Random Stuff

[styxx374]

• Well, there has definitely been frost on the pumpkins this past week. We had a hard rain and lots of wind and the the temps dropped drastically. The leaves on the trees seemed to fall en masse. Of course, Ethel still hasn't ordered heating oil, so our house is cold as balls. Thank God for electric blankets!
• My car needed to be inspected this month.

Comments

[styxx374]

Well, Ethel and I are both broke at the moment, so that's why we have no heat! Although, last winter I put the oil on my card a couple of times, so if it gets cold I may break down and just add to my heaping mound of debt. What's another $600? (I have no idea why she isn't willing/able to put it on her card - maybe I should show her my statements so she can see how deep I'm in....)

The old lady....sigh:

I was having a really bad week. (I've been burnt-out and depressed lately, and it really hit me hard that week.) We have next to no volunteer help at the museum (not even from our board of directors, really), and during a quilt show, you need bodies to show people around. The lady on our board who put up the quilt show didn't drum up volunteers (like she was supposed to), and I'd been too swamped to do anything about it. So we had it arranged that you could see the quilt exhibit any time, but if you wanted a tour of the museum, we offered it once a day at 1pm because then I would have to lock up our tour center (where the exhibit is) to take the (at least) one-hour tour over to the museum myself. Most people understand (this is still the arrangement), and actually, most people do a little research before they come in so they know what the deal is - it's just the nature of historic house museums, these days.

So anyway, this nice, older couple comes in around sometime after 2 (I forget the exact time), from somewhere in the southwest (I forget where). They were very understanding about the situation, and the woman paid to see the exhibit while the hubby went out to the car or something. They were literally driving across the country to go to Boston or someplace with NO prior planning. (I should also note that it was "Family Weekend" at the university in our town, so all of our hotels/B&Bs had been booked up for ages.) So while she's looking around the gift shop, this old, miserable hag from New York comes in, and she's just not having it that I cannot give her a tour. She insisted that the website said nothing about the tour only being available at 1pm. She came at me aggressively from the beginning, and I was at the end of my rope, so I just started arguing with her. And it escalated. She wanted to contact my board (I told her to go ahead, that I was the ONLY employee, and they weren't going to fire me). Then she'd turn to the other lady and try to draw her into the argument. I was getting distraught by this point, really. The other lady politely (and hurriedly) left. I felt so bad for her. She must have thought I was a miserable bitch, too (and I was, at that moment).

[styxx374]

Then the Hag turned on me again, so I actually pulled up our website and SHOWED her that it said 1pm, in both a pop-up as soon as you land on the site as well as at several other locations (being the only employee, I am also the webmaster, and placed that shit there myself!) She reluctantly admitted she was wrong, but then she pointed out that there was currently NO ONE coming in to see the quilts, so I could easily take the tour over. I told her no, I couldn't. Then she said she was meeting her sister from Virginia here at 4, so surely by then I could find a tour guide and/or give them a tour? Then she left for a bit and I called my board chair crying, and we prayed that she wouldn't be able to find a hotel and leave.

At 4pm she and her sister returned, and I was so afraid I was gonna lose it completely, but her sister was soooooo nice, and politely said they were here to see what they were able to see, so I let them see the quilt show at no charge. Then, while they were in there, the Hag gets on speakerphone and starts bitching to someone about everything that's been going wrong with her trip. The Virginia sister comes out to me to "see how I'm doing," and then asks me to pray for her because she had willingly decided to spend the entire weekend with her sister, who is obviously a pain in the butt. It was at that moment that I realized Virginia Sister came in to smooth things over and that it was obvious that her sister is like this everywhere. Then she asked how I was again because when they came in, it "looked like I was about to cry." (I was.) And then we chatted. She said they were going to the Penn State game the next day (they were both alums) and this was something they'd do occasionally since they lived so far apart.

Somehow, we got to talking about politics (which I don't usually do because I hate it), but it turned out we had similar leanings. This brought the Hag out of her phone call and into the conversation. We ended up awkwardly making peace over commiserating over the last election. Then she told me a story about how she met HRC at some hoity-toity B&B in New York. Eventually, they left, with us exchanging somewhat pleasant good-byes, and I went home and thanked God (again) that I have given up drinking because I surely would have gone on a bender that night....