mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2024-01-10 08:47 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2024-01-10 08:47 pm
Weekend Trip, Part 1!
Last weekend, I went as Taylor's +1 on the annual holiday party weekend that their company throws. (Our mom works part-time there, so she was on the trip as well!) Sometimes the trip is to an exotic locale, but this year they stayed in Colorado. We stayed at the Gaylord (ha) Resort.
I guess I should have taken a picture of the actual hotel, but instead I was like "look, horsey statues." You can see part of the building in the background.
They still had at least some of their Christmas decor up. The lobby was very ~fancy~.
No 13th floor!
I will say that the art was better than usual for hotel art:
I genuinely like the roadrunner! Plus bees and cacti.
And Steller's jays!
The view from our window.
So... the resort is called the "Gaylord (ha) Rockies," which to me, implied a certain closeness with the Rocky Mountains that this place does not have. The hotel is located pretty far out on the plains, near the airport. I guess you can... see the mountains.
Yet...
They are a bit obnoxiously full of themselves. I guess it's to be expected from a fancy place, but...
"Showcasing... alpine charm." Yeah, those plains and condos aren't exactly "alpine." And "a welcome reprieve from the typical mountain stay?" lmao, fuck off. Rude.
If you zoom in pretty significantly, you do get a nice view of Denver with the mountains in the background. (Or... city and mountains were distant and impersonal.)
There wasn't a whole lot planned for Friday, but there was a "welcome dinner" to mingle and chat with people.
Dinner was "heavy hors d'oeuvres," catered by the hotel, and everything was very good! I failed to take any appetizing pictures, I'm afraid.
There were three kinds of dumpling/potstickers, of which the veggie and the chicken lemongrass were particularly good. There were a few different types of slider, of which the salmon was the best (it was salmon fillet, rather than patties.) There were grilled veggies of various kinds, plus a really good lemon and paprika hummus, and a charcuterie spread. It was all really tasty! The desserts were also impressive: mini cheesecakes, some sort of bitter chocolate-caramel-nut thing, s'mores tarts, and a delicious Palisade peaches and cream, which was definitely the best. Ate too much, and don't feel bad about it!
There was also an open bar, though none of the three of us took the fullest advantage. Taylor and I each had a local cider, and then a vodka and grapefruit mixed drink.
We had some quiet live music for the evening, from a couple doing sort of folk-pop-ish covers of various rock/pop from the 70s onward. They were good, though I'm afraid we weren't the most appreciative audience, since we were mostly chatting and eating, ha.
Though in the world's dumbest small-world coincidences... the husband of one of Taylor's coworkers came and talked with us. In the course of small-talk, I told him where I worked, and he said that oh, he thought one of his kids had just come through our business. Maybe he even talked to me on the phone! She was at a location in a different city, but if he talked to me, gosh, I was great and so helpful, lol...
But okay, see, I'm pretty sure I DID talk to this guy. He went from a perfectly cordial "I need to reschedule a lesson because my daughter had a sports meet come up..." to an 11/10 screaming at me "ACTUALLY I JUST WANT YOU TO REFUND ME BECAUSE I HAVEN'T USED THE LESSON," and then when I told him that we don't do partial refunds on lesson packages, it went to "AND YOU'RE STEALING MY MONEY SO I JUST WANT YOU TO SAY FOR THE RECORD THAT YOU'RE STEALING MY MONEY BECAUSE YOU GUYS ARE CROOKS" out of fucking NOWHERE. I only remember the call because it was SO fucking weird.
So lmao, of ALL THE PEOPLE. (There were less than 30 people at this event in total - it's only 14 employees and their +1s!)
Some more hotel art:
Big agate slices.
Tubular horses.
We called it a fairly early night, though I know plenty of the rest of the group stayed up VERY late drinking in the boss's room, haha. We were pretty tired after dinner and another hour or so of chatting though, so we just headed back to our rooms. Taylor and I hung out for a bit before going to bed. (The beds were very comfortable, yet I couldn't sleep worth a damn!)
I guess I should have taken a picture of the actual hotel, but instead I was like "look, horsey statues." You can see part of the building in the background.
They still had at least some of their Christmas decor up. The lobby was very ~fancy~.
No 13th floor!
I will say that the art was better than usual for hotel art:
I genuinely like the roadrunner! Plus bees and cacti.
And Steller's jays!
The view from our window.
So... the resort is called the "Gaylord (ha) Rockies," which to me, implied a certain closeness with the Rocky Mountains that this place does not have. The hotel is located pretty far out on the plains, near the airport. I guess you can... see the mountains.
Yet...
They are a bit obnoxiously full of themselves. I guess it's to be expected from a fancy place, but...
