I left pittsburgh this am, in yet another snowstorm to fly to San Diego/Coronado for a week long swim coach teacher’s training with Total Immersion (totalimmersion.net). I’m hoping that we will get an opporutnity to do some open water swimming as well, I brought my wetsuit for teh 50 degree water. If you’ve been following my facebook updates, I;ve really fallen in love with swimming again since taking my total immersion clinic in February. THere are some youtube video updates on my stroke at my youtube channel if you want to peek.
I had made my reservations abou ta month ago. The group is staying at this really cute Inn & Bistro on the island. Reguarl rates are up to $199/night…group rate is less than half that! I arrive from the airport to check in and the clerk asks me my name. “Atkinson,” I say. She looks up at me.
“Could it be under a different name?”
Suddenly a felt a rock fall into thepit of my stomach. I thrust my reservation sheet at her and said, “Look, here’s my reservation through next Sunday”.
She takes the paper, scans it, and looks kup at me again over her bifocals. “Your reservation doesn’t start until tomorrow. We don’t have any rooms left, and the island is full. Thre is a big convetion going on.”
I hadn’t checked over my reservations when it was sent to me, I just assumed ot was correct. I always triple check my airline reservations, but this one, I just hit the “archive” button in Gmail and didn’t give it another thought.
TUrns out the best western has a room open…at $195 dollars for one night.
My friend Mary is staying in SD with a friend of hers,..the two of them are sharing a “studio flat”, which is basically a one car garage converted to a two room studio. It’s packed to the gills with 2 people, their stuff, one dog and one cat. The bed in the front room is a sigle seater foldup futon. She has to fold it up every day in order to be able to walk around at all.
Dejected, Mary & I go out to eat because I’m starving. I figure i can either stay at her house, or get that g#dD*)m expensive hotel room for the night. GIving in, I call the Inn & Bistro back (where I thought I was styaing) to get the phone number for the best western. I tell her my name and remind her of my plight.
“Hang on,” she blurts out, “Let me go check soemthing for you”
It turns out that there was a room cancellation, and one of the Inn’s owners was plannign to stay the night in the delux kitchenette $199/night room, but for some reason, decided to change rooms…he moves to the room of the cancellation, leaving the grand room empty.
“Come right on over,” she exclaims.
At this point, I’m ready to pay the $199 just to have a nice bed I can sprawl out on and some room to look at my trainng materials. She gives me the room at the super steep discount group rate…which she really didn’t have to do.
So here I am, in a motel room that is deluxe and bigger than mary’s studio flat she shares with her friend. I invite Mary and her dog to spend the night in the luxury suite with me, but the elect to return to their flat.
Here’s to a good 8 hours sleep, breakfast at the bistro, and some great swimmign in the morning. Updates to come.
