What the Bleep? A Memoir of the YMCA of the Rockies

Category 1: Living Quarters of the Staff

 Seasonal staff at the YMCA of the Rockies live in dorm-style buildings a ways up the road from the main area. These buildings are Hauge, Hallets, and Howard. Hague is the 21+ dorm, Howard is the inbetween dorm, and Hallets is the 18+ dorm. Since I was 19, and not yet 21 at the time, I was placed in Hallets, specifically in room 112. Hallets was unique. The dorm hall was split in half with boys dorms on the left and girls dorms on the right. The dorm rooms consisted of two bunk beds, three dressers, and a closet that was mostly taken up by the third dresser. There were outlets for the reader who is growing worried about their device battery. In Hallets 112, there were several obscene remarks, curse words, and rather crude drawings of naked women on the underside of the top bunk closest to the window. 

Hallets had shared bathrooms, one for men and one for women on each floor. I will specifically address the women's bathroom on the first floor in the memoir. The bathroom on the first floor was a travesty. Let us begin with the showers. There were five showers and all five contained a pink mold that would send any person in their right mind into a state of horror. Hair was all over the shower cubicles and would collect near the drain, as would dandruff remains and nail clippings. Users of these showers left their hair products, facial cleansers, and body soap in these cubicles as well. (A personal note to the reader: if you plan to shower in these showers, please shower with flip-flops, shower shoes, or sandals if you don't want to get fungus.)

There would be several days that I would come back from working food service completely exhausted and in desperate need of a hot shower. However, when I would get into the shower, the water was ice cold. No matter how many times this complaint was brought to the buildings and grounds department as well as HR, nothing was done about this. Moving away from the showers, let us now discuss the toilets. The toilets often had full trash cans, and if you are a female reader, you are aware of how bad the stench of five day old blood is. People would forget to flush the toilets and there would sometimes be blood stains on the toilet seats. The sinks had toothpaste residue and the counters were sticky. The only real redeeming quality of this travesty of a bathroom was the mirrors. (A personal note to the reader: if you are a female, have a boyfriend, and share a bathroom with other girls, please do not have phone intercourse in the shower cubicles. Some of us want to get clean and moaning does not help the experience).

Moving out of Bathroom Nightmares is the communal living room. It had couches, a table, a fridge, a microwave, chairs, and a working TV with an HDMI cable. The couches were comfortable enough and the table was helpful for those who engaged in games in the evenings. The fridge was especially beneficial to those who brought back food from the town of Estes Park or for leftovers from a particularly good meal at the dining hall. The microwave was also useful if someone wanted to warm up their food or make popcorn. The TV was a nice amenity and did provide entertainment during the evenings. However, it became a less nice amenity when it was utilized until 2 AM in the morning and people would watch horror movies or rather sexually explicit romantic comedies. (A personal note to the reader: I wonder if sex ever happened in Hallets, I'm not sure I want to know the answer). Hallets inhabitants really loved to party and even though quiet hours began at 11 PM, this was never adhered to. There would be shouts and loud laughter until 2 or 3 AM in the morning.

In terms of Howard and Hague, I am not as well aware of the problems within those two dorm halls. I do know that Hague dorm rooms had their own toilet, but the showers were communal. I am less aware of the dorm situation of Howard. In terms of Hauge, dear reader, I was made aware and experienced for myself the fact that one of the rooms was haunted by a demon. It was a terrifying experience, especially for a Christian like myself who was learning that sometimes I have the ability to see such things. But I digress from the main point of this section.

At one particular moment in time, the carbon monoxide alarm went off in Hallets. No one could figure out why, but as an intelligent human being, I packed up essentials in my backpack including a pair of clothes, my stuffed animal and personal blanket, my computer and charger, my phone, my earbuds, and anything else I deemed "essential". I left to walk over to Howard until my roommate texted me to tell me that one of the Hallets residents had turned the alarm off. Howard had a similar issue except their fire alarms went off quite often. I cannot figure out why, but no one came to solve the issue. Besides these rather concerning inconveniences, it was not a terrible living experience. The beds weren't comfortable, but they were alright to sleep on. One could decorate their room and if one had fun roommates like I did, it can be a really good time!