"Showcasing... alpine charm." Yeah, those plains and condos aren't exactly "alpine." And "a welcome reprieve from the typical mountain stay?" lmao, fuck off. Rude.
If you zoom in pretty significantly, you do get a nice view of Denver with the mountains in the background. (Or... city and mountains were distant and impersonal.)
There wasn't a whole lot planned for Friday, but there was a "welcome dinner" to mingle and chat with people.
Dinner was "heavy hors d'oeuvres," catered by the hotel, and everything was very good! I failed to take any appetizing pictures, I'm afraid.
There were three kinds of dumpling/potstickers, of which the veggie and the chicken lemongrass were particularly good. There were a few different types of slider, of which the salmon was the best (it was salmon fillet, rather than patties.) There were grilled veggies of various kinds, plus a really good lemon and paprika hummus, and a charcuterie spread. It was all really tasty! The desserts were also impressive: mini cheesecakes, some sort of bitter chocolate-caramel-nut thing, s'mores tarts, and a delicious Palisade peaches and cream, which was definitely the best. Ate too much, and don't feel bad about it!
There was also an open bar, though none of the three of us took the fullest advantage. Taylor and I each had a local cider, and then a vodka and grapefruit mixed drink.
We had some quiet live music for the evening, from a couple doing sort of folk-pop-ish covers of various rock/pop from the 70s onward. They were good, though I'm afraid we weren't the most appreciative audience, since we were mostly chatting and eating, ha.
Though in the world's dumbest small-world coincidences... the husband of one of Taylor's coworkers came and talked with us. In the course of small-talk, I told him where I worked, and he said that oh, he thought one of his kids had just come through our business. Maybe he even talked to me on the phone! She was at a location in a different city, but if he talked to me, gosh, I was great and so helpful, lol...
But okay, see, I'm pretty sure I DID talk to this guy. He went from a perfectly cordial "I need to reschedule a lesson because my daughter had a sports meet come up..." to an 11/10 screaming at me "ACTUALLY I JUST WANT YOU TO REFUND ME BECAUSE I HAVEN'T USED THE LESSON," and then when I told him that we don't do partial refunds on lesson packages, it went to "AND YOU'RE STEALING MY MONEY SO I JUST WANT YOU TO SAY FOR THE RECORD THAT YOU'RE STEALING MY MONEY BECAUSE YOU GUYS ARE CROOKS" out of fucking NOWHERE. I only remember the call because it was SO fucking weird.
So lmao, of ALL THE PEOPLE. (There were less than 30 people at this event in total - it's only 14 employees and their +1s!)
Some more hotel art:
Big agate slices.
Tubular horses.
We called it a fairly early night, though I know plenty of the rest of the group stayed up VERY late drinking in the boss's room, haha. We were pretty tired after dinner and another hour or so of chatting though, so we just headed back to our rooms. Taylor and I hung out for a bit before going to bed. (The beds were very comfortable, yet I couldn't sleep worth a damn!)
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It was mostly just very funny that OF ALL PEOPLE, it was that one guy, lmao. What are the damn odds?
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Running into that guy was mostly just funny. Like, what are the odds? I kind of wish I'd made a big deal about it, and reminded him of the call, but I didn't want to be an ass about it at a party. He was very nice to me in person, and I hope he had at least a LITTLE shame, if he thought I did actually remember him blowing up at me, lol.
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The art at the hotel was actually quite nice. And I will say, a lot of the other art around the common areas were done by Colorado artists, so that is nice.
I would eat an awful lot of meals made up of appetizers, honestly! It was so good!
Lol, I wonder if he realized or not? He only ever spoke to me once over the phone, and I don't answer with my name, though I'm told I have a fairly distinctive voice. He seemed a little... overly nice, in a way after that, and I don't know if it was trying to be apologetic, or just... being weird, haha. What a weird small world coincidence, though. I sort of wish I'd made a Thing of it, and referred to the conversation specifically, but instead I played it off with a "well, it might have been me, could have been any number of coworkers, there are at least 20 or 30 of us who answer the phones..."
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Though that was exactly it: dude was real nice to me in person, and while Taylor said that they could see him acting like that, my mom seemed shocked. "But he's such a nice guy!" It was hard not to say "Yeah, nice... to YOU, because he doesn't think YOU are beneath him," but it was a fun work party and that wasn't the vibe.
Maybe it'll be a reminder that "oh shit, that was a real person," but I doubt it.
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Running into the random jerk was mostly just funny. I don't know if the guy actually realizes he DID yell at me on the phone, or if he thinks it was someone else. But just really, of all the people in this state, he's one of the handful at this same event? Stupid coincidence.
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Ah ok. That's true of all the places to run into him it just so happened to be there. Truly a stupid coincidence. lol.
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Such a dumb coincidence!
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