*I received some good news today that I just couldn’t wait to share in another post! I GOT A JOB!!!!! It’s part time which means it will accommodate The Perfect Job and OMG I HAVE A JOB. /announcement. Continuing with scheduled programming…*
Today I am participating in Where in the World Wednesdays, Classy in Philadelphia’s awesome weekly series. This week, I’m still stateside, in the beautiful summer escape that is Montauk, NY!
The idea of WITWW is to post a picture of you in someplace in the world…it doesn’t have to be somewhere foreign or tropical. Just a picture of you somewhere that you consider traveling.
When summer rolled into Boulder, the nostalgic side of me started longing for the smell of salt and sea, the sand between my toes and immediately I was transported back into the depths of my memory to my summer spent in Montauk, New York three years ago.
It started off as a job designing and installing a hotel. My best friend Lauren and I arrived in late May to the empty, historic hotel located in the sleepy seaside town of Montauk, on the eastern most tip of Long Island. I had no idea what to expect but loved the accommodations–one of the high-end suites that had already been made up for a photo shoot–and loved the beach. The days were spent either getting work done in the hotel or exploring the area.
Shortly before the hotel opened, when TVs had been mounted to walls, beds assembled and made, pillows distributed and artwork for the doors painted and hung, we were offered jobs as front desk receptionists. Seeing that neither one of us had anything lined up back in NYC, we both decided to stay the summer.
It was the job from hell; I was on call 24/7 and we had ghosts who pulled fire alarms and set off every iHome dock’s alarm at 3am (or at least that’s what we were convinced of, not being able to figure out why everything electronic would freak out on a weekly, sometimes nightly basis), the plumbing would stop working, we’d lose hot water, we’d lose cold water, the guests would wanted us to redesign their rooms…it was an endless charade of catastrophes and needed far more than just three people to run the front office.
On the other hand, it was the best job I’ve ever had. Adjacent to the hotel was a restaurant and I quickly became good friends with most of the staff. I would find myself there every day; if I was bored I would wander in and say hello to whoever was working, I got to taste test items the chef was trying out for the menu (saffron shrimp is AMAZING.) and every night I would park myself at the end of the bar and chat up the bartender or whomever happened to be sitting next to me.
It was good to be me that summer. The owners gave us special privileges, allowing us to drink and eat at the bar whenever we pleased, including in the presence of guests. There were several occasions where I drank a bottle of wine and the next morning, sitting at the front desk secretly dying from the worst hangovers ever and get a high five from someone who apparently met me the night before and thought I was a riot. I played musical owners on the nights when all five were on site. I’d flit from one owner to the next, each with their own assortment of alcohol, their own dishes of food to try and each group would try to get me as drunk as they possibly could.
Case in point…I have no idea what’s going on in this picture.
There were midnight surfing trips that involved us just sitting around a bonfire on the beach, listening to the waves pound the shore and try to spot a few of our surfer friends in the dark water. There were trips into the Hamptons and a spontaneous trip out to shelter island with a gay hair stylist named Bubbles and his friend just so we could see the sunset. I was introduced to sushi here and learned how to use chopsticks. I had a summer fling with a guy five years younger than me, who also was the head housekeeper’s son. I got so drunk I puked all over Room 128 (known as the exorcism of Room 128). I was given Xanax by a guy whose girlfriend had been a bitch to me at the front desk, I lay with a guy in a hammock drinking pina colada martinis, on one of my last nights there I had sex in one of those same hammocks.
There are so many fantastic memories from this summer–as well as some unpleasant, like the time I got in a fight with the guy I was seeing and we were hissing at each other over guests heads–it’s hard to pick just one or ten to showcase. Every memory though was in that restaurant, at that bar. The GM of the restaurant was an entertaining, crazy guy and everytime Bob Dylan’s The Hurricane came on the iPod, would sing and do a dance routine. (Sadly the video I have for that is sideways and I’m not sure how to flip it!) His best friend happened to be a singer and would often play at our restaurant. I remember the first time he played the song featured below in the video, Lionel Ritchie’s All Night Long. It had everyone in the restaurant, including the chef, singing along.
This video was taken the last week at the hotel. Some notes on the video: The GM is on the ice bucket, I love my friend Lauren’s drunk laugh, and I apologize for turning the camera sideways. After a couple glasses of wine I forget that you can’t do that.
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Congrats on the job. I’ve been pulling for you!
CONGRATS!!! So happy for you.. Yay!
Sweet about the job! When I get a house of my own someday I’ll hire you to make it pretty, minus the phantom iHomes.
Re: your sideways video, I’ve used Google’s Picasa to retate some, you might give that a try!