True Story

This is an email I sent some people a while back. I just found it while weeding out gmail.

On a side note, I would like to share a story with all of you regarding last evening at my hotel. I was in Johnstown New York, which apparently used to be a big industrial area with the most millionaires per capita (at least thats what a local broker said), but now, like most American cities with an industrial past is now, desolate depressed, and generally crusty. I was staying at the Holiday Inn, the only other choice would have been the motel 8, you get the gist.

The Hotel is old style, with the doors for the rooms facing outside, aka, no hallways. I was staying at the far end of the hotel, which means to get to the lobby/bar, I had to walk a decent distance outside. At the bar, I had one drink and asked for a spoon so that I could go back to my room and eat some chicken noodle soup that Andrea had made. I told the bartender to keep my tab open, "room 330", I said.

I get back to my room, start eating my soup and the phone rings. It was a man asking if I was coming back to the bar. Thinking it was someone from the hotel, I said just keep the tab open and I would be down in a bit. Five minutes later, the phone rings again, same voice, which is a dude, which is weird, because the bartender was a girl. The voice was more insistent about when I was coming back to the bar, and then asked if I needed company. I yelled, 'who the fuck is this', and they hung up.

At this point, I am shook because clearly someone from the bar knows my room number, and the only people at the bar were some swedes in the corner, and local grizzly bears. I had to close my tab and wanted another beer, so I clenched the spoon, ready for battle. I get to the bar, and no patrons are there. I tell the bartender about the calls and she said it could have only been 2 people, one dude sitting to the left of me, who was a yocal, not staying at the hotel and a dude to the right of me, who was.

At the front desk, I tell the employee about the calls. He said that he just got on duty, but had already forwarded a call to my room and that the girl that just off duty told him there were a bunch of calls, too. Apparently the calls were coming from an outside line as the person did not have my name, just room number. The dude at the front desk said he would not transfer the calls through and it was probably a practical joke. I told him it did not appear to be a practical joke, but he kinda brushed it off. Normally, I would not care how dismissive the front desk dude was, but now I am paranoid and thinking there is a conspiracy with Deliverance undertones.

I got a butter knife from the bartender and started to walk back to my room. While making the trek, a car's lights turn on in the parking lot across the street and someone starts honking the horn. I hustle to my room, lock that shit, and sure enough the light is blinking on my phone, indicating a message. Probably should have just deleted it, but I listened and it was the same dude talking in a creepy voice about guy on guy action. Am I being over dramatic as I put a floor lamp by the door and a coffee pot(with the intentions of breaking and stabbing if necessary) on the nightstand? Alas, I got into bed, had a shtty sleep with no other disturbances and was psyched to be there only one night.