Thursday, November 9
The Leaning Room and the Puzzled Pager
Another month, another Berkeley trip. They are usually all quite similar - we generally stay in the same hotel, eat at the same restaurants and do the same things. This trip, however, we had a couple of interesting things happen!
First, we stayed at a hotel on the marina, rather than our normal hotel closer to campus. For whatever reason, the rates were cheaper here this time. When we got to the room, we decided we knew why! The room is a typical room for this hotel - fairly sizeable, 2 double beds, an entertainment center with television, large bathroom. However, we noticed when we went in the room, that something seemed off. In fact, as you walked further into the room, it became more noticeable. With each step, each movement forward, further into the room, we were losing altitude. Yes, going down hill. I don't mean there were stairs in the room. The floor is actually slanted, not level. If you put something round on the desk, it will roll off! I commented (only somewhat jokingly) that they should pipe the sound of the ocean into the room so you'd at least feel like you were on a boat! If I am sitting around for long, it's easy to forget I am sitting at a slant. But when I stand up (or wake up) to go to the bathroom, I have to walk uphill! It's crazy!
The other interesting/odd thing we had happen relates to Kirk's work. One of his coworkers called him and needed some information quickly and asked Kirk to call him back. First of all, I don't know ANYONE in this day in age who carries a pager instead of a cellphone (I'm sure they are out there, but I don't know any), but this guy did. Kirk called him back, got his voicemail (his voice on the pager message) and punched in his number.
A few minutes later he got a call and answered the phone. The guy on the other end was a bit confused but they determined that it was a wrong number. Kirk was a bit confused to, as the voice on the pager message he had heard was clearly his friend's. So he called and paged again.
Again, he got a call back...from the same wrong person! The guy on the other end kept insisting Kirk was paging his number. But when he repeated the number, it was nothing even close to the one Kirk had called to reach his friend's pager! Somehow the paging company was sending the page to the wrong unit! We got a good laugh out of that one!
First, we stayed at a hotel on the marina, rather than our normal hotel closer to campus. For whatever reason, the rates were cheaper here this time. When we got to the room, we decided we knew why! The room is a typical room for this hotel - fairly sizeable, 2 double beds, an entertainment center with television, large bathroom. However, we noticed when we went in the room, that something seemed off. In fact, as you walked further into the room, it became more noticeable. With each step, each movement forward, further into the room, we were losing altitude. Yes, going down hill. I don't mean there were stairs in the room. The floor is actually slanted, not level. If you put something round on the desk, it will roll off! I commented (only somewhat jokingly) that they should pipe the sound of the ocean into the room so you'd at least feel like you were on a boat! If I am sitting around for long, it's easy to forget I am sitting at a slant. But when I stand up (or wake up) to go to the bathroom, I have to walk uphill! It's crazy!
The other interesting/odd thing we had happen relates to Kirk's work. One of his coworkers called him and needed some information quickly and asked Kirk to call him back. First of all, I don't know ANYONE in this day in age who carries a pager instead of a cellphone (I'm sure they are out there, but I don't know any), but this guy did. Kirk called him back, got his voicemail (his voice on the pager message) and punched in his number.
A few minutes later he got a call and answered the phone. The guy on the other end was a bit confused but they determined that it was a wrong number. Kirk was a bit confused to, as the voice on the pager message he had heard was clearly his friend's. So he called and paged again.
Again, he got a call back...from the same wrong person! The guy on the other end kept insisting Kirk was paging his number. But when he repeated the number, it was nothing even close to the one Kirk had called to reach his friend's pager! Somehow the paging company was sending the page to the wrong unit! We got a good laugh out of that one!
