Phone Booth

Has anyone here seen the movie "Phone Booth"? If not, make it a must see. You never know what might happen when you answer a ringing phone! Conversely, you never know what will happen when you let someone use your phone, and you don't know who they are calling!

Back to Seattle, and the familiar streets of 85Th and Aurora. As you know by now, I never knew who or what might walk into the hotel, and this was the case when a twenty-something lady checked in one night. This lady was strange from the very beginning, but since she was from Chicago, and not a local, I felt that it was all right to sell a room to her for a few days. Yes, she was a little weird in both attire and action, but oh well, I had seen stranger folks on the street.

As I chatted with her for a few minutes, I learned that she was allegedly in Seattle to find out about her younger brother's death a few months earlier. Apparently, she did not believe the police reports or their story about what had happened to him. Imagine that, someone not believing the Seattle Police! Just because his death had happened in the notorious Central District, known for Black people being shot by cops for no apparent reason, and she was Black, I mean why would she not trust Seattle's finest? Anyway, her story tugged at my soft heart and softer brain, and I felt sorry her.

For several days I watched as she came and went from her room. She always dressed up, and left and returned everyday around the same time. Nothing too strange about that. When she would come into the office, I would politely ask her if anything was new concerning her brother's death. She would reply in the negative and simply suggest that the Seattle PD was covering up the case.

It was bout this time that I started getting strange reports from my housekeepers that everyday when they entered the room to clean, that her furniture was all turned around and some of it was relocated around the room. Well, it was not the first time that I had seen such things in a hotel. I had seen mattresses placed on the floor, towels and sheets tied together, and sheet stretched across chairs and tied in a swing type manner. Of course, it always sent your imagination scrambling about what kind of deviant acts went on that night between couples. However, since this lady's arrangement of our furniture created a problem for my staff, I told the girls that I would talk to her about it.

The next time my guest came in , I did so, and she said that she was sorry, and it would not happen again. But, it did again that night. So, once I again I got a little firmer with her and told her that she could not rearrange our furniture.

By now, her behavior was becoming stranger and stranger. One night I heard loud voices outside on the staircase closest to the lobby. I went out , and there was my strange guests confronting another Black guest, yelling and screaming at him. She was demanding that he show her some identification. He was refusing, and asked her what authority did she have to demand anything from him. She looked him right in the eyes, and said that she was actually FBI. I intervened and told her to go to her room. I apologized to the male guest, and decided right them that I would have to ask her to leave the next morning.

The next morning, I told her that I needed I the room for pre-booked reservations, and that I would need for her to check out. She said she would, and left that morning. I breathed a sigh of relief, and went about my business that day. That night there was a knock at the door to my apartment, which was located behind the lobby. I opened it, only to find this same lady standing at my door, She said that she was sorry for the all the trouble that she had caused, and wanted to make it up to me., and then she asked where my bedroom was. OK, now what? I told her that
was unnecessary, and I was not interested in having sex with her. She huffed off into the Seattle night, and once again, I felt a sigh of relief.

Several weeks went by, and though I would see her sometimes walking along Aurora , I paid
little attention to her. As long as she left me alone, who cared. Then, one morning about Six AM, as I was getting to open the lobby for morning coffees, there she was, walking in the door, She very politely asked if she could use the phone to make an important local call. I decided to let her make a quick call, thus hoping to avoid a confrontation. I stepped away from the phone so she could have some privacy.

About this time I noticed that she was whispering into the phone, and then it dawned on me that she had only dialed three numbers. Oh my God, she must have dialed 911. I grabbed the phone and told her to leave now.She smiled and walked out of the door. As I returned to the phone, the parking lot was suddenly full of police cars. I walked out Cops all over the place. I walked out to the parking lot, and saw an officer that I knew. He was raging mad. What was going on her demanded, and who was the lady that had made the 911 call. Evidently, she had had told the dispatcher that I was trying to rape her, and had beaten her. The officer told me that Washington law said that when such a call was made, someone had to go to jail. Wow, now I was scared.

I told the officer about the lady, and how screwed up she was. Luckily, since he knew me professionally, he believed me. He them proceeded to lecture me in his official police voice on how stupid I was for letting a street person use the phone. They were especially angry because they had to leave an investigation in the Ballard area to answer this bogus call.

The cops left, and I was left shaking in my boots, and trying to imagine what the headlines in the paper would have been, " Hotel manager arrested for raping guest" Wow, did I ever learn my lesson, Never again did I let anyone use the phone unless they were family or friends. I never saw the crazy lady again.

Double talk.

Yes, my constipated blogging mind has finally cleared some. If I am stuck on medical terms for awhile, please forgive me, but the last month has not been pretty. It has been one medical crises after another in my family.However, I have emerged much more educated in the field of medicine, and in medication in particular.

About a month ago, my mother suffered her second stroke in a year, and this time required a stint in a nursing home. My wife threw a scare in us when her doctor found a mass in her breast, and off we went to a cancer clinic in CDA for testing, ultrasound, and other female testing.All of this right in the middle of my Mother's crises. You see, this was really bad timing because my wife is my mother's caregiver, and is paid by an agency to be so.Now on top of all of this there was lots of legal papers to be taken care of concerning my parent's finances. Splitting of assets, new bank accounts, power of attorney, and on and on. So, my blogging mind was completely constipated and backed way up.

On the positive side, we did get some good news, maybe. My Wife's tests were negative. I actually got to witness the ultra-sound, and it was very fascinating to say the least. However, there is a certain irony about the testing that I will get to later.

My mother is home from the nursing home after a sturggle with certain family memebers about what was best for her. Aren't families wonderful sometimes? She is home after my insistence that she be brought home, and is doing very well through therapy, nursing visits, and my wife's around the clock attention. So all is quiet for the moment.

Yesterday, I picked up some medication for my mother, and wanting to be educated in her care, read the information printed out by the pharmacy. Interesting reading . Everyone should read the info on their medicine bottles.

The first thing is said was to take "one tablet, twice daily" Hm, here I became intellectually challenged. How on earth does one take the same tablet twice in on day? Well, I would figure that out later, I thought, so I read on."To be taken orally only" Whew, for a minute there I thought that we were going to have to stick it up her ass! Sure glad they clarified that one for me. This was given because the stroke makes her think that she has to urinate constantly, so the medication was supposed to slow down that process. Good, right? No, one of the side effects is that it can cause frequent urination! What! Isn't that suppose to be what this little jewel is supposed to prevent? Now, I am totally confused.

So, in order to further educate myself, I read all of the literature on the meds that I have been taking for years to keep my lungs breathing. One of the side effects is that is can lead to bronchial spasms, which can lead to death. I read on. Can cause pneumonia. Hm, so I take this so that I can breathe, but it might collapse my lungs and give me pneumonia. What the heck?

Back to my wife, her doctor called the other day, and said that she was not satisfied with the test results. No mind you, this same doctor was the one who sent her to the specialists in CDA to get the tests done. You would think that she would have been happy about the tests being negative, but no, she wants my wife to see a surgeon, " just to make sure". So, in other words, doctors don't believe their own testing. Wow, what a cluster ----!

However, now I know what certain things mean. For instance I know what they say that Doctor's " practice medicine" well, I wish they would get done practicing and start doing it for real.

Well, all of this writing has given me a headache, so I think that I will take a pill. Whoops, wait a minute, the side effect of this pill says it can cause bleeding, No problem I have a pill that will take care of that. Wait a minute, the pill to stop bleeding says it may cause circulation problems. No problem, I have a pill for that. No, wait a minute, the pill to help the circulation problem can cause liver damage. No problem, I have a pill that will help my liver. No wait a minute, that pill can cause kidney damage. Oh well I have a pill that will take care of that. No wait a minute, that pill can cause heart failure, blindness, constipation, erectile dysfunction, sore throat, and cancer of the body. Oh well, I have pills for all of that, too. On second thought, maybe I should just call the funeral home now and save taking all of those pills. It would be cheaper in the long run.