First Day

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - My first day of work at reception in the hostel was interesting. I got a call from Dave at 4:15pm. He tells me I'm supposed to be working from 4-12 instead of 8-12 like I thought. Shit. I'm always the last to know.

I show up and Sophie's pissed because she missed yoga due to my tardiness. I hauled ass back to the hostel, riding one of the longest buses in the city because I was on the other side of the planet from where I needed to be. On the way though, I grabbed a chocolate frosted long john from the corner store. I seemed like it would be one of those nights.

Things are kind of funky at the desk. We are short on keys somehow and there aren't enough for the people who have already checked in, let alone the ones who will be checking in later in the night. Hmmm. Time to start improvising on Day One. At one point I ended up having to give my key away to a guest and also hit up Gia to give hers away.

I end up all alone at the hostel because everyone went to a going away dinner for Surja. It was her last night at the hostel. She had been working housekeeping for the past three months and showed me everything I knew about cleaning this place. I was sad to miss the going away. I was also sad because the RZA was in town having a show and inviting people out for tea afterward. Oh well. No reason to complain. This has been a great trip so far and I'm lucky to be in the position I'm currently in.

The dishes aren't done and kind of look untouched for the day, despite a giant sign above the sink telling guests to wash their own dishes. It's my dirty stuff now.

There is a ton of laundry to be done and folded, including guest laundry and laundry for one of the staff.

My first check in gets put in the TV Room because we're too full for the night. Let me tell you ahead of time, you don't want to end up sleeping in the TV Room. It functions as much more than a TV Room here and is an unfortunate place to have to sleep (just don't ever take a blacklight in there). It's the only room in the hostel with a lock on it. I check this guy in and he is in the hostel five minutes when he locks himself out of the room. I guess he was concerned about the safety of his belongings for the five seconds it took to walk down the hall and locked the door just for good measure. When I found him he was trying to cram the third floor key into the lock. Now, I explained to him the key was for the third floor and even used his key to open the door to the third floor. How it made sense that the same key would lock his room and keep his stuff safe when every other person on that floor possessed that very key escapes me. Anyway, a fiasco to deal with.

At the same time, another guest (some pompous German guy) had a valid beef. Someone was sleeping in his bed. By the time I went down to check it out, the other person had vacated and I was very confused. After some investigation, it turns out he thought he was in the right spot but was actually supposed to be in a bed down the hall. I had to get fresh sheets for German guy and sort out the rest of the details.

The next new guest to come up ends up getting checked into a bed that mistakenly didn't get changed from the night before. So I had to change that like quick on the double.

This was all happening in succession. The frustration was growing.

Then I realized I wouldn't have it any other way. It's already been an easy trip thus far, so no reason to complain. And if my first night went well, it would ruin me forever. My baseline would be all screwed up and I would expect it to always be that way. Instead, things feel easy now.

I calmed down, things got slow, I cranked the music, the common room filled up with good conversation and even better vibes. Half of the crew came back from the going away dinner and we hung out on the room a little later.

I looked out on the city and took a deep breath.