Hotels is da bomb

One little-known fact about me is that I carry my home around me on my back like a hermit crab. Yep, that’s me with dishes, pots, pans, tampons, and a Wii strapped to my back. Purty sight, ain’t it? After all, its not like I’m pushing around a rusty shopping cart filled with random plastic bags or anything. Swearsies! And my stuff keeps the rain off.

But once in awhile I like a roof over my head and to shower the bugs off, so I check into the Marriott or the W or sometimes even the Ritz-Carlton, because I like a place where the maids look you in the eye like they’re people, too. Plus they know your name.

Good evening, Ms. Bitch! they say as I waltz past in my 4-inch red stilettos. I stare at a place on the wallpaper until the maid passes. Nobody’s going to suck out my brains by looking me in the eye, nossir!

But hotels are teh awesome. Let’s elaborate, shall we?

1. Archaeology. I got my degrees in rocket science and brain surgery with archaeology well down the list, but I still maintain a layman’s interest. What better way to study Early Man than with the stains on the never-washed bedspreads? Admittedly, some are difficult to identify, which is why I carry a blacklight with me. Makes every stain glow vividly, especially the ones from bodily fluids. Which is most of them. Sometimes I amuse myself by playing Connect The Dots. Or conducting an impromptu Rorschach test.

2. Psychology. In addition to enhancing my personal self-awareness through staring at the stains on the bedspread (they’re never washed. Have I mentioned that?), I also study other people. I start by dialing random room numbers in the hotel, informing my next-door neighbor, for instance, that there’s a package awaiting him at the front desk. Then while he’s out I go in his room and steal everything in the minibar. Or carry a universal TV remote with you while you slowly walk the halls and and punch on/off repeatedly.

3. Statistics. Hotels are a guessing game. When was the carpet last cleaned? How many long black hairs will I find in the sink? Was my non-smoking room last used by a pack of chain smokers? These are fun and enlightening questions to ask yourself whenever you check in to a hotel. Keep track of your score and win prizes!

4. Location, location, location. My last hotel was situated next to an adult store, I kid you not. Score! I’d go back there in a heartbeat.

5. Paying extra for things. Like Wi-Fi. $12.00 PER COMPUTER? Sure, no prob. Or the whole minibar thing. I love a $4 pack of M&M’s. Pretty soon you’ll be paying for air. Not air conditioning. Actual air.

6. Things that smell like… Chlorine-bleached sheets. The aforementioned bedspreads (I warned you, did I not?). Skanky slivers of soap the exact size and usefulness of your tongue. Generic Hotel Cleaner Stuff, the kind that is in use by hotels worldwide and also in prisons (not that I would know, cough). Last night’s pizza-delivery grease-fest wafting through the elevator. The cologne-soaked loser in the hotel bar with a badly-fitting rug up top and a gold chain the size of his penis draped around his neck.

7. Surly desk clerks. You know, the 17-year olds with acne explosions like pink grapefruit hanging off their cheeks? Yeah, them. The ones who dare to claim trumped up charges for in-room porn. What? Me? I make porn, honey, I don’t watch it.

8. It’s Motel 6, dammit, not Motel $139.99. Whatever happened to the 6?

Wanna come stay at my house? I promise I’ll only charge you 3 bucks for the M&M’s.

Oh, fuck. Might as well stay home.