Monday, June 8, 2009

The Yin To My Yang

I have to work tonight and tomorrow night and then my mother is coming to visit…but I'm doing a specialty with MBA on Friday while my mom is in town. Why? She visits twice a year or so, up from Tucson, and while she stays at my house, most of her vertical time is spent downtown at the library. I'm beginning to think that I'm really just a free place to squat while she researches… And since the specialty staging is at West Gate, which is across the street from the Genealogy Library, she will be able to watch me "work", if you can call it that. Her diligent research has already enabled us to join the Daughter's of the American Revolution, so I don’t know what she's trying to prove next. Maybe to see if we're related to the Romanoff's; get us a piece of the Russian crown.

A note about MBA: She has a double first name and a common last name and when you put them altogether it makes for one long hand cramping name to write, or type. So years ago she started abbreviating it to "MBA" on the schedule. She often goes to lunch with Ro and I, and we frequently refer to her as "MBA" instead of using her first name. Due to privacy issues I either use a nickname, change names, or omit last names of people I write about. So, when you see something like "MBA" as a name, just roll with it.

I had a productive weekend. I managed to get a newbie to quit, and that’s a good thing, because he was just not cut out for the carriage driving life. Because of his bumbling inadequacies, another driver and I spent almost two hours waiting around for him, and we didn't leave the barn until 2:15 Saturday morning. That makes for a reallllllllly long night, people. Especially, by the way, when you have to pee, and you're hungry. Plus, last week he dunked the #2 radio, which was just replaced and is the one I always use, into a bucket of water, thus ruining it. Newbies are on a 30 day probationary period. 2 strikes in 5 days = not good. Not coming in Saturday means a no call/no show, so three strikes and you're out.

Sometimes, although a person is "passed off" and is eligible to drive, in reality they are never really cut out for this job. They just don't realize it until someone, say, moi, comes along and allows them to see the error of their vocational choice. I did not rip this person a new one ( I have been known to make people cry ) I simply advised him about all the protocol and procedure he woofed in an evening. I was not surprised when the owner called me at home the following evening, and asked what I said to him. She then advised me that he did not show up for work Saturday afternoon, and thanked me for unloading the dead weight.

*Sigh* A cowboy's work is never done.

So the specialty on Friday is a thing with a youth group, and MBA and I have to stand at West Gate for two and a half hours and give children rides. Not all children, just these children; the children from the youth group. And being that I enjoy the company of other people's children so much, I will be easy to recognize. I'll be the woman with the iPod firmly plugged into one ear, and the glazed expression in her eyes. By the end I'll probably be twitching, too, or banging my head against the side of the wagonette.

MBA, on the other hand, will be as bubbly and effervescent as usual. So she will be the yin to my yang. See? It all evens out in the end.


Slave Driver pushing a stroller full of her favorite kind of baby...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As you said, MBA works really well. If you used her really name, I don't that I would even recognize to whom you were referring to.
Referring to Parentage visits -- mine stopped by to dry off from their trip back to St. George from New Hampshire on a Honda Goldwing. We had lightning, hail, severe wind, and torrential rain. They did not really want to visit, just a place to warm up!
I don't mind other peoples' children so much anymore. As a carriage driver, I hated them. I kinda like them now that I am a teacher. . . but only if I get to hand out the grades!

P.S. its really BPA here, I can't log on during summer school!

Anonymous said...

Genealogy, huh? My mother is into that, too, by remote control--because she can't see very well--she likes for me to look things up and I really don't care. We'd probably get to join the Daughters of the Poor and Obscure or maybe Descendants of the Weird Steerage Committee of the Mayflower or somesuch.

Fertable: opposite of agintable.