For reasons that I will not get into at this exact moment, I found myself last night in Franklin, MA, at a hotel with my mother, my sister, my niece, and my two children. I had reserved the room online the day before and had clearly stated that there would be three adults and two children (my niece was a last minute surprise, even to me), and so we would therefore need a room with two beds, and maybe a cot as well. The internet assured me that this would be the case, and so I stood in shock and awe at the front desk as the woman behind the counter informed me that we were in a room with only one queen sized bed.
Of course the first thing I told this woman was that we, being many, required a room with two beds. Unfortunately the hotel was at capacity, and she regretted that there were no other rooms available. And not only that, but there were probably no cots free either. And even if there were, she was the only person on duty to provide every service for the millions of guests currently staying at the establishment, and, being that there was a long check in line behind us, it would be quite some time before she would be able to check on this for us. But, she assured us, there was a couch in the room.
We opened the door to discover that the woman had not been playing a cruel joke on us, unfortunately. Everything she had said was true. One bed. And a couch. Luckily it was a pull out twin bed couch that I was able to extend and sleep on. My mother and sister took the bed, I took the couch, and that left the three children. My niece, who is almost 14, made a bed out of the couch cushions on the floor next to the bed. My son Edward, who is 3, made a nest in the closet after we moved the ironing board. My daughter Ruby, 6, set up camp under the counter outside of the bathroom. All set. Until we realized we only had 4 pillows.
Another trip to the harried front desk woman revealed that, in addition to having no extra beds, the hotel’s pillow supply was also at capacity. There were no extra pillows. Awesome. Luckily my children had brought their pillow pets with them, so there were technically enough pillows for everyone, except that everyone seemed to want two pillows. That was so not happening.
I think we were finally settled into the room when we heard a knock on the door. There was front desk woman with extra blankets and sheets. Just what we did not need. Thanks, front desk lady. So we rolled up the blankets and sheets and stuffed them under our pillows, trying to elevate our heads a bit more than we were able to with just the smooshy soft feather pillows that we each had one of.
I think we were finally settled into the beds with the blanket pillows when we heard a knock on the door again. There was front desk woman, rolling a cot through the door. She had managed to find one for us. So we moved my niece from the cushion bed to the cot and we all had a terrible night’s sleep. Problem solved. I can’t wait to come back here with 8 people and see what happens.