February 10, 2019 – Kirkwood Mountain, California

“Do you want to use this as a pillow?”

I ask a guest as I present a bag of small towels. “Oh, thank you so much,” he responds as he lays across a number of lined up chairs and covers up with a Kirkwood-issued sheet. I go back to the storage room and repeat this process until I have no more to offer.

Well, this is a first.

Our restaurant is being used as a makeshift overflow sleeping quarters for stranded guests due to the current blizzard that’s pummeling the mountain. Some guests were lucky enough to commandeer cushions from the couches around the connected hotel; others are sleeping directly on the floor. I was lucky enough to receive a sleeping bag and pad from a coworker. Most of the stranded guests are in a different building altogether, but there are about fifteen in and around the restaurant. Okay, that seems to be the last of them…

I begin watching a movie on my laptop and serve as night watchman, which I volunteered to do. At this point I’m used to it, as a recent series of snowstorms kept me on the mountain for five days straight. Those nights were much more luxurious; Kirkwood put us up in suites, and I was lucky enough to stay with Melissa and her boyfriend Andrew for two of those nights. Card games. Hot tubbing. Hotel room mini golf. Video games at The Cornice. I even had the privilege of helping my friend James dig his truck out from under a mountain of snow.

I wake up and clear some space on the bar. Put the coffee on. Lay out mugs, tea bags, accoutrements. Various guests indulge and express their gratitude for our hospitality. I thank them in turn, unknowing as they are of the genuine pleasure I receive from practicing such a small act of kindness.

“Hospitality is love in action.” – Alexander Strauch