When You Shoot Off Your Mouth, Make Sure Not To Look Like An Ignorant Ass ....
I went into work this morning and found the parking garage stuffed to the gills. Most the time, when I show up around 9am-ish, the five levels of the parking garage are mostly empty. Today, people were about two steps away from halberds and maces. Since I usually arrive early, I ended up finding a spot on a lower floor than normal, then sat in my car and played video Texas Hold'Em. (Remember, my coffee shop closed up at the end of last week.) I had a fantastic view of the cars playing Musical Chairs with the parking spots.
When the time came, I headed up a flight of stairs to the 4th floor, where I checked to see if the compressor for the animatronics was turned on. If it wasn't, I'd turn it on and head on up to work. It wasn't, so I did.
I got to the front door just a little before "On Time" to find out that I was the only Hospitality person there. I knew we had a group of Kinders coming in (because one of their teachers told a mother that they needed to show up 45 minutes before we actually opened), so I started the Opening chores .... which included picking up the Early Learners area, AKA the responsibility of Education, not Hospitality.
Bing. Bang. Boom. Flipping of breakers. Tossing of switches. Certain lights go on. Certain lights go off. More flipping of breakers. More tossing of switches. Dinos wake up. Computers start running. Answering the phone to find out that the Kinders are going to be late. Cash drawers get counted out. Telling Education that their three tour groups will be late. Elevator locks turned off. Lower level doors unlocked. Catalogues checked out. Sales program and events calendar brought up.
Education people standing around doing nothing.
Hospitality manager comes in and is very happy to see most everything up. I go upstairs to get the Art Floor ready. Breakers are already flipped. Lights are already on. Temperature/Humidity readings get taken and logged. Educational DVD up and running. Stairway doors unbolted. Vitrines getting cleaned. Windows getting cleaned.
Education manager strides off elevator and proceeds to interrupt the end of my Opening chores by lecturing me on how I missed one dino switch. Continues the lecture with telling me how -- if I hear a whistling kind of sound -- that it means there is air in one of the lines and one of the dino switches hasn't been thrown. Proceeds to tell me that if I just listen for that sound, I won't need to do a walk-through (which I wouldn't be doing unless I was stationed to work on the First Floor and I actually would have to do if I was working on the First Floor). Ignores the subtle sarcasm from me when I say that I was kind of busy getting things ready on two floors, as I'm still working in a crouch to clean the lower windows in the gallery. Tells me that she did, indeed, see how busy I was. She's just trying to make my job easier. Ignores more subtle sarcasm from me as I ask her if she knew that her Kinders were going to be late. Informs me that all three of her Education people informed her, so she is well-aware that her tour group will be late in arriving.
These would be the three Education people who were standing around the entire time that I was running around getting the First Floor opened, yet were unable to walk over and flip one switch that they all knew needed flipped.
And how very nice that all my hard work allowed the Education manager the luxury of time to inform me of my one, small failing .... while I was still working to finish opening the Art Floor.
You can't imagine how proud I was of myself!! I managed to contain my amusement and my laughter until after she rounded the corner and headed toward the stairs. Twenty years ago, I would've laughed directly in her face and started having fun at her expense on the workroom floor in front of others.
However, old points of view are hard to switch. I think that she might've caught me laughing at her when she descended the stairs. The windows that I was in the process of cleaning were those that open up into the building's atrium, within sight of the interior staircase that winds down to the lower floors. And, I did cave a little and made a few small jokes to a couple fellow co-workers when I was leaving for the day. (The Education manager is not viewed in a very flattering light by most of my co-workers, with the nicest thing they say being that she is a princess.)
The rest of the day went amazingly well. The Kinders finally arrived, and they were a joy to have in the gallery. I got some work done on the new survey we started on Saturday. And the best part was the surprise of finding a small tour group from the local Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing school. I was working in the gallery, and saw this little group of 7 wandering around, trying to avoid the last (and very large) group of Kinders. I thought they were intimidated by such a large group, so I went over to give them one of our NIE supplements to assist in their visit. As I approached, I saw the adult and two of the children using ASL.
While my ASL is sadly out of practice, we did have a little art aesthetics/art criticism in the gallery. We discussed the construction of one of the pieces, and talked a little about the owners of the collection. The adult seemed very happy that I was able to give a small tour and use some ASL. I wish I had been in better practice, though. I also wish I had know that we were going to have that ASL group touring the gallery. I would've tried to arrange something a little more special for them.
Of course, the major downside to everything today is the fact that it looks like I've picked up another sinus infection. There are about three of us in Hospitality that keep getting them. I think it might have something to do with the exposure to the damn and cold on the First Floor, then being thrown up to the warm and dry on the Art Floor, and having all those kids coming for tours.
Still, what's a little Z pack and some Zertec when you get the tour groups we had today.