Inspiration: A Terrible Horrible No Good Day

I am traveling to speak at an international conference this week. The conference is in Denver, Colorado. Myself and three other colleagues met at the airport and then headed to our hotel. When we got to the hotel, which we booked a year ago, they told us we did not have rooms due to their over schedule renovation…but they booked us rooms six miles away outside the city. The whole point of staying at this hotel was to be able to walk to the conference, a hotel six miles outside the city does not solve my problem. So we spent an hour walking from hotel to hotel in town trying to get four rooms for four nights…to no avail. Hungry and discouraged we sat down for lunch. 

Here is when I praise God for the Internet. One of us got on hotels.com and found 4 rooms down the street for what we needed – at over twice the price of our original rooms. We booked these rooms, then spent the day walking around downtown Denver because we could not check in until 4pm. When we picked up our car at the original hotel, they ‘compensated’ us for $199 towards one night’s stay…which is only a portion of the fee for the new hotel for one night. Oh yeah, and they gave us a free drink at the bar while we waited on the paperwork….we could only have soft drinks due to the coupon they gave us, so yet another disconnect. They covered our parking for the day, and the coupon they gave us to get out of the parking lot didn’t  work…really!?! When we drove to the new hotel and checked in , the fee for parking is $35 a night…only valet is available. And to make it a perfect day, this is my room number….I’m not kidding!

Whew! What a terrible, horrible no good day. I’m laughing now as I unpack my clothes and settle into my very expensive room. Yet in all this I am with good people, speaking at a conference for the first time, and will have a good meal tonight. All in all these are first world problems. Annoying and disappointing, yes. Life changing, not really. As we walked around town today fuming from all that had happened in our quest for a hotel room, we passed homeless people begging on the streets. I may be tired and annoyed and frustrated and going to have to explain a few things on my expense report…and yet I am blessed to be employed, good at what I do for a living, traveling with good people, and I know where I will sleep tonight. It might have been a terrible, horrible no good day…but I’ll take it!

What “problems” did you have today that aren’t REALLY problems? I encourage you to keep persepctive on what is really a problem and what is just annoying…I’ll take a terrible mood horrible no good day in the first world over being homeless anyway. Today be grateful for the roof over your head and a meal in your belly.