. But they passed by a different restaurant and looked at the menu (a restaurant that I told them not to go to because it was wayyyyy to pricey for what you get). They came into the lobby and wanted to discuss this restaurant and why I thought they could charge those prices and could they see the menu for the restaurant that I am sending them to tonight to make sure it wasn't the same as this expensive one. I told them that they had already looked at the menu last night and had already decided on what they were going to order last night and that they thought it was fine. No, they wanted to see it again. Sure, of course. After a few more questions and requests that day, they were off to their dinner and opera.

This morning at check out they told my husband that they had a small problem with their room that they wanted him to be aware of. George said, why didn't you tell us about this during the weekend, we could have fixed it for you immediately. "Well, we would have, but no one was around all weekend." Wait, wait, what!!! You mean during the 147 times you came in and asked for things, we weren't around! Really! That's ok, maybe we can do a better job serving them next time. They'll be back. They've already made reservations for next year and will possibly be back in the fall. Because.... "our inn is so lovely!" At least this will give us a chance to redeem ourselves and be "more around" for them. Perhaps they came in while we were in the bathroom, or sleeping, and needed something. We will be sure to do a better job next time! Because.... we aim to please!!!