Red Light, Green Light

Well, we made it through vacation hurricane free. The island was beautiful, the resort amazing, the beach pristine, the food delicious, and the room (suite actually, bigger than our first apartment) fabulous. When we could actually get into it, that is.

Days one, two and three were no problem. Day four was where our trouble started.

We rolled up from the beach late in the afternoon, put my key into the lock, and , uh oh, red light. Once again, except more slowly. Red light. More quickly. Red light. Tim tried his key. Red light. Slow. Fast. Jiggle handle. Kick door. Red light. Red light. Red light. Frayed nerve. Oh, and full bladder.

Luckily, the concierge happened by at that moment. Shaking his head (mentally at least, I'm sure) at the technologically challenged tourists, he tried both our keys and got...a red light. Chagrined, he offered to go to the office and reprogram our keys. Since the office was four flights down in an airless elevaator that moved with all the speed of a constipated trutle and one building away, we let him.

By the time he returned, Tim really had to use the bathroom and was bouncing around the hallway like a Dancing With The Stars reject. Fortunately, the new keys worked and disaster was averted. Oh well, these things happen. Everyday apparently.

The next morning after breakfast, I ran back to the room and, once again, I got the red light. With no concierge to rescue me, I made the long trek to the office where they reprogrammed my key (again) and had the nerve to actually be cheerful about it. Obviously, they liked to live on the edge.

Later that day, it was Tim's key that needed to be reprogrammed. We were starting to see red lights in our sleep!

The next day, they added to the degree of difficulty. The elevator was being used to transport bags of topsoil and palm trees to the rooftop garden, so now I had to walk up four flights of an outdoor stairwell in ninety-five degrees....twice.

Enough was enough. This time, I wanted a manager(or at least his head) and not some chipper concierge who didn't seem to understand why not being able to get into our room was a bad thing. After I recounted our saga in colorful detail that made those Bridezilla contestants look like Mary Poppins, he offered to give me new keys since reprogramming the old ones didn't seem to be working (ya think?????) .

Success at last! Green light!!! Our last two days, we had unlimited access to our room. It was enough to make us giddy with happiness(but really cut down on our exercise program). Of course, that was before the air conditioning broke down on our last day there......