El Paso...

Bueno!

This blog entry is coming to you directly from the city of El Paso, Texas. Home of many yummy things – very few of which I can actually partake in thanks to my Lenten vows.

Anyway, I’m here for a conference. A museum conference. I know what you are thinking: EXCITING (not!).

Actually, it IS pretty exciting. I enjoy this particular conference, and have been looking forward to attending this one for the past year. Until things got exceptional hairy on the other side of the boarder, we were supposed to be visiting some of the museums in Juarez. Sadly, that is no longer the case. But, hey, it got me to El Paso. A city I probably would not have otherwise thought to visit – especially not for museum going.

We got to walk around last night and visit three museums and the public library. And I have to say, I was quite impressed. So many Tom Lea’s! Granted, Tom Lea was from El Paso, but still…very cool.

The conference hotel is nearly one hundred years old. It is a beautiful structure, but is in need of some renovations. The elevators aren’t reliable, for one thing, and I won’t be the least bit surprised if one of them breaks before the end of the conference and ten of my museum colleagues are temporarily trapped inside.

Then there is the issue of my room. On the surface there is no problem. It is big, with a king sized bed and all the comforts of home. And other than being located right next to the elevator and having a drippy sink faucet, it is quiet and I slept fairly well last night.

But then this morning happened.

I can hear 95% of everything that goes on in the hotel room that backs up to mine. Well, no. That’s not really the case. A better way of saying it would be that I can hear 95% of the goings-on in the neighboring hotel room’s bathroom. This morning, I was rudely awakened by the sounds of my next door neighbor’s 6 AM bowel movement. Fun. This experience was only heightened by the fact that I could also SMELL everything that was going on in addition to hearing it.

Tragically, a brief inquiry at the front desk did not yield a new room, so I am stuck in this one until Friday. I can only hope that my pooping neighbor checked out this morning, but I doubt I am that lucky.

Le sigh...