An Afternoon in the Lobby

Dallas' High Five Interchange

*This post was drafted at work but revised and posted from home.
You can tell the hotel is full. People move like the High Five Interchange before my station in the hotel lobby. It is the second time I have been asked to fill in at the concierge desk. Because the concierge clerks' job is to sit and wait for the bored, lost, or curious guests to approach, I spent the first several slow hours researching hikes in Anchorage and the surrounding areas. I made a beautifully detailed Excel Spreadsheet…which vanished when my heel caught on the power cord. Since then, I've channeled my chagrin at misplaced productivity towards people watching. The entry of cobalt blues, hard whites, and blinding yellows offered a gratifying diversion. The guests for the wedding reception in the ballroom on the third floor wandered in (and out) for several hours and have been stomping unrestrainedly through the two floors above me since the ceremony ended at 5:45. Later in the evening, a boy and four small girls in white cupcake dresses  bounced out of the elevator with their escort, Grandma. "Grandma doesn't have any dollars!" chimed "Sunny," the blond. Grandma confirmed, "that's right and they are dancing for dollars up there now."
The cupcakes are having much more fun in the hotel's revolving door anyhow.

When I came home, Aunt Lyn said there were letters for me in the kitchen. I jumped a little as a reached for them, suddenly noticing the bodiless shrimp rearing up at me from her note: HI MK we missed you today. —the Shrimps. After last year's shrimp gutting experience, I can't say I feel the same way. I was happy to skip right to the pasta, the part where we just eat them.