Today I completed 13 days without a day off. HUGE mistake. I have two full days off and then I am back to twice a day W, TH and F and then Saturday morning and Sunday. I work the Sharks on the 26th and 28th and I’ll get my schedule for March on the 26th.
After finishing my first big event at the HP…I know better how to structure my schedule next year. I got to be part of the “special staffing.” This sounds a lot better than it really is. Yes, I was given a different uniform to wear for most of the time…but it was NOT glamorous work. It was being on the perimeter of the “glam stuff” and making sure only those allowed in certain areas were let in to those areas. It was telling people “no” and sending them where they needed to go. I saw none of the actual event…just what was on TV when I wasn’t working. Granted, I had the opportunity to say hello to a player (initiated by them), but I also had to send them back to the locker room if they didn’t have their credentials. Most of them were very nice about it…a couple were quite rude and one came close to pushing me aside when I asked him for his credential, but I moved first.
Most of the sponsors for the event were great as well. The company that sponsored the event has 35,000 employees in over 100 countries and so we had people from all over the world in the building. I think what amazed me was that some of these people assumed that just because we are ushers that we must be uneducated and only there to try to be groupies for whatever event is in the building at the time. They have no idea how highly educated some of the ushers are and what jobs they hold or have held in the past. Yes we have college students and high schoolers on staff...but that is the minority.
Two things happened this week…one really bad and one that made it all OK. Well, not really, but it was a nice little cap to the end of my day. There was some spoken and some unspoken jealousy about my “special” status this past week. I didn’t ask for it, I had nothing to do with being “chosen” for it, etc. They tell me to do something and I do it. It finally got to me on Thursday night. One of the guys that I get along with fairly well went on and on and ON about how it wasn’t fair, that he heard you had to have been there a year to be chosen, etc. Then, when I was in my spot for the night, one of the others came to give me my break and she questions if I was doing my job correctly. That did it. I barely made it back up the elevator, across the concourse and back down stairway 8 to the Uniform Room before I started really crying. Another usher, trying to be helpful, tells me that we need to just go with the flow because that night I was in “her spot” only because there was a screw up in her schedule.
The good/sweet thing that happened was one of the sponsor’s staffers. One night I thought I may have screwed up and asked him who I should apologize to. I let a CRT team member down the stairs instead of sending him down the elevator. Their job is to get where they need to be as quickly as possible so I didn’t think until it happened. Anyway, I was explaining that to James and telling him I was really sorry. He told me that it was fine, it was no big deal and that I was doing a great job. Wednesday night he came up to me and formally introduced himself and I was glad to have an ally. Friday I was in my “blues” and he got there (I had been there since before light) about 5ish or so and told me I looked “smart” in my uniform. Gag!
Since I didn’t work today, last night I let him know and he said to make sure I say goodbye before I left or he’d come find me at the end of the matches. He was handling some transportation issues and so I went out to day goodbye. He said he’d see me next year and I said that as far as I knew I was planning on being there and we shook hands. I started to head back in when he pulled me back out and leaned over and kissed my cheek. I know it was no big deal…but it was sweet.
Here’s the thing. I get so very little affection (friendly or otherwise) from anyone other than my hugs from Rob at the end of our sessions that just that little peck of friendship/finishing a battle well together…whatever you want to call it really felt good. Okay, a friend of mine was asked for her phone number by one of the players…but this was still nice. I am such a dork!
In other rants…I didn’t even get a card from my mom for Valentine’s Day. I made sure she had a card and some candy…and I got nothing! She bought a meatloaf Thursday night and when I got home at almost 1 AM Friday morning I just wanted to go to bed and so I said I’d eat some later Friday. I get off work, stop to get some potato wedges to go with the meatloaf and she gave the rest to my grandparents! She offered to go me something else…but I told her to forget it! This is one of the reasons why James’ kindness meant a lot.
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