Whatever hadppened to Saturday night?

[uberreiniger]

To everyone who's hearing this story for the 2nd or possibly 4th time, I apologize, but I just have to go on yet again about how crappy my Saturday night at work was.

I got mandatory'd into overtime Saturday night, which I was NOT happy about to begin with. But I think hey, Saturday night there's only one guard on duty and no one workers show up in the morning 'cause it's Sunday, so even though I have to be there, at least I can basically just sit there and relax and do my patrols at my own pace. WRONG. I get there and discover that not only am I not alone, but I'm with a guy who has never worked there before and knows nothing about the place, so my night of doing nothing becomes a night of me doing training. Then, whenthe parking lot patrol officer arrives at 6:30, it turns out she has not been trained either. And then employees start showing up. To work. On a Sunday. So here I am, trying to train two people and basically doing a full weekday morning's worth of reception work completely unprepared. No one notified me of any of this when they told me I would be wroking. I was not pleased. And I'm not even going to get into the girl who launched into a profanity-filled tirade because I wouldn't let her go upstairs without her I.D. badge, (which, you know, is my JOB to not let people do.)

And another thing...

Am I just unusually touchy, or does anybody else hate it when someone who doesn't know you tries to strike up a conversation with you about the book you're reading? Now for my part, if I'm in a room with someone and that person is reading a book and not talking to me, I go on the assumption that the person would rather read the book than talk to me and I try not to bother them. Yet every single person I've worked with on the night shift has been unable to live by this precept. It is foreign to them. They guy I trained Saturday night was no exception. I take my roleplaing game books with me to give me something to do. They're for me. I want to read, I don't want to talk. I don't want to make friends. I don't want to be your buddy. I just want to read and NOT have to explain my hobbies to people who don't have any interest in them. And my very terse, vague replies to their inquiries do nothing to deter them asking more questions. It's always like this:

THEM: Is that a... game book?

ME: Yeah.

THEM: Like a... roleplaying game?

ME: Yeah.

THEM: Which one?

ME: Name of whatever game it is.

THEM: Is that like... Dungeons & Dragons?

ME: Yeah. (NOTE: Usually it is NOTHING like Dungeons & Dragons at all, but they're not going to know the difference even if I tell them, so whatever gets them off my back the fastest.)

From there it follows predicatable patterns, usually with them going on about how they always wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons, or they had a friend in college who played Dungeons & Dragons, or they start telling me about their Everquest/World of Warcraft game because they think it's the exact same thing. Or worse, start telling me about how they always wanted to play World of Warcraft or Everquest. From there it gets fuzzy because by this point I've tuned them out and am continuing in my reading.

Maybe I'm too uptight, I just always taught it was rude to bother people who were reading and to ask nosy questions about what they're reading. Yet considering how I have yet to work with ANYONE at this job who doesn't do it, maybe I'm the one with the problem.

Comments

[shadowfell.livejournal.com]

Ah, the fated role-playing conversation. Or "why I stopped bringing my books into the light of day where others can see them." And no, I won't go to your LARP Vampire game. And no, I don't want to hear about the time you single-handedly took out an Ancient Red Wyrm. And if you're completely clueless, well, remain so. It's better for all of us. :)

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I wish they were the guys talking about their LARP or their 23rd level character. Those guys I can deal with so much better than the people trying to force "polite conversation" out of what I'm reading. Were I reading a book on crocheting, they'd probably do the same thing.

[ghaidin.livejournal.com]

Argh for Saturday of Doom. Is it in your list of responsabilities to train newbies? I mean, there is probably nothing you can do about it, but... still, on a Saturday night and all by yourself sounds like too much.

As for books, I'm a curious kitty myself, but I wouldn't ask anyone about a book while they're reading it. That's, ehem, rude. Now, you bring one of them RPG books out and people are going to assume you're one of those crazies about to get a sword from somewhere and start chopping people down. Because we all know that's what you RPGers do every Saturday night (when you're not busy working overtime and training freshishuies, that's it)

That's why I don't tell my coworkers that my favorite show of all times is an 80s Japanese anime, and would never even dream of letting them know that I'm active in its fandom or that I love RPGing/fic-writing in it.

Ah, about that book you're reading... I used to have a Dungeons & Dragons when I was a kid. My, how I loved it! Ithink I used to play the sorcerer (there was a sorcerer, right? or was it a mage? Is there any difference?) In any case, I always wanted to pick up one of those things when i went to college but you see... *runs away*

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

They have both sorcerers and mages now. It's the total package.

