1-year reflection.

So this is my one-year anniversary at my temporary home in Columbus. I took my new job as a traveling hotel manager last June and so much has happened in the last year...good and bad, looking back mostly good.
I started my year off in Philadelphia. I have visited Atlantic City, Sandusky, West Palm Beach, San Francisco, New York, Nashville, Indianapolis, Louisville, Pittsburgh and Chicago (multiple times).
Each city and trip brought a multitude of adventure. In Philly I met Chris and started my first relationship. It quickly turned into an LTR and lasted 6 months (record time for myself). Surprising to many I remained completely faithful, introduced him to my family, and met his. In the end I think we were looking for different things. He was/is a great guy.
Ohio has been interesting. The first 6 months I was here I didn’t do much but bitch/complain/mope around. I was unhappy I was here and was determined not to enjoy my time. After the breakup with Chris I met Ryan down here in Columbus. Quickly he introduced me to his friends and through his friends met more friends. The first party I went to with him I met Tonya and Erica who are the coolest girls. Columbus would not be the same without them. Through Tonya and Erica I have made friends with the entire CYP gang and through Ryan, his roommates and other friends. Networking is great and that’s why I took this job. I have friends all over the place and its awesome.
San Francisco was cool hanging out with Jay. Some really cool bars and another place I would love to live.
New York was cool, did a lot on my own, a lot with my bro. The greatest thing was seeing The Daily Show on 4/27…awesome. I also got to hang with Mark, which was interesting. Some things/people never change..which is good and bad.
Work has been interesting. It’s hard to remember a year ago but I think the working conditions were horrible. I got here at 7pm that Friday night and worked till 11, and didn’t stop working for weeks. The hotel was oversold and the reservations just kept coming through. Now a year later, sold out, but not oversold but with a much better team in place. Some interesting characters work here, but the troubled ones are gone. At time I actually enjoy sitting in my office and conversing with the staff.
I have become way more comfortable with myself in small and large situations. I spent the first 6 months eating alone and doing everything alone. Huge fear conquered. Everywhere I go I seem to meet people. I got over my fear of what people think about me…I am myself, I am me, if you don’t like me, FUCK YOU. I am a funny, nice, sarcastic, awesome friend, all-around cool guy,
I actually love myself, weird I know. Going on 3 years from 6/27/06 when I thought my life was over to having a great time and positive attitude everyday.
I love my job, my friends and family (mostly immediate and select few)
I went to two different pride celebrations, Columbus and Chicago. 1 year ago I couldn’t have imagined.
Every day is an adventure and a trip. Can’t wait to see what the next year brings.

haha

lijah87: why do you always message me I dont really like you as I told you before your kinda rude
thebryguy: i thought you were just kidding! how you been?
lijah87: no I dont!!!!
thebryguy: your funny, i hope you are having a good weekend!
lijah87: your weird and fat goodbye
*** lijah87's IC window is closed

From: rslmd69049
Subject: Re: hey man
Date: Thu 12 Feb 2009 05:24 PM

we chatted before and you rudely stated i wasnt your type so....get the
message you jack ass?
--------------------------------------------------
On Thu 12 Feb 2009 05:23 PM, thebryguy wrote:

> whats going on? where in Farmington?

the day in the life on bryan.

I haven’t updated in quite some time and after reading Mitters very detailed blogs I thought I would post something. I am sitting here at work at 730am on a Saturday. Its quiet…a little to quiet. I was stationed in Columbus on 7/11/08 and now over 6 months later I am still here. So much has happened!

Columbus for those of you that don’t know is a HELL HOLE! The property I am watching over is up for sale by my company. Being that the financial market is so bad many people are having trouble getting financing. That being said I am still here. The property is in really good shape, but is in the ghetto, surrounded by an abandoned (deteriorating) hotel on one side, and a scrap yard on the other side. It’s also on a service drive and is impossible to find.

The people here are crazy…the guests are ghetto and the staff is an outrageous group of people. There is always some sort of issue happening here whether I am at the hotel, or trying to escape it in Detroit. I always seem to get bothered by them!

Right before Christmas we has -20 degree wind chills which caused a water pipe to burst flooding 4 rooms. NIGHTMARE, then when I was gone had a non-guest major issue, a guest fight which someone pulled a gun, and then the key maker (the thing that makes keys for the hotel) stopped working. We had to manually let people into their rooms for 4 days. Not fun…have I mentioned how I hate this place?

 

Just after Christmas I broke up with Chris. It was unexpected to him and I felt really bad. He’s an awesome guy, but we wanted different things in life. He wanted to settle down, move in, and some other things that I am not ready to do just yet. I am still working and career driven, and I wanted to be able to make a decision not based on someone else. Might sound selfish, but I have to do what’s good for me, which meant ending something that was really good in ways, and tough and hard in other ways.

 

Since the breakup I have been more social in the Columbus area which is good, I was going crazy being alone in my hotel room.

 

Everything is the same and typical on the home front. I am home every other week or so (I usually work 10days on 4 days off). I see/talk to don a lot. Him and his roommate (mitter) always have something going on and I enjoy the entertaining stories I have actually become really close with mitter and some of his friends, which is great. Most recently I was hanging with Greenfield who broke up with a bf and all this crazy drama that ensued. When I was in town we grabbed coffee a few times and I tried to offer my advice.

 

Over the Christmas holiday I went to the Motor City Bowl with my brother and dad. It’s a good way to watch college football cheap. This was our second year attending. This year some guys sat next to us that were using cherry flavored chewing tobacco. GROSS! The thing that always happens at this even is seeing the college guys and realizing how out of shape and FAT I look. It ends up being a good thing as it motivates me to loose the weight I desperately need to do…I want to look twinky!

I started by cutting out fried foods and pop last week, and the other day signed up with JC. That way I have a program to follow and a way to track the weight loss. 

OHIO = HELL

this is not OPA!

If hell were a place it would be Ohio. Columbus, Toledo, Cincinnati, Akron, Dayton, Dublin, Springfield, and every other crappy city/town in the state that is a little less than 45000 sq miles. Not only would the land be hell, everyone that lives in OHIO, or thinks of it as their home would be hell.

For those who weren’t aware, I have been in Columbus Ohio for just about 3 months…3 months longer than I would have ever wanted.

When I took my new job back in June, I chose a region that had most properties in Chicago (my favorite place in the world) and a different hotel brand, but one I thought would be a good fit for me, and would be a good opportunity to develop myself.

The first place they sent me was Horsham (Philadelphia) PA, which started off rough, but had everything I loved about work…and I met Chris, so it was good.

I was expecting to be there longer, but then I was moved to Columbus OH and have been here since July 11, 3 months ago today.

I had heard horror stories about this hotel…its in the ghetto, has a gate, uses a temp agency, scary guests, unsafe and more…. the hotel also is up for sale and doesn’t have a brand name…its to the crappy hotel on the side of the road.

The hotel is nice, the area sucks, and the people that work here are crazy!

I had the girl on drugs that would show up hours late to work (who eventually quit without calling or anything), the girl who was supposed to work night audit and refused to (she tried to say I was racist…forgetting she had a rigid personality and bad work ethics), the girl who seemed sweet, nice, caring, who broke rules, used fake/stolen credit cards for friends, stayed on property without permission and more (who blew up when I fired her and refused to leave the hotel yelling “ILL LEAVE WHEN I WANT!) And the other lady, the DIRECTOR of SALES who was just given a fake title who came and went as she pleased and was the shit starter for the other hotel…I had told her to “go home! and don’t come back tomorrow either!” when she was hours late to work…(she had the easiest job in the world!) She finally quit today, but didn’t tell me, she told all the hourly employees and then emailed my boss…. funny thing was my employees told me what was happening, and he knew, and I locked her off property!

Do the horrible, lazy, whiny, trashy, ghetto; people that work at my hotel represent that whole state of Ohio? …. I would have to say yes!

The hotel I work for is quiet so I try to keep busy by eating out, and going to the movies and other stuff…. Ohio has the WORST drivers I have ever encountered…stupid, slow, and just plain old bad…

The food is messed up…I went to a Greek place last night and I asked if they flamed the saganaiki at the table and the girl looked at me like I was retarded…. I said, light it on fire and yell opa…and she said, “O I have heard of that”

When they served the saganaki they had Parmesan cheese on top of it…that’s like topping tomatoes with catsup. STUPID OHIO!

I was going to continue writing about OHIO but I think I wont give it anymore time.

Other than all that shit I am doing good! Chris, my brother, and myself all went to Chicago last weekend…. what a great time. 

my new job! crazy story

What a crazy week I have had.

