Schwank, part deux

C and I enjoyed a 2-night stay in the Highland Park area of Dallas this week. I don't know how many of these hotel evaluations i'm going to do, though, bc it's A LOT of work. I think there were 23 checklists, to be exact, and each one requires a detailed narrative, complete with quotes, time stamps, and a play-by-play account of the events. IT's a whole different experience staying at a hotel when you're evaluating, bc the instructions were to perform specific tests that required us to be (in my opinion, at least) quite high maintenance. Here are a few for instances: the first night we were to order room service right before they closed for the night. The next morning, we were to call Engineering and tell 'em we needed to leave soon, but had locked something in the safe and couldn't get it open. On the way out that same morning, i had to ask the concierge for some dinner suggestions in another nearby city (i chose Addison) with a "lively atmosphere and good menu." I was to tell her that I had to leave, but "could you have a list of suggestions for me when I return?" And my favorite was that while I was having this conversation, C had to strike up a conversation with the valet about how "green" (eco-friendly) this hotel group is. this was fun for me bc i think C was growing an ulcer thinking about how he would carry on this conversation, seeing as how that topic is such a natural one for him and all. he did great, though, and when we weren't causing the staff to earn their pay, writing about it, or taking pictures, we hung out at Northpark Mall and ate some good food.

I DID get that massage...about 25 minutes in two different chairs at Brookstone. :-) Turns out it wasn't a required part of the evaluation after all. :-( But this was nice because while I was getting a great chair massage, I learned so much. Did you know that in Asian cultures, skipping a 15 minute daily massage is as bad as leaving the house w/out brushing your teeth? Also, the cost of such a chair really isn't that bad ($5,000) if you consider the cost of a weekly one hour massage. Over a year, you come out pretty even and, with the chair, you can have 2 massages a day if you want. In that case, we'll take 2. we're gonna need them for our private island, don't you think?