Hovel

Good times at the a cappella competition last night. The surrounding events were a little surreal.

To get there, I googled up some directions. Said directions put me on a road named “Poverty Hollow.” Initially, the road was okay, but it kept getting narrower and more winding, heading into the back woods of CT. Night had fallen, it was raining, and I was on some dank-ass little country road. Suddenly, the road turned to gravel, and there was a chain across it. As I was turning the car around, I heard banjos.

I called up redmed who mapquested me in (after stopping giggling about “poverty hollow”). I love getting directions from someone who is online. Always makes me feel like Trinity from the Matrix, talking to Morpheus on the phone.

Anyway, the competition was fun. Since it was 10 by the time it ended, and I still hadn’t had a chance to catch up with my friend Mark, I decided to stay down there and come back in the morning. We found a nice restaurant with a hotel hovel attached, secured a room, stashed our bags, and ate and talked about stuff until late. Mark is engaged, his business is doing well, and he sounds genuinely happy.

So then, off to sleep. But not so much, because the heater in the room wouldn’t turn off. We brought in the night desk clerk who said “open a window” and shrugged out. The room was stable at around 85 degrees, all night. In a bitter twist of irony, however, there was no hot water in the shower. Hot water was available in the sink, mind you, just not in the shower. The two knobs in the shower produced “pretty cold” vs. “HOLY GOD THAT’S COLD!”

At that point I started investigating to see what else was screwed up. Drawers, for example. How would one mess up drawers? Mouse poo. It went on from there.

Drove back this morning. redmed is back and it’s sunny and beautiful out … so we walked down to the bike trail and got pizza for lunch.

–UPDATE–

The hotel, for those who wish to avoid it, is the “Hotel Hi Ho” in Reding, CT.