The readathon and my vacation have both come to an end. As you are reading this, I will be back at work in my office, reading and responding to the approximately 7000 emails I received while I was gone. But I want to spend a few more minutes in vacation/readathon headspace, so here is the recap of this year’s Reverse Readathon.

I read at least part of 6 different books throughout the readathon. finishing the 2 books for work that I brought with my (Crucial Conversations and The Way Through) and an eARC that I’ve been sitting on for a few years (Something I Need). I got through the first 7 parts of an 8 part audio book during the readathon (A Man Called Ove), and finished it about 40 minutes after the end of the event. I also started another older eARC (In Ruins) and got through about 30% of it and jumped into a re-read in progress (Eat Pray Love) and got through about 65 pages of it.

I read for 20 out of the 24 hours, so I consider that a HUGE win!

I did have some frustrations with the hotel I stayed at, however. Not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, just several little things that added up.

I arrived to town early and was a couple hours early for check-in. I asked if it was possible to check in early and was told by the front desk person that my room wasn’t ready, but that it should be done in about 30-45 minutes and that she would call me when it was ready. After an hour, I checked back in and was told it still wasn’t ready and again told she would call me when it was. Honestly, I felt like she just didn’t want to let me check in early, but that she wasn’t going to tell me that. And honestly, if they just didn’t do early check in, that would have been fine with me. It was the expectations provided that were not met that irritated me… and her attitude.

Another hour passed, and it was now check-in time. In the thirty minutes prior, I saw several people arrive and check in, and still never received a call. I went back into the lobby and there was a different front desk person who was able to check me into my room. Because I was irritated and just wanted to get checked in and get my cold groceries into the fridge, I didn’t look at the paper that I signed, just took my key and went to my room. I had reserved an King Executive room, which just meant a King-sized bed. I got a Queen room with 2 Queen-sized beds. The price for the rooms was the same, and it’s not a huge issues, but again irritating.

At this point, I had an hour until the readathon started and I needed to get the room set up and ready to go, so I just powered through and made it happen. But I started the event in a cranky mood, that I thankfully overcame.

The walls are pretty solid, as I haven’t heard much from the rooms on either side. But the doors must be hollow because I can hear EVERYTHING in the hallway… an people are loud. Even at 5am. There are also no security features on the doors, which I don’t like.

The final irritant happened in the early morning hours, around 2 or 3am; when I flushed the toilet and it just kept running and running for a long time. I was honestly getting ready to turn the water off when it finally corrected itself and hasn’t given me any issues since.

As I’m typing this, I still have one more night here, so I’m hoping nothing more crops up before I check out tomorrow. Though I do still have a $400 hold on my debit card from the hotel I stayed at last weekend, which is irritating as well. They had processed 2 holds to my account (1 for the first night and deposit, another for the remaining 2 nights), when they processed the change, they sent it through on the smaller hold and processed the entire amount, leaving the second, larger hold in place. It’s been over 7 days and still hasn’t dropped off yet.

Anyway, enough negativity. All in all, I had a great readathon and an enjoyable vacation. And now it’s back to work!