Who I sleep with is their business

"Hey, you're really lucky! You got a great room," said the old guy at the front desk, when I checked in to this dumpy former Ramada in central Connecticut about 20 minutes ago. "Someone must have liked you."

"Oh, good. What makes the room special?" I said.

"King-sized bed, the blinds close all the way to block the light. It's real business-class," he said, and then added for emphasis: "There's a guy, a trucker, who stays here often, and he always requests that room."

He meant that as evidence of the room's greatness, but instead, as I walked into my room a few minutes later, it gave me an image of someone who I'll be sharing my bed with tonight. Sure, we know hotel beds are used be different people, but I think we try to forget about that when we actually lie down to sleep. It's easy enough, since we can't really picture the people who stayed there before us. But now, thanks to the front desk guy, I've got an image. He's fairly heavy and wears a bushy beard, and snores heavily. He arrives late at night, having driven straight for hours, eyes weary, CB radio belching static, peeing in bottles and throwing them out the window when need be. But finally, thankfully, he arrives in the room he loves, and slips into that familiar king-sized bed and checks HBO to see if there's any soft porn on. We're here together, and there's nothing either of us can do about it. But please, trucker man, just keep it down. We'll share this bed tonight, but I've got to get up early tomorrow.

Posted by Jason Feifer at September 29, 2005 04:09 PM