is it just me?

Several years ago I got a notice from my principal that I would be going to a meeting in the next week or so. He didn't know much about it when I asked him, but he passed on all of the information he had received. Turns out it was a committee of teachers from across the state - around 10 of us - and a representative from the state department and the testing company that handles our state testing. And I have gone to these meetings a few times each year since that first meeting.

It is always a two day event held in Little Rock. For those of us who live several miles away, rooms are provided at the hotel where we meet. It's a nice hotel. The beds are very comfortable. The rooms are a nice size. And it's so convenient to get up the second morning and just walk downstairs for the day's meeting. And I usually have a chance to do a bit of shopping.

I get the invitation for the meeting a few months in advance. I've known for quite some now that I would be going to a meeting this week. And I had a plan. On my reading list for the summer was the Fifty Shades series. Of course, there is nowhere around here to get the books, so I planned to go to the bookstore on the first day of my overnight stay in Little Rock. I have the Kindle app and could have downloaded the book - but I wanted to have the actual book in my hand.

My Wednesday started out great. I met friends and did our morning running. I finished week 5. It was humid, even at 5:15. And already hot. I was a sweaty, stinky mess when I finished my run. I returned home, enjoyed coffee, wrote a post, took my shower, packed my bag, and headed to Little Rock. After that drive my legs were a bit sore when I walked into the hotel. I grabbed some lunch at the restaurant and went in for the meeting. For the next several hours, I sat. The longer I sat, the more sore my calves got. When the meeting was over and I went to check-in, I felt a few cramps in my now very sore calves. I decided to just take my things to my room, go to the bookstore, get my books, and come back to the hotel. On my way back to the truck, I made a detour just to check - I thought a soak in a hot tub would feel great. Unfortunately, there was no hot tub, and now I had a few more steps to make to get to my truck.

After driving across town to the bookstore, my legs were really starting to cramp. It was painful. But I wanted those books and would probably buy more. I had been waiting for a chance to go to the book store for several weeks. I found the second and third books near the door. I also found two other books that I wanted. Now I just needed that first Shades books.But it was nowhere to be found, and neither was a store employee. My sore, cramping calves and I hobbled around the store for almost 45 minutes before I found an employee. It seems that the computer near the front of the store can't be trusted to know what is in the store and what is not. The guy asked if I wanted him to order the book. Seriously? If I wanted to order it, I wouldn't have waited for several weeks and driven all the way across town.to purchase the book. I put down the books in my hands and huffed out of the store.

I honestly thought about just going back to the hotel. My calves were hurting that bad. But I decided that I had to go to Target and get some IcyHot or something. So drive to Target, hobble to the back of the store, and guess what? There's that first book, and the third book, but no second book. Uugghhh! I had just put that back at the bookstore. But I was so mad. But I was so ticked about having to walk around for that long with no help, and my calves were cramping so bad, that I just wanted to go back to the hotel. I went looking for IcyHot. Found it near the Epsom salts. A soak sounded so comforting at that time.

I got back to the hotel and again hobbled to my room. I went down to get ice so that I could take some Ibuprofen. Came back and realized that that bathroom floor was covered in water. I grabbed a towel and threw it to the floor. Put there was quiet a lot of water. On previous visits, I once had to move rooms because the lock wouldnt' work and once my air conditioner  didn't cool. I knew the routine. A call to the front desk. They assured me that maintenance would be right up. Just when I thought my door should be rattling, the phone rang. Turns out the maintenance man was also the van driver and had gone to the airport. So I waited. I couldn't fill the tub to soak my calves because I didn't know where the water was coming from, and I didn't want to flood the entire room. So I grabbed my book and turn on the lamp nearest the chair.

Of course just as soon as I got comfortable, the phone rang - the maintenance man would be knocking soon. But he didn't come so I sat back down. Then the knock came. I hobbled over and let him in. he checked the bathroom and told me that me would be right back. Back to the chair for reading, but wait - where did my light go. The bulb had burned out. I decided that I could read from the bed. I moved my things and reached to turn the lamp on. There was no button. And then another knock at the door. The maintenance guy brought my clean towels to replace the ones I had used to soak up the water. And he told me that he had to go to his workshop and would be back. I asked him for the second time if it would just be better for me to move to another room. He assured me that I would be fine. I just wanted to take a bath and read my book, with a lamp that worked. And not have to get up to answer the door another time.

But he came back. And I had to waddle to the door again. I stood at the bathroom door while he worked. I asked again about changing rooms. But again, he assured me that I would be okay. Little did he know that by telling me this and knock repeatedly on my door, he was the one that was taking risks. He tightened something on the toilet, placed a towel around it, and told me that it should be fine. When he left I no longer had any desire to take a bath - I didn't want to enter that bathroom.

I rubbed the IcyHot on my still cramping calves, crawled in the bed, and started my book. I was burning up. After several minutes, I got back up to check the thermostat. An hour or so later, I was checking it again. I decided that my air wasn't working properly. I was not happy - a flooded bathroom, lamps that didn't work, and now the room wouldn't cool down. Had my legs not been cramping so much, I would have stormed down to front desk and thrown a huge fit.

An hour or so later I was up messing with the thermostat again. The air was working. It just wouldn't cool down enough. My normal night time house temperature is 68 - the room was about 75. I can't sleep at 75. I went into the hallway; it was cooler out there. After a few minutes, I shuffled back to the bed, rubbed on more IcyHot, and kept reading. Finally a little after 2:00 the room was down to about 70, and I feel asleep. It was very difficult to pull myself out of bed when my alarm went off at 6:00.

Why me? The next morning, the committee members discussed their glorious rests the night before. Why is it that I get the room with a near dead A/C? When so many of those cold-natured people would have never noticed.