So I've been staying at the JW Marriott Denver at Cherry Creek, a kind of snooty high-rent district. My hotel room has some odd touches of luxury. For whatever reason I got one of the "executive" rooms, which means besides what ever internal perks it has, I can go up to the top floor for breakfast, or at night for a nightcap and dessert. (Plus, I have to use my roomkey to get the elevator to go to my floor. Take that you damn hoi polloi! Sure it's a mild inconvenience every time I want to go to my room, especially when the cardreader doesn't take 'til the 3rd or 4th try, but
isn't it worth it?)
Of course, one of the best parts of the hotel is that it's about 20 yards from the company I'm consulting for, which is why my company gets the sweetheart rates.
The layout is pretty typical, 2 beds, high, and with great bed coverings. But the weird thing is they put a catalog on each bed, carefully replacing it each time the bed is made,
offering the bedding, art, "aromatherapy" toiletries etc for sale. (Though not the grapefruit & mint shower gel, which was the only toiletry I really liked here.)
The bathroom is pretty huge, with a tub and a nice separate standup shower in the corner, glass walls on the other two sides. That's pretty cool.
Nice views though! Denver's there in a photo that doesn't do the Rockies justice. |
For a cheapskate like me (even if it's on the company's dime), not knowing what comes with the room and what would be an extra fee is annoying. The chocolates, I assume, are free, but there are some glass bottles of "Jelly Belly" jellybeans and some yogurt-covered somethings that are labeled at $12 a pop. The minibar is likely way overpriced (especially with that free booze at night upstairs) but
there are two types of bottled water... the "Fiji" is clearly marked at $6 (though I know it's generally priced higher than most other bottled water) but I'm hoping the other, more generic bottles are complementary.
Finally, there was a damn rose on my bed when I came in after work the first day. (Joined by a second the next day...ok, I get it.) My first upon seeing it was, and I kid you not, "crap, I'm in the wrong room." There was no other reason to think I was in the wrong room, it just seemed so odd.
Heh. It would be nice to think that the roses are actually a message from the housekeeping staff, something along the lines of "hey, you weren't a disgusting pig last night, thanks for that" and that people that were more messy didn't get one.
In general, I think it's great karma to not do anything to make the housekeeping staff resent you.
Link of the Moment
Boingboing had this nifty link of
Early 19th Century Vocabulary
My favorite was "Hissian", slang term for a goose. Though over all it doesn't feel like things have changed that much over 200 years. 200 years before that, say, is like Shakespeare times, and that seems much more different. I guess English has been stabilizing a bit, probably with more global communication and less regionalization.