It's normally the account manager's responsibility to train the newb's, not mine, so I don't know how I got stuck with it. But I'm not happy with my boss about it, that's for sure.

[cherith.livejournal.com]

Your Saturday sucked, I'm sorry. Did you at least get better pay because it was OT? I hope so.

As for the book thing. It's never-ending at work. I read on my lunch break. Does that mean I want to talk to you about what I'm reading on my lunch break? NO. I've learned not to take my RPG books out anymore. But I still get bugged about all sorts of my regular books. "Oh, you like fantasy...huh"... and then they walk off.

[ghaidin.livejournal.com]

"Oh, you like fantasy...huh"... and then they walk off.

Because that automatically makes you an idiot in the eyes of so many people. When did book snobberish catch up with its movie counterpart?

For some reason sci-fic doesn't seem to be treated with the same contempt, but the "Do you also read, like, real books?" that you get when you read fantasy gets on my nerves.

By the way, happy birthday :)

[cherith.livejournal.com]

Oh, the whole "real books" thing gets on my nerves. Normally I follow it up with a "so what do you read" because most often, they're not even readers...which is even more annoying. You don't read, but you're critizing my choices? Lovely.

And thanks!

[ghaidin.livejournal.com]

I was talking about it with a friend in LJ some time ago. So many of these people don't open a book at all, or just read books because they come with an "official recommendation" -- and still they feel they have the moral ground to critize your choices.

Like the Coelho frenzy, I didn't like him before and no amount of "expert sponsored" praise is going to change my opinion that he's a supreme bore that doesn't hold up stories that well.

(Honestly, I've found way more "deep" readers in the group of people who also like fantasy than among those who look down on it. Probably not a random sample, but still ... )

[donkeyjon.livejournal.com]

I really like Coelho, but I understand your aversion. I swear to fucking Christ that if ONE more person comes up to me and tries to engage me in a conversation about Dan Brown, I'm going to beat them to death with my dick.

And my dick ain't big. So it'll take a while and be painful.

For both of us.

[ghaidin.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, the Da Vinci Code was a message full of... hmmm, yeah, not. I think I'll pass :P

plus i think uberreiniger here already provided an entry to discuss that one, so we covered the ground a while ago

But now, Angels and Demons.... *runs away madly*

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

The worst people I've ever had like that were school teachers. When you had to read a certain number of books in a term, and they'd always throw in the disclaimer "NOT fantasy!"

[ghaidin.livejournal.com]

aside from the one who said that if you read escapist literature you're falining as a citizen, many of my teachers were smart enough to pull in books that kids will actually like

Salvatore's books got my little brother reading (and that's from a boy who would ask me to read out his comics books for him when he was little!)

sp BLAH! to them!

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

See, why can't I ever get people like that?

[raihaannah.livejournal.com]

And I'm not even going to get into the girl who launched into a profanity-filled tirade because I wouldn't let her go upstairs without her I.D. badge, (which, you know, is my JOB to not let people do.)

You know what, fuck her. I just had a run in like that today. And I'm sick and tired of it. You were just doing your job. But I'm sorry that you were confronted with it. Even when you were in the right it's still stressful to be involved in confrontations like that.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Especially when I'm not expecting them.

[arphaxaad.livejournal.com]

It used to annoy the High Holy Hell out of me when I would take a book with me to Perkins/Denny's or whereever for a late supper/early breakfast after work, and random Coffee Zombie would sit at the booth and start talking to me - Not even about the book, though that was an easy in. And if I was nice to them, they would consider it an invite to join me every time they saw me.

I finally had to start being rude to them by stopping them in mid-inanity and say something like, "I'm really not trying to be rude, but I'm not so much ignoring you as not paying attention to anything you've just said."

[fallingtearpoet.livejournal.com]

have I ever told you that you're my hero?

[arphaxaad.livejournal.com]

I did save someone from having a wicca-stalker cast a spell on them at Perkins once, so I guess that qualifies me for hero status..

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Wicca stalkers are so ubiquitous at those restaurants they ought to just come with the coffee.

[fallingtearpoet.livejournal.com]

I kind of enjoy telling them exactly why it isn't like D&D.

It's amazing how fast the conversation ends.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I may have to switch tactics and try that.