It's Friday!
Some weeks that's more exciting than others. I dunno what it is with this week. After all, I barely bothered to do any actual work at all on Wednesday and Thursday, I just blogged incessantly and read other people's blogs, but I'm very glad today is Friday. Today I blogged a lot, but I also got a ton of work done.
Maybe it's partly because I've been re-watching Sentinel eps with fierce dedication this week and I have a few mild hopes this will result in Writing Something at some point this weekend. I'm a bit excited to see if it happens or not.
I have neither forgotten nor abandoned the Due South storie I mentioned previously. It's a work in progress as well. I still about 25 pages of dialogue and an idea. I need to weave those into a story.
I'm sure...pretty sure, that if I can get some time and some space, I'll be able to do some writing. Or...not. Because, as I predicted, my abject failure with reference to turning the SEN into something worth reading has seriously undermined my confidence. I'm beginning to look at my previous interlude of writing as just that...an interlude in an otherwise non-writing life.
If I'd known at the time that that was all there was going to be, I think I'd have savored it more.
So, I promised to say something about last week's Adventure in Volunteerism, didn't I? It's stale news by now, but okay.
Bottom line, I had a fabulous time and I'm already looking forward to doing it again next year. The Oxford hotel was gorgeous; the people on staff were friendly, informative, and helpful. The few other volunteers I met were good people, and the 140+ people I personally greeted to the hotel's premises were all polite and grateful to be helped.
I even made a little spiel.
Welcome to Doors Open Denver! Would you like to roam around on your own, or would you like for me to fill you in on which parts of the hotel they've made available for Doors Open Denver guests to tour today?
(pause while they say, yes, please, tell us what we're looking at)
Okay, well, we begin at the entryway. If you take a look at the floor inside the front door, you'll see a tile mosaic. That's the original logo mosaic that was laid before the hotel's doors opened on October 3, 1897, at the height of Denver's silver rush.
There just to the right of the entryway is the world-famous Cruise Room. It was completely remodeled in the 1930s and is modeled after the main lounge on the Queen Mary cruise ship which was being built at that time. The Cruise Room opened the day after Prohibition and is a showpiece of Art Deco styling. The room still has all...or....maybe...all but one of the original decorative wall panels that were part of the original design.
(pause while someone asks what happened to the missing panel)
Well, it's not part of the official information I was given to tell you, but as I understand it, the wall panels each feature a celebration scene...well, a drinking scene, from countries around the world. Since this was before WWII, one of the panels depicted pre-war Germany and Adolf Hitler. I understand that, during WWII, soldiers coming into the hotel objected to the panel and it was replaced with something a little less...controversial.
(pause while they all look astounded that anyone would have ever put Hitler's face up in celebration and someone asks what happened to the Hitler panel)
I actually don't know. I assume it was destroyed, but I don't have any idea.
(pause to smile and change the subject)
Okay, then. Moving on, in the unlikely event that I ever stop talking, you can take the elevator here to my left to the second floor. The hotel has also chosen to open one of the guest rooms for Doors Open Denver guests to view. The building has been extensively renovated in recent years to provide all of the amenities that hotel guests expect in the 21st century, but they've been very careful not to lose the original "flavor" of the era in which it was built, so as you'll see, the rooms are still very reminiscent of the way they looked originally. (Parenthetic aside: Well, if you ignore the television set.)
After that...the public restrooms are on the lower level. They're probably not something I'd normally mention on a tour.
(pause for nervous laughter)
However, for those interested in that kind of thing, the men's room still has the original urinals that were installed when the hotel first opened.
What's really interesting is the ladies room, though. When the hotel opened, that space was a men-only barbershop. Men could get a haircut, a shave, and take a shower, for twenty-five cents. The hotel needed to put in a ladies room, so they converted that space, but it still has the original tiled floor and around the pedestal sinks are the original marble shelves that the barbers used for their combs and razors and pots and bottles.
Also on the level, you'll be able to see historic photographs of the hotel and of the Denver area from the past.
So...those are the areas the hotel has opened for Doors Open Denver guests and, of course, you're more than welcome to take a look at all of the public areas in the building.
I would like to add that this is a working hotel so there are guests staying here and meetings going on in the meeting rooms. If a door is closed, it's probably a good idea to assume someone is using that area.
(pause for questions and maybe someone asks about tunnels)
There aren't any tunnels to or from the Oxford Hotel. At one point, and I'm afraid I don't know when it was, there was a big public exhibition or exposition held in Denver. There were worries that guests to the city would get too cold walking from their train in Union Station to the Capitol building, so a tunnel was built for their use. In some of the buildings along 17th street, the basements still show the filled in arches where the tunnel was blocked up. That's where all of the rumors about secret underground tunnels in Denver come from.
(pause and maybe someone asks about the spa)
The hotel does have a spa located in that white building just next door.
(pause and maybe someone asks about a theatre)
The hotel did have a burlesque theater on the second floor, but don't believe that area is open today.
(impatient pause while I wonder if these people are ever going to move on and let me spiel to the next group waiting behind them)
I probably did that speech 50-60 times that morning. I was getting good at it by the end.
I made it all up myself, you know. I mean, I got the history stuff from a sheet Lynnzo printed off the 'net for me and from the details in the hotel's history brochure, but I made my own little speech. (I promise, it sounds better than it reads.)
Actually, based on the fact that we went back downtown on Sunday to see some of the open buildings ourselves, I figured out it was pretty unusual for the greeter to give a little speech, but this was a hotel and there wasn't any way any of those people would have had any idea what they were looking at, or where to go to look, if I hadn't told them. (She said defensively.)
No one told me not to spiel. The hotel actually acted sorry to see me go when my replacement showed up at 1:30. Which is saying something, because if' I'd been listening to me give that speech for four hours, I'd have been ready to kill me by then. They actually asked if I was coming back the next day and looked disappointed when I said no.
(P. S. I said I had fun.
I didn't say that reading about it would be fun for you.)