I was late (once again) to work today. Everyone was pretty much gone already, except Sandy and a supervisor or two. She told me that I would be on the boats. I grabbed my shirt, then had trouble punching in (of course). The thing didn’t seem to be working, and it wasn’t just me because a life guard named Brian was having trouble as well. Brian and I stood there for like five minutes before we finally were able to punch in. Laughing, I headed towards the boats. Destiny was there waiting for me to take over. I told her that I hadn’t been on the boats before so I didn’t know how to work them and she gladly said she would show me how. As she was telling me about the operation of the ride, a few kids came to ride. She measured the one girl and she was too tall. Her parents were kind of mad. Her mom went on about the sign that said she was short enough to ride. Destiny told them that she was too tall. Angered, the mom told her kid to take her shoes off. The girl did, and she was still too tall. Her parents were pissed. They dropped an F-bomb and said that the place was stupid and that we should change our signs. Angered, they walked away. We only do what out boss tells us to do, we have nothing to do with the signs for the rides or the height sticks. We are told how the ride works and who can and can’t ride it, and we obey what is said. But the parent’s were still pissed off. Destiny and I went into a conversation about how rough a time some parents give us. Its like, your kid is too tall for the kiddie rides, so take them to the big kid side of the park and deal! After a few stories from Destiny about some rather angry parents, she wished me goodbye and left.
She came back a few minutes later with Katie, who was going around with the books (there is a book for each ride, which the person running the ride has to fill out the date, weather, that they have been trained on the ride and then their signature. This process happens everyday, and to all workers.) So they came over, Destiny telling Katie of the incident with the parents. After we all agreed that people should just chill, they left. I thought this ride wouldn’t be so bad, it was a new ride that was in a different area of the kiddie park, with a different view of everything. Plus, the petting zoo was right next door--most people would think it smelled bad, but it didn’t bother me--and the donkey’s pen was up against the fence. What a cute little donkey. But anyway, after a while though, I saw the bad of this ride as well, the kids always wanted to put their hands into the nasty water that the boats were in. I was constantly yelling for them to take their hands out of the water. I remember, one girl just wouldn’t listen. I stopped the ride like two or three times telling her to stop. The last time I stopped it, I told her and her sister that if she didn’t keep her hands in the boat, they’d have to get off. Her sister grabbed both of her sister’s arms and held them inside the boat. The girl squealed and thrashed, but he sister was successful in keeping the girls hands out of the water, but this was after the girl had stuck her entire hand in the water then proceeded to stick her whole fist in her mouth. EEEEEWWWWW!! So gross. Getting annoyed at this ride, and having enough of being there, I began to get restless and my feet hurt and I was so done with little kids. I was letting yet another group of kids on when I recognized one of their parents. My elementary school art teacher, Mrs. Nachreiner was standing there. It was a simple talk that went something along the lines of…
Her: “Arizona.”
Me: “Mrs. Nachreiner.”
Of course we went on to ask how I was and she introduced me to her son and niece (who were both ADORABLE!) We talked for a minute or two until…
Her: “Am I allowed to be up here?”
Me: “No, not really. Ha-ha”
*walks off platform, and I start ride*
Although I would have gladly broken the rules so I could continue to talk to her, (she was one of my favorite teacher in elementary school) but I risked Eric seeing me, and he had no problem telling me what I wasn’t allowed to do. So her kids rode, we talked a bit after, telling me her husband remembered me from Art Club like six years ago. It was nice to see them, and that visit brightened my day considerably. I hope to see them again soon. The happiness wore off, of course. I mean, I can’t be happy for very long, for some reason, the world won’t let me be. So I went on, getting kids on and off, texting when no one could see--there was a major issue going on with my best friend, Sara, at the barn, and I just HAD to know. So I risked getting caught. I don’t care. The barn issue was way more important than Eric yelling at me and taking my phone or whatever it is he would have done. Anxious to get home and call Sara to get all the details about the incident, time seemed to stop. UGH. Finally, after a few more hours of yelling at kids to get there stupid hands out of the water, it was time to go. I left quickly (as usual), unbuttoning my shirt as I walked, took it off, threw it in the hamper, checked the new schedule and punched out. Phew. I hate those stupid boats.
My day in a nutshell: “Don’t put your hands in the water!”
No comments:
Post a Comment