I was not happy to go back to work the following week. I hated standing in the same spot all day with my foot on a petal. At my job at a horse barn, yes, I would be on my feet all day, but I would be running around getting chores done, not standing in one spot. I hated this job already and I had only worked one day. When I got to the park, lined up in front of the gates was ten school busses filled with kids. Marvelous. I wasn’t late to my second day, but wasn’t early, all due to Chelsea picking me up a little late. But I got there, signed my shirt out, and went to see what ride I would be tortured with this time. Sandy told me I would be on the Magic Ring, but I wasn’t sure where, or what, that was. I waited for her to finish talking so I could ask here about it, but before I got to ask her, she yelled at me to get over to the ride. Politely, I told her I didn’t know what it was, and rudely, and quite frankly, unhelpfully, she told me to just keep walking. It’s so nice to know that employers are so helpful to their new employees.
Thankfully, Heather showed me where it was, and told me someone would be over to train me in a few minutes. This simple act of help made me feel a little better. I stood near the ride, telling a few people that came over that the ride wasn’t running yet. Sara came over and showed me how the ride was operated, the rules of who could and couldn’t ride, and at what height you couldn’t ride the motorcycle, etc. Off I went. The day started off crazy because of all the kids from day care. I was so overwhelmed at one point because there would be a mob of kids exiting and a mob of new kids running through the gate before I could stop them. I would yell for them to wait for me to let them on, but running in they went. Even their parents/guardians were unhelpful. I would yell to wait, and they would urge their kids onward. Nice. I scrambled around to make sure they were all buckled in appropriately and everyone was seated before I pushed the button for the horn and then started the ride. Of course, my day didn’t go without incident. One kid got on the motorcycle, and his friend wanted to ride to so he joyfully said “Yea, just get on the back!” Nothing wrong with that except that the motorcycle only seats one. I politely told the boys that only one person could ride the motorcycle at a time. They told me it was fine and they could ride with two. I argued with them for a minute or two and kept telling them that I couldn’t start the ride until one of them got off. The kid went to another car, only to realize he was to big to fit. He was under the height limit, but was a little to chubby to fit in any of the cars, so I told him to wait and ride the next ride when he could sit in a bigger car. First problem, solved.
Of course that didn’t solve the problem of the kids running onto the ride before I could even notice they were there. It wasn’t just the kids I had a problem with, it was the sun as well. The weather man told me it was supposed to be cloudy and rainy all day, guess who was wrong. I tried to stay out of the sun as much as I could, but the power box for the ride had no shade near it. I gave up trying to stay covered up and let myself get some sun. After 3 hours though, I got nervous, and tried to keep my arms and neck covered. It was warm out, but I didn’t want to risk skin damage and a uncomfortable sunburn. I tried to stay in the shadows of the ride when there was no one riding (which was often after one in the afternoon when the park cleared.) I thought about asking for sunscreen from someone, but that would have been strange to ask.
*while kid is riding ride*
Me: Um, do you have any sunscreen I can borrow?
Parent: *stares* Um, let me check….
Me: …thanks….
It would be incredibly awkward, so I just stayed covered up as much as I could. Fortunately for me, the only thing that got burned was my calves. My face got a little red, but not noticeably--I was thankful for that! So, no matter what the weather man says, wear sunscreen to work. Lesson learned. One of the other problems I had was with the tow truck on the ride. It had a door you had to open, and only two or three of the kids all day could get it open. Some wanted to ride the tow truck so bad, they didn’t feel like waiting for me to come open the door for them and decided to climb through the window of the tow truck. I actually caught a few kids in the act and sternly told them to stop climbing through the window and let me open the door for them. Another problem with the tow truck was the door closest to the center of the machine, (the ride rotated in a circle with all the cars attached to the center of the ride.) was simply for show and didn’t open. Kids would get frustrated that they couldn’t get it open and would either go through the window or pull on it violently. I would tell them to come around to the other side, some would listen, some would continually pull on it as if I didn’t even speak. It was annoying at the time, but now, it seems comical. Of course there was the one kid who had to ride right at the end of the night, so whilst giving the very last ride, Sara came over and told me how to shut the ride down for the night. I cut the ride a little short--desperate to go home--and helped the kid get off. I quickly went over to shut the ride down, and left. I turned my shirt in and headed up to the main office to hand in a letter to Sandy for days I would like off. I added the 25th and 26th of June because I wasn’t sure what was happening for my birthday. I regret it now because I don’t think I’ll need the 26th off, and my parents think I’m working. So, I had to call Sandy back and leave a message telling her that things changed and I didn’t need the 26th off anymore. Hopefully, she didn’t take me off the board yet. If I don’t get a call by Wednesday that I’m working Friday, then I’ll call back and see what’s happening.
Second day in a nutshell: "Don't go through the window!"
No comments:
Post a Comment