Dead End Road

I am currently working, and felt like wasting time, so it only made sense to waste time telling a story of something that has happened to me at work. Let me tell you a little about my job. I am a manager at a movie theater, which shall remain nameless, that is located in the suburbs of Chicago. It is a very rich, very elderly suburb, with the only highlight being that there is a Dairy Queen and I one time met Harold Ramis. Everyone is cranky and fussy and close to death, which I am fine with. It makes dealing with grumpy people much easier knowing that they will probably die shortly after getting back home.

So one day I get a call from an employee, who was interrupting VERY important Wikipedia time, saying I had to deal with a customer, so I put my "research" on hold. An old woman and a MUCH older man appear to be the culprits of this interruption. I could not recall the exact dialogue, so I will summarize as best I can. The woman says, "So we were driving by your theatre and looked at the sign out front and read the movie times, decided what we wanted to see, and then ate dinner. Turns out that we read the sign wrong, so will you give us free passes?"

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Let that sink in for a moment.........

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My reaction was, "WHAT THE FUCK, WHY WOULD I DO THAT, DOES THIS LOOK LIKE SOME OLD PERSON CHARITY?". However, that only took place in my head. What words I managed to mutter through the cogs in my brain coming to a rusty halt was something along the lines of,"........wait.....what?".

They then described the confusing sign, and even brought me outside to show me how "confusing" the sign was. I held firm to my beliefs of not wanting to reward ignorance and crankiness, so obviously, I said "no" repeatedly. The debate got quite heated, and pinnacled when she said, "So you would rather have two angry customers than just give us free passes?", to which I replied, "FUCK YES YOU DUMMY". Once again, that was only in my head, but it was something like that, but in a much more managerial way. Her response....

"You know what, with that kind of attitude, you won't be going very far in life".

Wait a second, did she really just say...I couldn't comprehend, because I was interrupted by her taking pictures of the "confusing sign" with her cellular device, and then took pictures of "toilet paper" that was on the "floor". Honestly, who gets THAT upset over not being able to read?

FAST FORWARD FOUR DAYS

An older lady than lady number one comes in asking to talk to a manager. She says she has passes that expire in a few days, however, she is going on vacation for a week and won't get a chance to use them. She begs and pleads with me to somehow make sure they will be accepted. This is obviously THE biggest problem she has EVER had in her ENTIRE life. So I say to her, "Sure you old weirdo, good forever!" or something along those lines. She then acts quite grateful, and says, "You know, with that kind of attitude, you are going places in life". I KID YOU NOT. Two contradictory views on where my life will be heading from two complete strangers within four days. I had no idea I worked in a town full of contradictory, fortune-telling gypsies.