"cause at night the sun in retreat made the skyline look like crooked teeth"
GAH. I hate work so much sometimes. There was drama today, and it was raining llamas all over the place.
Here's the sitch.
I'm head guarding. It's morning, pre-opening slide, roughly 10:30am. There are a couple families puttering around shallow, some lap swimmers doing their dailies in their lanes, no complaints, really. Only thing of note is Rosen, who I kicked out of the pool previously (and yes, he is a lifeguard), swimming pretty much without being an annoyance for a bit.
Lady comes outside with three kids, one of which is Rosen's younger brothers. I go to talk to Mark at the ladder stand at the far corner of the pool, still scanning the deck, etc. during conversationality. Then see Rosen engaging previously mentioned lady, who I knew to be an employee of the JCC and an aerobics instructor, at the very least. (Turns out she used to have Ken's job, aka be Aquatics Director.) I learn her name is Jennifer.
Rosen gets indignant, yells for me to come over. I say chill, exchange words with Rosen, then go to see if I can talk to Jennifer, who has been taking up space in one of the lap lanes not swimming laps at all with her three kids. Come to discover it's Athletic camp, and they're going to move in roughly 10 minutes. I look up and don't see any problem with allowing this, as there don't appear to be any lap swimmers needing the lane space. Didn't take Rosen's side and immediately back him up by forcing her out of the lane because A) he gets upset/angry when people don't listen to him, B) he's been pissing me off recently, C) he gets an attitude when he's wearing his guard suit, D) he was off duty and should have left the situation alone, and E) I will defer to an adult who has been employed at the JCC far longer than I if they say they've got permission because I'll assume I just wasn't informed of some special exception.
Am confronted minutes later by a concerned patron who thinks that the whole thing will just teach the kids not to listen to the lifeguard, since Rosen told her to get out of the lanes and she said no, not moving. I see his point, and decide to bring it up with Jennifer when they get out of the water -- they've moved on to regular aerobics outside of the lane now.
A while later, my temporary boss Tonya ventures outside to come speak with me. Apparently two patrons completely bypassed complaining to me and went to her office and the front desk inside the main JCC building. Get bitched at (in a nice way, for Tonya) about the situation. I had planned to talk to Jennifer about the undermining of lifeguard authority. Tonya says she'll take care of it, make sure I enforce the rules and back up my guards, blah blah blah.
I see Tonya and Jennifer having words soon after, but don't hear the conversation -- a key point of this whole day. I see conversations taking place, but I don't hear the words being used or the tone they're in or how they're presented. Jennifer and her camp kids go on their merry way, as does Tonya. I'm upset because the members didn't come to me with the problem and got Tonya involved, but I think it's over.
It isn't.
A little while later, Whitney flags me down for an impromptu powwow with her, Rachel (head of kindercamps) and Jennifer. Protocol for a 'situation' like that is I go to Whitney, not Tonya. I explained I didn't realize there was an issue until she came out. Jennifer was upset because apparently Tonya was being nasty about her being in the lanes (which is legit since Jennifer knows all the rules and Tonya got pulled out of whatever she was doing to deal with that). None of them were upset with the way I handled the situation -which, incidentally, was just to defuse flying sparks and compromise so everyone would be happy- and they wanted to talk to Rosen, who had left until his return much later in the day.
And all of this before noon when I've gotten between 5 and 7 hours of sleep the last 3 to 4 days I've been opening the pool. Too fucking tired for this bullshit.
So, basically, Rosen was upset because Jennifer wouldn't listen, Jennifer was upset because Rosen and Tonya came at her in attacking sort of manners, Tonya and Whitney came at me because I didn't follow protocol, I didn't back up Rosen because he pissed me off, and the members are the ones who exacerbated the situation. If Rosen had waved me over to deal with the situation because he wasn't on duty, I probably would have made Jennifer move and not had complaining members and as such no issue.
In a nutshell, the lesson learned here is FUCKING PEEPS NEED TO FUCKING TALK TO THE HEAD GUARD ON DUTY, THAT'S WHAT I'M FUCKING HERE FOR. WHAT THE FUCK.
Besides that, the rest of the day went pretty okay, except I'm getting really fucking sick of kids being upset when there are no Lost and Found goggles to borrow while they're there. THEY ARE NOT YOURS. BUY SOME OF YOUR OWN AND FUCK OFF. DON'T GIVE ME THAT LOOK. Told the drama llama story about four times, and felt better about the whole damn thing with each retelling.
Came home, jumped in the shower and then back in the car with cold Chipotle leftovers to meet my cousin and her kids at the Children's Museum because Thursday nights from 5-8pm are free and there are a couple new exhibits that weren't around in the day when mom and I were frequent visitors. I had a good time, I hadn't seen them since probably Christmas, and they just get bigger all the time. They still like/remember me, which I enjoy. Also, only dealing with three children opposed to the waves I yell at on the daily was refreshing-- except for the crowds of just plain mean kids that were ruining some of the games for the other kids. I wanted to secretly smack them and walk away whistling, but I did not.
Proceeded to come home, watch the pilot re-air of Royal Pains. I like it, but not enough to sit down and watch it every week like I do so religiously with my other shows. Plink around on Charlie during commercials, play through Run and Open Your Eyes at least twice each. Realize a fair bit later in the evening that I can also play Chasing Cars because it's literally 6 notes being repeated the entire time. I have to play along with the song though, otherwise I lose my place/when the changes are in the song. Guess I gotta learn those lyrics too. Talked to Liz for a while. Actually, a short while by our standards. Just sayin'. Tentative plans made for this weekend -- which I have off! Glory be!
