Mama Says...

As some of you know, I work for a student vacation rental company here in North Myrtle Beach. We're one of a very few companies that rent beach houses and condo's to college spring breakers, and even high school students, with no chaperones...every week during high school graduation season, our company houses between 1500-2000 graduating high school seniors. Can you say insanity?

It's an incredible blessing to have a job in this economy, and even more so considering I work with some awesome people, and get to interact with our future leaders (be afraid... JUST KIDDING!)
Anyway, working in an environment such as this makes for LOADS of "What the heck?" moments and stories so out there you know you'll be sharing them for the rest of your life.
Here's an example -- totally true: During the warm months, turnaround in beach houses is quick. Those housekeepers go in after the kids check out at 10am, and get down & dirty cleaning...then at 3pm, the next group arrives to check in.
So like every other time, the housekeepers enter one of the most popular beachfront houses the company has, and are stunned to see every wall and available space covered in graffiti done with Sharpie markers. I'm not talking about "Bobby & Sue 2-gether, 4-ever" But really GRAPHIC, jaw-dropping stuff. So the housekeepers, who've pretty much seen it all, got some KILZ and did a quickie paint job (but not before snapping photos for evidence of the dirty deed) and the next group checked in to a house with damp paint still on the walls. When the parents of the little angels received the bill for damages, they called our offices, indignant, informing us that their fine, upstanding offspring would never do such a thing...and then we sent them the photographs, many of which had specific names of their kids stating what they'd done to whom while at the beach...(use your imagination! LOL) -- They paid the bill without any further argument.

And here's another: We check in a group of kids, and within a few minutes they're back in the office, looking upset. "It reeks in there" one of them says. They all nod their heads in agreement. That's strange...the housekeepers have it checked off as having been cleaned right after the last check-out...but hmmm...that was a few days ago, this group is just here for a partial week. We send someone over to check it out, and sure enough, it reeks! So thankfully there's another appropriately sized house to move the kids into. Then the housekeepers head over to re-clean. They really go at that house, and with plenty of bleach. They freshen every drain and scrub everything they can think of, and by the time they leave, all they can smell is bleach, so they close up the house and check it off as "clean." We don't give it another thought until the next week of check-ins, and this time the group comes back telling us it smells like a dead body is in the place! Uh-oh...
So somethings obviously going on, and we have to get to the bottom of it, so a crew of employees go over and enter the house. Thank the Lord I was not there, because apparently it was like being hit in the face with a sledgehammer full of stink. (According to my husband.) They began sniffing, trying to locate the source...not an easy task when you're nauseous and about to be sick from the smell...but finally one guy says, "Hey! It's coming from this picture!" It was a framed print, hanging on the wall. They peeked behind it and lo & behold, there was a hole in the wall! I'll cut to the chase; after much ripping away of walls, beams, etc... they found the carcass of a store-bought chicken. The last actual inhabitants had thought it would be hysterical to buy a raw chicken and hide it in the house. --Can you tell I'm not laughing? OK, actually, I am since it's ancient history...funny how things can get funnier the farther in the past they are. :)

Finally, there's this...and I've saved one of the very best for last! :) This happened several years ago, but has become a part of our company to the extent that it's posted on our website to this day. A kid left a wallet behind that the housekeepers turned in, and as per usual, one of the employees looks for identification in it so it can hopefully be returned to its owner. Inside was something so much better than an ID - it was a laminated card with the following printed on it: