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Long ranty post!
Not sure if this is OT, since the person in question is a customer but wasn't interacting with an on-duty employee at the time.
I work in a national park. People are always amazed by this when they realize it's possible to work and live here. I don't know why. Today I'm peacefully sitting in a hotel lobby (unfortunately the only places to get wireless), and this...person sits down nearby.
She's probably in her late 50s. She's being viciously attacked by a gigantic floral print - a disturbing pantsuit which makes her resemble nothing so much as a walking couch. It clashes violently with her huge laptop case (you could fit a terrier in there), which is festooned with a cherry pattern (said cherries are about 1 inch in diameter). She asks me if I'll reach behind me and plug her laptop in, since it's awkward to lean over me. I acquiesce and she sits down and starts doing stuff.
A couple minutes later and a game show starts blaring out of her speakers. And she doesn't pull out headphones or turn it down or off, she just keeps listening. I put on my headphones and crank up my favorite Finnish metal band to drown it out. She eventually turns off the game show and gets up to leave. I read her lips and believe she's asking me where I'm visiting from. I unwillingly pull my headphones off (you know, since they're a signal to normal humans that I don't want to be bothered and such).
"I'm from Michigan."
"Oh, really, we're from OHIO! Are you going to hike the <popular trail>?"
"Oh, how lovely, Ohio, the country's anus!" I should have said, because it would have gotten rid of her (no offense to anyone from Ohio). But no, I was friendly and made the mistake of revealing that I lived here.
"So you work here?"
"Yes." Her head tilts back half a degree.
"So do you guys make minimum wage?"
Oh, there's a polite question...
"Yes, starting out, unless you're a manager." Her head tilts back half a degree. Her nose seems to elongate somewhat. Her nostrils flare a bit.
"So what's the housing like, pretty nice?"
"It's...dorms. We have heat, electricity, running water (furniture, walls, a roof, I thought, but didn't say)....rent's really cheap here <insert details>." Her head tilts back a few more degrees.
"So what brought you to do this?" Like I would only choose this lifestyle if driven to it.
"Oh, this is my third park." We discuss what other parks I've worked at.
"So how long are you going to do this?" Head tilts back another degree, nose grows several inches. I give her a rough estimate.
"What are you doing after that?" Starting a campaign to have nosy people's voice boxes removed...
"Going back to school."
"Where did you go before?" I name the school and degree. It's a community college. Her head tilts back even farther and her nostrils flare some more.
"What are you going to go to school for now?" I tell her. Her head tilts back even farther, so much so that it forces her to stand up along with it, and she wishes me a lovely time, I wish her a lovely vacation (or one fraught with horror...you pick) and she leaves, her nose now long enough (from looking at me down its length) that if she could support her weight with it, she'd be taller than she is on her legs.
She reminds me of the upper-middle-class guy who had a similar conversation with me when I worked at another park, then as he bid me goodbye, glibly instructed me not to forget my kind, loving Dorm Supervisor from <park> when I got a "real job". This from a guy who wanted his sheets changed every day, had a roomful of expensive books and electronics, and thought a $2 tip was generous.
The terrifying thing about the woman I met today is that people have to serve her. People have to make her hamburgers and tidy up her room and drive her around on shuttles and listen to her inane questions. And they have to be polite about it. Unlike me, the fool who had an opportunity to compare her home to an anus and let it slip through my fingers. The opportunity, that is.
Not sure if this is OT, since the person in question is a customer but wasn't interacting with an on-duty employee at the time.
I work in a national park. People are always amazed by this when they realize it's possible to work and live here. I don't know why. Today I'm peacefully sitting in a hotel lobby (unfortunately the only places to get wireless), and this...person sits down nearby.
She's probably in her late 50s. She's being viciously attacked by a gigantic floral print - a disturbing pantsuit which makes her resemble nothing so much as a walking couch. It clashes violently with her huge laptop case (you could fit a terrier in there), which is festooned with a cherry pattern (said cherries are about 1 inch in diameter). She asks me if I'll reach behind me and plug her laptop in, since it's awkward to lean over me. I acquiesce and she sits down and starts doing stuff.
A couple minutes later and a game show starts blaring out of her speakers. And she doesn't pull out headphones or turn it down or off, she just keeps listening. I put on my headphones and crank up my favorite Finnish metal band to drown it out. She eventually turns off the game show and gets up to leave. I read her lips and believe she's asking me where I'm visiting from. I unwillingly pull my headphones off (you know, since they're a signal to normal humans that I don't want to be bothered and such).
"I'm from Michigan."
"Oh, really, we're from OHIO! Are you going to hike the <popular trail>?"
"Oh, how lovely, Ohio, the country's anus!" I should have said, because it would have gotten rid of her (no offense to anyone from Ohio). But no, I was friendly and made the mistake of revealing that I lived here.
"So you work here?"
"Yes." Her head tilts back half a degree.
"So do you guys make minimum wage?"
Oh, there's a polite question..."Yes, starting out, unless you're a manager." Her head tilts back half a degree. Her nose seems to elongate somewhat. Her nostrils flare a bit.
"So what's the housing like, pretty nice?"
"It's...dorms. We have heat, electricity, running water (furniture, walls, a roof, I thought, but didn't say)....rent's really cheap here <insert details>." Her head tilts back a few more degrees.
"So what brought you to do this?" Like I would only choose this lifestyle if driven to it.
"Oh, this is my third park." We discuss what other parks I've worked at.
"So how long are you going to do this?" Head tilts back another degree, nose grows several inches. I give her a rough estimate.
"What are you doing after that?" Starting a campaign to have nosy people's voice boxes removed...
"Going back to school."
"Where did you go before?" I name the school and degree. It's a community college. Her head tilts back even farther and her nostrils flare some more.
"What are you going to go to school for now?" I tell her. Her head tilts back even farther, so much so that it forces her to stand up along with it, and she wishes me a lovely time, I wish her a lovely vacation (or one fraught with horror...you pick) and she leaves, her nose now long enough (from looking at me down its length) that if she could support her weight with it, she'd be taller than she is on her legs.
She reminds me of the upper-middle-class guy who had a similar conversation with me when I worked at another park, then as he bid me goodbye, glibly instructed me not to forget my kind, loving Dorm Supervisor from <park> when I got a "real job". This from a guy who wanted his sheets changed every day, had a roomful of expensive books and electronics, and thought a $2 tip was generous.
The terrifying thing about the woman I met today is that people have to serve her. People have to make her hamburgers and tidy up her room and drive her around on shuttles and listen to her inane questions. And they have to be polite about it. Unlike me, the fool who had an opportunity to compare her home to an anus and let it slip through my fingers. The opportunity, that is.
rb
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