Florida hotel rooms for EVERYBODY!

I figured it was high time to book my hotel rooms for Jacksonville, since I'm leaving to see Carrie in four days. I was a little nervous about finding a room over the July 4th weekend, and I was fairly certain that if I did find a room, it'd be pretty darn expensive.

So, despite the snafu in March, I boogied on over to Priceline to look for a room. And I think I really lucked out. I booked two rooms at the 3-star Hilton Garden Inn for $40/night each. Not bad, considering the rack rate is $110 each.

This morning, while making the rounds through my e-mail, I came across the Priceline confirmation letter. What the hell? They'd booked me for SIX rooms instead of TWO. What the bleepedy-bleep am I supposed to do with six rooms?! My first thought: JAXLAN '05. But then I realized Paul probably wouldn't appreciate the $840 charge on his credit card. (He forgave the $150 in liquor for Matt and me ... and the $275 for Matt's interview clothes ... but $840 for six hotel rooms might send him over the top.)

I called up Priceline and wrangled my way through their annoying phone system. They force you to listen to everything they have to say, even if you know what option you're going to select. I finally get to a customer service rep (the overly exuberant Lisa), who said she was going to check on the extra rooms ... and promptly hung up on me. So I called back, wrangled my way through the phone system again (this time, jamming buttons on my phone in an attempt to block out the nasally voice of the damn phonebot chick), and ended up talking to Brandy (who, fortunately for her, was far less exuberant than Lisa).

Brandy put me on hold for, like, 20 minutes before coming back and admitting the error was on Priceline's end. (Really? No shit. I'd been saying that over and over since the time I started talking to a real human.) So -- as far as I know -- we're back down to two rooms at the Hilton. We should get a $560 credit to our credit card within the next five to 10 days.

However, the Hilton Garden Inn now has four extra rooms that are going for $40/night each. Oh, they're the deluxe rooms, too. (Suh-weet!) So if you want to vacation with me and my crew, hop on over to Priceline and snap 'em up. The weekend promises lots of sightseeing and shopping ... along with a really bitchin' water gun fight that's been seven years in the making. For seven years, I have been waiting for revenge. And revenge is sweet.

I have a feeling the water gun fight will be something like Carrie's random artwork and Monstee's related game, ZAP! Except the conversation will go something like this:
Jeremy: "I'll zap you!"
Carrie: "I'll zap you back!"
Paul (who hates water gun fights): "I'm caught in the middle!"
Me: "I'll zap you all!"

(Let's hope that happens that way, anyway. I'll throw a hissy fit if I'm not the ultimate victor.) Two weeks til Matt comes back. I'm counting the days. Peace out, darlings.