Sunday I had to pack for my three week trip. After a goodbye lunch with Alex and don I came home to no power!

Went to my folks place, then went home to pack then went back to their place.

Monday I worked from 8-12, and had a goodbye lunch with matt and some other people I worked with. It was so strange. I have never said bye to people I actually liked and cared about.

So I get to the airport and there was no line. Thank god I was there 2 hours before my flight! They booked me on southwest because its an open ended job, no return flight scheduled just yet…

I enjoy southwest. Its so funny, laid back, non professional. It’s a nice change of pace.

Not only do they board you in group order, they do it by number now. I was A1, first on the plane. My company booked it business class and I got 2 free drink coupons! What could go wrong?

I flew from Detroit to Midway and the flight was good and on time. 2 hour layover and on to philly. Except my flight was delayed 1.5 hours. I was so bummed! At the original take off time they lined us up saying we could board. Then they realized there was no flight crew and they said “hold up yall”

The flight in was good. Bumpy towards the end. I didn’t get to the airport til 11, and then sat on the runway for 45minutes because there was no gate for us to go to. At 1215a I finally got my luggage and went to find my shuttle company. It took 40 minutes for that and another 45-1hr to get to the hotel.

At 230a finally getting settled I reviewed some of the hotel issues and I was beat. I fell asleep at 4a and was up at 7a to get ready for my big day!

The place is crazy. Total chaos, disorganization, a mess, I don’t even know where to begin. I worked a crazy 13 hours finally eating food for lunch at 3p. at 9p I came up to my room and got ready for bed. Took my lunesta and made some phone calls.

At 1050 the front desk called to say the night auditor called off…so on lunesta, on no sleep, I worked from 11p-7a.

The hotel had been expecting their Quality Audit and I told the front desk not to wake me unless the building was on fire, or the QA showed up. I took half a lunesta and went to bed at 730, and at 830a, the front desk called saying the QA was there…

The lady was nice, boston accent, felt bad I had been up for 24+hours and was really kind hearted. It was weird touring a hotel and getting inspected when I knew where nothing was, who anyone was…I took care of some thing immediately on Tuesday morning and the hotel thankfully passes the audit.

I went to bed and slept for a long while.

I have worked non stop since tue, and then Thursday and Friday I had crazy days. This place is only 95 rooms but in total disarray that the small staff they have cant run it…I have already worked on hiring replacements and additional staff. My old hotel had my GM, myself, director of sales, account manager, executive housekeeper and chief engineer….this hotel has me as the GM, no AGM, no DOS, no sales manager, a unqualified (nut nice) housekeeping supervisor and 2 guys that don’t speak any English (but nice) engineers. The hotel is expected to run like a normal hotel with no support staff. Its interesting.

Accounts receivable usually goes from current -30days, 30-60days, 60-120, 120+.

My hotel in Livonia had everything current and we would go crazy if things hit the 30 day mark, here they have stuff from 2007! Which is well over the 120 day mark. MY GOD!!

Their petty cash safe had no money in it. What the hell!

The tons of work I have put in, have left a little dent on the hotel, but I think I am starting to make a difference. I have a ton of people coming out to fix broken things so the hotel can look better and run smoother. Hopefully I will start some change and make the hotel successful and look good! Or I might end up back at home. Whatever, I am working hard, and kind of having fun. Thankfully everyone has been pleasant to work with, and thankfully I know my stuff.

I am here, chillin, so give me a call, shoot me a text, whatever. And when I am back home…I want to see everyone!

New Job, starts June 16, 2008

At the beginning of may i flew to Chicago to meet with a regional manager in regards to a Bench GM posistion with my company. A bench's job is 100% travel, going from hotel to hotel, most likely when someone is laid off, but also could be a long term absence of a GM, someone quit, or more as a consultant to under-preforming hotels.
The interview went well, and i knew i was going to recieve an offer after i spoke with my companys VP of Operations.
That interview the following week went well. the company than had me talk with one other reginonal manager.
I waited 3 weeks and the job mysteriously dissapaered from our companys job listings and i received an email from the original regional manager saying she would call monday...that never happened.
The following day i got a call from the regional who said i had the job!
i got a phone call friday saying they need me this monday 6/16 in Philidelphia PA.
i will be gone for probably 3 weeks...i will update more as i find out more.