OOPS!!

Ooopppssss….  Guess I can check this one off the bucket list!

Over the weekend, I went to Toronto to see Bon Jovi (why else?!).  I was meeting other Bon Jovi friends there, including my main Bon Jovi buddy and roomie, Gennie.  They arrived a couple of hours before me because I had to wait to leave until after the JDRF One Walk.  Bags were packed.  I bolted straight from the 5K Walk to the airport and hopped on a plane to Toronto.

It was warm outside in TX but not too bad.  More than anything, the wind was doing quite a number on my hair!  I was sitting in the middle seat of the plane, which I usually dread, because one doesn’t know who will flank them.  I was most scared of Miss Bad Perfume or Mr. Huge Guy (or Mr/Ms Talk Nonstop or Mr/Ms Stinky.  Don’t hate.  We’ve all been there!) because with one I can’t breathe and the other I have to sit with my shoulders scrunched the entire flight, thus I can’t breathe.

Fortunately, neither sat by me.  At some point in the flight I realized I was the one not smelling so hot!!!!  So, I was THAT person!!  I was Mrs Stinky! Granted, I kept my arms down and it wasn’t overwhelming, but I guess I got hotter and sweatier than I thought on that walk.   All I could think about was getting off that plane and getting a shower.  I could NOT meet my friends tattered and smelly!

When I landed in Toronto, long story short, I texted Gennie.  She said they were meeting for dinner after a while, told me our room number (10295), and said the front desk had my name to give me a key.  They had just gotten to dinner when I arrived, so I stopped by the front desk to get a key, drop my stuff off, and God forbid, SHOWER before I went down to meet them!

I hustled my bag and my key up to 10295.  Key didn’t work. Tried three times.  At that point, I bothered to look inside the key envelope and verify the room number.  Oops.  10265.  Hmmph.  Must’ve misremembered Gennie’s text.

I scurried down the hall to 10265 and voila, it opened!  I rushed in the room, plopped my suitcase on the bed, and hurried to shower and join my friends.  Now, follow my thought process.

First thing I see are clothes in the closet.  Those could be Gennie’s.  I don’t memorize her wardrobe. Who cares?  Move on!

I run to charge my phone while I’m showering.  I see her white charger, and think “I’ll use hers”.  Iphone charger?  Since when did Gennie get an Iphone.  I thought she had a Samsung like me?  Oh well, dug my charger out and charged my phone. 

Plugged in my flat iron.  Noticed a small suitcase and some flip flops on the floor.  Those don’t look familiar; maybe someone bought them for her. 

I strip, rocket speed.  Butt naked. Grab out what I plan to wear.  I hustle to the bathroom.  Pads on the counter.  Clinique makeup bag.  Gennie must be on her period.  Wait?!  When did she start using Clinique? 

I grabbed a washrag and the hotel shower gel.  Hurriedly showered.  Jump out.  Put on more deodorant and lotion.  Brush my teeth.  There is NO Mary Kay in there! Where is her Mary Kay? (I have traveled with her enough to know what her toiletry bag looks like!)  

Hung my washrag nicely in the shower and my towel on the back of the door, next to Gennie’s swim top.  They went swimming already?

Got dressed.  Ran a brush through the windblown mess that was my hair.  Quickly ran the flat iron over it.  Kept looking around.  Something isn’t adding up.  At this point, in for a dime, in for a dollar.

I threw my stuff back in my suitcase and set everything nicely off to the side.  I grabbed my phone and plugged in my portable charger to refuel.  I bolted out of the room and took off to meet my friends downstairs.

Now, in the room, stuff wasn’t adding up, but I was too hurried and excited to really stop and think.  As I boarded the elevator and walked to Benihana, I began to ponder.  Surely that was Gennie’s room!  I looked at my texts from her, wondering if perhaps if one of us had gone dyslexic.  Did she type it wrong?  Did I read it wrong?  Verified the text. 10295.  Well, I just showered in 10265.

I arrived to meet my girls.  Squeezed in for dinner.  First thing I asked, “Gennie, you did tell me 10295, right?!  THAT’s our room?”  She confirms.  Our room is 10295.  “Well, guess what?!  I just showered in 10265.  That’s the key they gave me.  I just showered in a stranger’s room!”  Oh my, we laughed so hard, imagining all the possible scenarios!!  Stranger comes in when I am butt naked.  In the shower.  Leaving her room. 

I told them how things weren’t adding up and suddenly I felt the compelling need to go rescue my belongings!  After dinner, we headed straight up and gathered all my belongings out of 10265 and put them in their proper place in 10295.  The only thing I left behind were the dirty towel and washcloth and empty shower gel bottle.  If I had been thinking, I’d have grabbed those, too, but I just grabbed my luggage, carry on, toiletries and charger and ran to 10295!

Obviously, I’m honest, and I didn’t touch or bother any of the stranger’s property.  But I can only imagine what she thought when she came in and saw a dirty washcloth, used towel, and empty shower gel.  It’s like the case of Goldilocks.  I would have paid to be a fly on the wall.  Hilarious to me, probably not so funny to her.

Regardless, desperate times call for desperate measures.  I desperately needed a shower, and clearly I wasn’t above showering, inadvertently, in a stranger’s hotel room.  We spent the rest of the evening having a grand time visiting and getting ready for two nights of Bon Jovi!  It was a very funny start to a great birthday weekend!

Shower in a stranger’s hotel room.  Check that one off the bucket list!

Rhonda