Life is a series of hellos and goobyes....

In the infamous words of Billy Joel "I'm afraid it time for a goodbye again".  Except I am not afraid, I am over the moon! 

I realized this morning on my very long ride to work that I have spent over half my life in one version or another of the hospitality industry!  Starting at the Dutchess County Country Club as a cocktail server when I was 16, to waitress at many different establishments in NY and Boston, to Cater Waiter, to Wedding Planner (god save us all!) to Hotel Sales Manager.  And at long last I am finally getting out of the industry.  It is like a legalized verison of the mafia with way more people than I can count coming up to me in a whisper saying "how did you do it? how are you getting out?"

I do understand the grass is always green, but here are some of the things I will not miss (some of this is my own list and some I had help with!):

• you open doors for other people everywhere
• you answer your phone with "Good morning this is Katie speaking, how may I help you?" no matter what phone it is and where you are
• when visiting another hotel, a hotel customer has trouble getting his electronic key to work and as a  passerby you offered your services to go down to the reception to reactivate the key for him
• You sat at the same desk for 4 years and worked for 8 different Managers
• Food left over from a banquet or meeting is your main staple diet
• You get a strange twitch in your right eye when people say the word wedding (I feel like it will be years before this one leaves me!)
• You smile and say 'good morning' to total strangers in the street
• It's dark on your drive to and from work
• Communication is something your 'group' is having problems with
• You forget what you look like in anything but a suit
• All the work you were hired to do gets done before 9 and after 5
• You're already late on an assignment you just received
• Your boss's favorite lines are: "When you get a minute...", "In your spare time...", "I have an opportunity for you..."
• 50% of the people in your company don't know what you do
• The other 50% of the people in your company don't care what you do
• Vacation is something you roll over to next year, if you are allowed
• You have never paid more than $99 for a hotel room thanks to employee and Friends and Family rates
• Six months is considered to be substantial longevity
• You dial '9' before the number no matter where you are calling from
• When you are walking in public, you have to fight the urge to pick up scraps of paper and rubbish on the floor
• Your toilet paper at home is folded in a triangle on the first sheet
• You inspect your hotel room when traveling
• You call your spouse or partner your "added value"
• You correct people when they use the word free, saying it's complimentary
• When friends visit you at home, they wonder why you always take them on a "site-tour"
• you refer to the wi-fi in your own house as complimentary (I really did this!)
  
  Most of all, you read this entire list and understand it.

So what will I be doing you ask?  I am the newest Business Development Manager for Emergence.  Once I figure out what that means, I will be sure to let you all know ;) In the meantime, my last day at Tuckers Point is tomorrow and then on Saturday I will be flying to Houston to attend a conference for my new job.  Talk about baptism by fire! 

Before I say my final farewells to the hospitality industry, I should mention that had my life not taken this path I would never have met some of the amazing people who I now call my closet friends (including my husband!), I would have never moved to Boston nor Bermuda, and I would not still have the amazing Friends & Family Rate hook ups that I will hold near and dear to me for years to come  (Or at least until the next trip I plan)