In other news: gay superheroes!
Here's the sitch.
I'm head guarding. It's morning, pre-opening slide, roughly 10:30am. There are a couple families puttering around shallow, some lap swimmers doing their dailies in their lanes, no complaints, really. Only thing of note is Rosen, who I kicked out of the pool previously (and yes, he is a lifeguard), swimming pretty much without being an annoyance for a bit.
Lady comes outside with three kids, one of which is Rosen's younger brothers. I go to talk to Mark at the ladder stand at the far corner of the pool, still scanning the deck, etc. during conversationality. Then see Rosen engaging previously mentioned lady, who I knew to be an employee of the JCC and an aerobics instructor, at the very least. (Turns out she used to have Ken's job, aka be Aquatics Director.) I learn her name is Jennifer.
Rosen gets indignant, yells for me to come over. I say chill, exchange words with Rosen, then go to see if I can talk to Jennifer, who has been taking up space in one of the lap lanes not swimming laps at all with her three kids. Come to discover it's Athletic camp, and they're going to move in roughly 10 minutes. I look up and don't see any problem with allowing this, as there don't appear to be any lap swimmers needing the lane space. Didn't take Rosen's side and immediately back him up by forcing her out of the lane because A) he gets upset/angry when people don't listen to him, B) he's been pissing me off recently, C) he gets an attitude when he's wearing his guard suit, D) he was off duty and should have left the situation alone, and E) I will defer to an adult who has been employed at the JCC far longer than I if they say they've got permission because I'll assume I just wasn't informed of some special exception.
Am confronted minutes later by a concerned patron who thinks that the whole thing will just teach the kids not to listen to the lifeguard, since Rosen told her to get out of the lanes and she said no, not moving. I see his point, and decide to bring it up with Jennifer when they get out of the water -- they've moved on to regular aerobics outside of the lane now.
A while later, my temporary boss Tonya ventures outside to come speak with me. Apparently two patrons completely bypassed complaining to me and went to her office and the front desk inside the main JCC building. Get bitched at (in a nice way, for Tonya) about the situation. I had planned to talk to Jennifer about the undermining of lifeguard authority. Tonya says she'll take care of it, make sure I enforce the rules and back up my guards, blah blah blah.
I see Tonya and Jennifer having words soon after, but don't hear the conversation -- a key point of this whole day. I see conversations taking place, but I don't hear the words being used or the tone they're in or how they're presented. Jennifer and her camp kids go on their merry way, as does Tonya. I'm upset because the members didn't come to me with the problem and got Tonya involved, but I think it's over.
It isn't.
A little while later, Whitney flags me down for an impromptu powwow with her, Rachel (head of kindercamps) and Jennifer. Protocol for a 'situation' like that is I go to Whitney, not Tonya. I explained I didn't realize there was an issue until she came out. Jennifer was upset because apparently Tonya was being nasty about her being in the lanes (which is legit since Jennifer knows all the rules and Tonya got pulled out of whatever she was doing to deal with that). None of them were upset with the way I handled the situation -which, incidentally, was just to defuse flying sparks and compromise so everyone would be happy- and they wanted to talk to Rosen, who had left until his return much later in the day.
And all of this before noon when I've gotten between 5 and 7 hours of sleep the last 3 to 4 days I've been opening the pool. Too fucking tired for this bullshit.
So, basically, Rosen was upset because Jennifer wouldn't listen, Jennifer was upset because Rosen and Tonya came at her in attacking sort of manners, Tonya and Whitney came at me because I didn't follow protocol, I didn't back up Rosen because he pissed me off, and the members are the ones who exacerbated the situation. If Rosen had waved me over to deal with the situation because he wasn't on duty, I probably would have made Jennifer move and not had complaining members and as such no issue.
In a nutshell, the lesson learned here is FUCKING PEEPS NEED TO FUCKING TALK TO THE HEAD GUARD ON DUTY, THAT'S WHAT I'M FUCKING HERE FOR. WHAT THE FUCK.
Besides that, the rest of the day went pretty okay, except I'm getting really fucking sick of kids being upset when there are no Lost and Found goggles to borrow while they're there. THEY ARE NOT YOURS. BUY SOME OF YOUR OWN AND FUCK OFF. DON'T GIVE ME THAT LOOK. Told the drama llama story about four times, and felt better about the whole damn thing with each retelling.
Came home, jumped in the shower and then back in the car with cold Chipotle leftovers to meet my cousin and her kids at the Children's Museum because Thursday nights from 5-8pm are free and there are a couple new exhibits that weren't around in the day when mom and I were frequent visitors. I had a good time, I hadn't seen them since probably Christmas, and they just get bigger all the time. They still like/remember me, which I enjoy. Also, only dealing with three children opposed to the waves I yell at on the daily was refreshing-- except for the crowds of just plain mean kids that were ruining some of the games for the other kids. I wanted to secretly smack them and walk away whistling, but I did not.
Proceeded to come home, watch the pilot re-air of Royal Pains. I like it, but not enough to sit down and watch it every week like I do so religiously with my other shows. Plink around on Charlie during commercials, play through Run and Open Your Eyes at least twice each. Realize a fair bit later in the evening that I can also play Chasing Cars because it's literally 6 notes being repeated the entire time. I have to play along with the song though, otherwise I lose my place/when the changes are in the song. Guess I gotta learn those lyrics too. Talked to Liz for a while. Actually, a short while by our standards. Just sayin'. Tentative plans made for this weekend -- which I have off! Glory be!
In other news: gay superheroes!