here we go again

Well, for the second year in a row, I am doing construction clean up on a new hotel in town. And I will be employed at this new hotel when it opens. In many ways it is very exciting. I like the buzz of manic energy as we are struggling to make the deadline. We have a corporate rep coming tomorrow to tell is if we will open on time. And I like the progression from disaster to dazzling. It's the future that worries me... as usual.
The Cambria is a high end hotel. Given the size, only 92 suites, we are more like a boutique hotel. Since it is high end, corporate is expecting a lot out of us. We will have less opportunity to show our local flavors than at the Comfort Inn. We have tailored uniforms, even for housekeeping. This will be only the second hotel in the city to employ bellmen; the Resort being the first. Park Place might. But I have never been in there to be sure. The lobby looks like an upscale cafe instead of some one's living room. Sleek, glitzy and glammed up, Cambria is going to be a place where we really aren't supposed to be seen or heard. But if our band of talented fairies and wee folk are seen or heard, we have to know as much about the hotel as the front desk. If we are caught doing our programmed jobs then we have to be all sunshine and lollipops with a dash of positronic data storage and retrieval systems. High end equals high pressure. As we get closer to the opening, I am getting really nervous about pulling this off.
But the thing that is drawing me into the whole emotional connection with the building, as much as my coworkers, is the look and feel. The 3D mock ups really don't do the place justice. We have very DS9 looking pillars welcoming guests when they enter the front doors, which whoosh open upon approach. The lobby has a towering rock wall flanked by floor to second storey ceiling windows. And the furniture is clustered in intimate seating arrangements with blond or black tables. Silk and silk blend upholstery, prints and weaves... its everything Christopher Lowell has been telling his HGTV viewers is essential in room decor. There is a fireplace area with a sleek brushed aluminum canopy that looks like something out of ST:TNG. Across the front of the bar which serves coffee and alcohol along with appetizers, buttery yellow leather stools. Leather! In front of the bar! Who does that? The arm chairs have swing out platforms for a laptop, or if it were my clone sitting there, legal pad and pen. A slick black leather ottoman sits right across the door in front of a red display wall. Somewhere in this mess there are going to be flat screen TVs. And the lighting is freakin' cool.
The whole place is amazing. The big conference room, called Old Mission, has artwork and gallery lighting. All the high tech stuff for presentations is there and there are cabinets with black granite tops for serving snacks during a meeting. The boardroom, tentatively called the Boardman, could only be cooler if it looked more like the Captain's ready room. The wipe off board is hidden behind in a bi fold cabinet. Artwork on the outside, wipe off board on the inside... slick. Those chairs are leather as well. My only complaint is in the names. I know, I've blogged on the subject before. But Old Mission is a name that everyone uses. The resort has a huge penthouse suite named Old Mission, the Park Place has a dining hall with the name. While there shouldn't be much in a name Tom Dick and Harry could mix it up an who cares. In this kind of a setting, the names mean something. And in the case of Old Mission... that name says we can't come up with anything better than what anyone else has done. It upsets my authors senses and my graphic design/marketing senses. If we are going to be different from anyone else, and corporate will allow us this much local flavor, why not name it for the guy that founded the mission? But that is just me. And the lame name doesn't make it any less beautiful.
The rooms are still a but disheveled cause the construction guys keep finding things that they forgot to do. And I wasn't really crazy about the color schemes in the mock up. But when you actually get into the rooms they blend really well. Nothing jars your senses. Nothing screams OMG WTF were they thinking? Which is a huge relief. I've been in a few local hotels who color choices made me want to run to maintenance and gouge out me eyes. And I've been in one who's convoluted and haphazzardous architecture would have driven Escher mad, especially with the graceless change from semi formal English Parlor to UP Woodland themes drove me mad. It was a hotel that didn't know what it wanted to be when it grew up. But the Cambria is everything that is graceful and smooth.
And that is where I wonder where I come in. Sure, as Colleen said, I can talk to anyone about anything. Granted I'm a bit heavy on the ST references, but that is just because of the new movie and the new Sci-fi geeks I've made friends with. And I like everyone. I even like the grumpypants people who keep making my life miserable. Yes, that includes my brother. No I didn't hit my head. And no, no one dropped a box on it either. It isn't in my nature to dislike people. Yeah, I can't figure it out either... unless it's Pure Aquarius. Even when I'm tear stained an look like I should have been sedated and sent home I've been pretty much right there for the guests. And yes, I still will do anything that anyone asks me to do because I am a ginormous sucker. No one, however, would even lump me in with graceful and smooth people. I am about as unpolished as it gets without descending strait into trailer trash.
My anxiety about fitting in is increasing as we approach opening. I fit in great with the staff, that isn't the issue. The issue is fitting in with what corporate expects. I have a feeling that we are supposed to be more Starfeet smooth with the Protocols in this setting than UP North friendly. As is my habit, I may be putting way too many expectations on me and the situation than necessary [I rewrote that to avoid a prepositional ending; you've had quite enough for today]. Yet, I can not deny that this feeling comes from the same place that my healing gifts come from. And there have been way too many confirmations of this 6th sense in the past week...
Cambria is beautiful. I don't want to be the pimple.