Megan is Ruined

We've lost her to the good life.

This weekend, Dan and Michael went to Iowa for a fishing trip. Shockingly, they did not want to have Megan tagging along and complaining the. entire. time. So she stayed with me and Dan booked us a room for Friday night at the Marriott near our house with his 600 bajillion Marriott points, so we could have a girlie night.

We headed over after school, armed with swimsuits and crafts. When we arrived at the check in counter, Megan had hit a maximum level of excitement. The guy who checked us in asked us where we were from and I told him, "Oh, just Palatine. We're here for a little girls night." He asked me to wait for a few minutes and went to the back. When he returned, he told us that since we were only there for one night and the hotel wasn't full, he had hooked us up in a top floor suite. Little did we know he had just put us in the best suite the hotel had! Since Dan is a preferred Marriott guest (thank you, Motorola) we also got to choose a treat from a little menu to be sent to our room. The guy and I both laughed after I read the list and Megan chose fruit and pretzels over ice cream. He told me quietly, "I'll send up some ice cream, too."

When we got to the door with our number on it, I thought we were mistaken. There were two doors. I never get two doors in a hotel! When we opened them, we literally walked into an apartment. I wish there was a video of us, running around like crazy people..."A kitchen!!!" "There's another bathroom over here!" "I'm in an OFFICE!" "There are ten chairs in the dining room!" "MEGAN. GET IN HERE AND LOOK AT THE MASTER BATHROOM." We were giddy and silly and laughing like maniacs. Some time after that, there was a knock on the door. In came a guy bearing snacks: a lovely plate of whole fruits, a bowl of pretzels, a bowl of M&Ms, a bowl of Skittles, a pint of ice cream and the water Megan ordered. It was like we had been dropped into Shangri-la. Megan said, "If this was our house I would be digging it so badly!"

We made the most of it! We spent time gazing out at the lovely 16th floor view which was floor to ceiling in each room (Megan noted that "when you are on the ground, there just aren't as many trees as this!"), building Legos in the office, warming ourselves by our fireplace, doing crafts in the living room. I am bummed as I realize we didn't spend any time in the dining room or the kitchen. Missed opportunity! We swam in the pool and lounged in the hot tub. We took a hot bath in our cavernous bathtub. We ordered room service and I had a good laugh when Megan couldn't understand why I liked crabcakes...turns out she thought they were crapcakes. We watched a movie in bed and snuggled the night away. That's my nice way of saying Megan hogged the bed and basically slept on top of me most of the night.

In the morning we lounged around before heading down for a swanky breakfast buffet where Megan decided that that is where she would be getting married and our Romanian waitress took a shine to us. Then we had friends come over to our humble abode for another swimming session. The girls all got to squeeze in a quick kidwash in our unbelievable shower before we had to check out.

Megan is now damaged goods. She cried at bedtime tonight, wishing we were back at the hotel. Never again will a normal hotel room, or even a normal suite, cut it for her. This new level of maintenance may affect her wedding plans.