I had to travel for work this weekend and I forgot to pack the darn ruby slippers. And boy, did I need them. I was attending a workshop outside of DC. I love DC and decided to drive down instead of taking the train and got on the road late yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful day and the drive really wasn't bad...until I got to the neighborhood where my hotel/motel/whatever was. As soon as I got close, I knew it was a terrible neighborhood. I was literally praying that mapquest was wrong and that it wasn't there. But nope, it was indeed. I got all my stuff out of the car and went to check in. The first "automatic" door opened for me, the second...not so much. I had to literally force it open...in hindsight, there was probably a reason for that...

I checked in and got my keys and asked how to get to my room. The guy at the desk told me to go outside and up the stairs, around to the back of the building. I hadn't realized that this wasn't the kind of "lodging" where you could access your room from INSIDE the building...no, it certainly wasn't. I went up to the room, lugging all my stuff, and got inside. Problems with the lights and scariness aside, it was ok inside. Until I realized that the door looked like it had been kicked in at some point. It closed at the top but there was about a 1/2 opening at the bottom. This completely freaked me out for a million reasons but it was getting dark and I wanted to see where my meeting was and get something to eat.

I had had a whole plan to come down, check out the location, go find a nice restaurant and eat dinner and read my book club book. No such luck. I drove through the horrible neighborhoods (calling Michelle so I'd have a "witness" if I got carjacked - SERIOUSLY, it was that bad) and couldn't find the building for my meeting. It was getting dark and I didn't want to be hanging around anywhere alone in the dark so I headed back towards the hotel. There was nowhere nice to eat so I ended up getting Taco Bell and eating it in the room.

I was still freaked out about the room and the door situation. Even though it had a deadbolt and a chain, plus the regular lock, I was in no way at ease. I won't go into all the details but suffice it to say I rigged up something (not quite MacGyver style but pretty creative, I'd say) in front of the door to at least give me some peace. I did the same with the door to the adjoining room, even though it appeared kind of locked on my side. And slept with all the lights on...I guess if you can call what I did sleeping. I probably got about three hours, if that.

Now, thankfully I am home and ready to sleep in my own bed! YAY! Hip hip hooray!!!

Note to self: when an organization RECOMMENDS hotels, take the recommendations - don't choose a hotel simply because it is "nearby" and cheap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sigh.