So I am back from my trip to San Diego where I had to work on a fashion shoot for the past two days. My clients were amazingly nice, the weather was gorgeous, especially after living here in Oregon where it has been raining for 27 consecutive days, and my paycheck will be nice and chunky when I get it......but man, can I just tell you how absolutely, incredibly, mortifyingly nasty my lodging was? Since I had to pay for my own hotel (mostly, when you get booked for an out of town job, the clients pay for all travel expenses, but this was a smaller client) I figured I'd book at a Motel 6, save some money and that way end up with a bigger cut when I get paid.

In the past my experience with Motel 6's have been fine, clean, spartan, comfortable. Just a place to take a hot shower and watch some TV then fall asleep. My husband and I have stayed at these a few times on our trips up and down the I-5 to and from LA. No problems, and cheap which is always good. So I thought I had nothing to lose with the one in San Diego.....it's a chain with the same standards for eah location right? Boy was I wrong!!!!

I check in after hours and the girl that comes to the desk after I ring the bell 6 times, yes I counted, just says "We're sold out." WTF?! Are you serious? So I tell her I have a reservation, she looks at me with some attitude and then seees I'm right, hands me a key and I am off, exhausted, to my room. Small, plain, it's what I expected but with a musty odor. I can deal with that for two nights. I sart to unpack and hear a dripping sound coming from the bathroom. I walk over and turn on the light which is as dim as a nightlight, and start to look for the source of the drip. Not the sink, not the showerhead, not the bathtub.....then *splash*, a huge drop lands square on my head. I look up and there is a sagging bubble of paint, drywall and water hanging from the ceiling over the middle of the bathtub. Evidently the bathroom upstairs is having some overflowage problems and the ceiling is now severely waterlogged.

I call the front desk at which time the girl tells me again that there are no more rooms available. I end up leaving the TV on all night so that I dont have to hear that infernal dripping all night long. The next day as I get ready to head for the studio I tell the deskworker the issue with what has overnight become a virtual waterfall flowing from the ceiling and leave. 7 hours later I return to find that there are huge fans blowing up at the bathroom ceiling and paintbrushes on the counters and IN the toilet. I am tired from working all day, covered in too much make-up and by now completely irritated. So I walk back to the reception desk and they proceed to give me a key to another room.

Ok, things are getting better, right? I walk into my new room, a blue carpeted carbon copy of the former one, only I am excited to find that this room has a remote control for the TV! What luxury!! So I'm happy. I start to get ready for a shower and bed and find that the toilet seat has been left up, so I push it down with my foot (thank God) and find a large smear of feces on the toilet seat. This is NO JOKE. I about vomited. I called the front desk and they said that noone was available to clean it until morning. Fantastic. I threw a towel over it so I wouldn't have to look at it and decided I wouldn't be using the loo until I got to the studio for work the next morning. I turn on the shower....and voila! No water pressure and no hot water. So I end up shivereing like mad and shaving off my goosebumps which we all know feels sublime. Run to turn the heater on which blows out cold air only, put on my pajamas and turn over the sheets to find a dark stain on the mattress (I could see through the thin white bedsheet) which I can only guess is blood from some other unfortunate person that had to stay here and to top it all off there is a wad of gum stuck to the floor next to the bed and a booger (yes, I swear) stuck to the bedside lamp.

I have NEVER, EVER had such an awful hotel/motel expereince in my life and I have traveled as a model for over 6 years. I have been all over the world and in most of the major cities in the US and although I am not always booked into the Ritz or the Four Seasons, I've had my share of model's apartments where I've had to live in a one bedroom the size of a shoebox with 4 other girls, but this was simply outrageous. I just didnt know if I should laugh or cry! Needless to say I am hopping onto the Motel 6 website and filing a complaint. A couple of nights in prison might have been less disturbing. My Motel 6 days are over. I will shell out the extra money to stay somewhere clean! Clean...is that too much to ask! Now I am home, thank the Lord, with my husband and son, and a pristine bathroom, bedroom and all the hot water I could ever ask for! And the only poop I have to clean up is my toddlers!