Six Word Memoir

I just returned from my annual February trip to NYC. It was great, I saw a lot of friends and ate some good food. On my way out of the City yesterday I was listening to WNYC and the Leonard Lopate show. I used to listen to him a lot when I was living in Brooklyn and home on weekdays (read: unemployed). His show was always a bright spot in my day.

Yesterday's show centered around a contest to write a personal memoir in six words. It was surprisingly interesting and it inspired me to come up with my own. Here it is:
Living a life I didn't expect.

Two Good Things

I almost always have guests on President's Day weekend, although it may only be two or three rooms. This year for some reason the stars seem to have aligned and deposited Valentine's Day on the Saturday of the long weekend. As a result, I have a full house for two nights. Woo hoo! I also have a couple of rooms booked for Sunday night, which is a bonus since not everyone gets President's Day off. Most of the reservations were last minute, all but one came in a week or less before the weekend began. That's not unusual for winter reservations; people wait for the weather forecast before deciding to drive anywhere.

Edit: I spoke too soon... my one guest coming for a single Saturday just cancelled. Anyone want a last-minute room for tonight?

Edit part 2: Someone called hoping for a room tonight. They got one. The "No Vacancy" sign is back up and all is right with the world.

There's a couple that has stayed here several days to a week every summer for about five years. They didn't stay last summer and I actually did notice their absence. He called a couple of weeks ago to reserve a room for this summer and I asked him about last year, he told me they'd taken a special trip for a big birthday and hadn't had enough vacation time left to allow for a trip to Wellfleet. He seemed pleased to have been missed. This summer he and his wife want to stay for two weeks! Typically I request a 50% deposit to guarantee the reservation, but since this was going to be a fairly big number and because I know some people are struggling, I offered to break up the deposit into two payments for him. He replied that there was no need; when the stock market began to fall he'd liquidated some investment he'd had and that he could think of no better place to put his money than at The Stone Lion Inn.

Most of the time I like what I do. Sometimes, I love it.

Me/We

I'm having a bit of trouble with pronouns lately. It took me years of conscious effort to learn to use we and us when speaking of the business because my husband, quite rightly, wished to feel included. Now that he is no longer part of the business, I find that the habit is thoroughly ingrained and I catch myself using the plural where the singular is now correct. This is one of the odd, unexpected consequences of splitting up, I guess.

On a lighter note, reservations are definitely coming in for the summer so I'm cautiously optimistic about the season. If anyone out there is considering staying with me this summer, making reservations early is advised. That is particularly true if you are tied to specific dates for an event or anniversary, or for any time in August.