Synopsis of my night.

[kuangning]

97% hotel occupancy. (372 guest rooms, two to four guests per room.)
several hundred debutantes.
two hundred or so airline crewmembers.
Elizabeth Dole.
one fire alarm at 2 AM.
a dozen or so lost room keys because none of the girls in ballroom gowns wanted to carry purses.
much parent-encouraged underage drinking
lusty couple caught in parking lot... and laundry room.. and stairwell... and bathroom.
children in hallways, in service elevators, in stairwells, in back offices -- in short, everywhere they were not supposed to be.

two much-outnumbered security officers.

I'm not scheduled to go back till the debs are gone. For this, I am duly thankful.

Comments

[johnbot.livejournal.com]

you realize how wonderfully amusing this would be to watch if you were not responsible for keeping everyone in line (or attempting to).. ::hugs:: i'm glad you made it out alive.

[kuangning]

Babe, there was never any doubt that I would make it out alive. The question is always whether all the guests will be intact when I do. After all, I know all the places to hide the bodies. Like the grease trap... right by the pool chemicals, no-one would ever smell anything... and it gets cleaned three times a year or so. And there's always the furnace... Mm, the furnace... what was I saying?

[gurath.livejournal.com]

Same couple in all those locations?

[kuangning]

Yes. I suppose they get points for persistence if not for intelligence, decorum, or a collective sense of shame.

[i.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth Dole caught in the parking lot, laundry room, stairwell, and bathroom? go liddy!



or maybe i'm reading too much into this...

[kuangning]

Definitely reading too much into this. I have to say, though, that I was much impressed by her. I spoke with her briefly -- routine exchange because she needed something sent up -- and she was very polite, very softspoken. There was mayhem for awhile during the fire alarm debacle, and I expected complaints, but there were none from her. It cannot have been the restful night she was hoping for, but she was very gracious.

I'm puzzled...

[maruchan.livejournal.com]

After suffering the watching of "Debutante Detective Corps", I always wondered what a "debutante" really was. The most I can find (http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~clingerm/history.html) is that it's a presentation of young women to society, entering them into "a world of civic responsibility and social awareness"...?

Is this widespread where you are? Do they have special schools for this sort of thing?

Re: I'm puzzled...

[kuangning]

According to the blurb the hotel distributed, it's a 72-year tradition. Frankly, I had thought that the custom had been abandoned a long time ago. From the behaviour of the girls, I'd have to say that there were no requirements beyond age and dollar signs -- quite simply, the "young ladies" were anything but. No, it is not widespread -- I think we ought all to give thanks for that. The mothers told their daughters how much prettier they were than the other girls, the young men were awkward and had nothing to distinguish them except four names apiece and huge bankrolls, and there seemed to be no purpose for the whole display except pairing up the youngsters and getting them drunk.

Re: I'm puzzled...

[ly2me.livejournal.com]

You mean this still exists?! Holy Moly.. I might have been able to accept that certain areas of the deep south might carry on the tradition 'for appearances sake', but in modern, technological society? And they go through the whole bit?

You didn't mention.. How many times, if any, were the men-in-blue called for all this under-age drinking? And, if so, do you think anything will get past all the bankrolls?

Re: I'm puzzled...

[kuangning]

They were called twice, when the misbehaviour was blatant. (ie, they tried to order from our bar without ID. Both times, the smirking teens were rescued by their parents, who promised they would behave, glared at us, and then threatened to not tip (hah!) and even to see a lawyer because we were "ruining Jackie's big night." Apparently, and unsurprisingly, these people truly expect that their offspring will be exempt from all consequences whever they decide there's reason to "loosen the reins," as one parent put it. We do not and cannot govern who drinks in their room, or what alcohol is purchased off the compound, but anyone underage caught drinking outside the rooms was, theoretically anyway, in trouble.