Today Was a Crappy Day

Note: My shitty day in 1100+ words.

It began quite like any other Friday with my morning spent volunteering at Banting and Best. On Fridays I have the grade 7s and 8s and they’re normally a really pleasant group, and today was no real exception. The teacher I’m partnered up with is Mrs. Lee and she is also incredibly nice; I learn so much from watching her work the room. I figured it’d be an easy day since I could just nap after volunteering and show up for my four hour shift at work and be done with it.

Anyway, I’m at the intersection waiting for the bus and here comes an express bus. I put my token in and sit down, and then I see the bus driver on the phone talking to transit control. He calls someone from the back to the front and they talk and then he sits down. He’s still on the phone and the bus hasn’t moved. He calls the person from the back to the front again, and this time I listen in:

“I’m fine, really, I am. It’s my fault, I fell down but I’ll be ok!”
“Sir, this is protocol, I have to do this.”
“But I’m not bleeding or anything, I’m not hurt, I’ll be fine. Let’s not delay this.”
“I have to do this.”

From what I can gather: the guy got on the bus, tripped and fell. The bus driver had to alert transit control to let them know what happened, guess it is protocol since they don’t want any liability lawsuits or anything. Well the person who fell kept insisting he was fine and assured the driver that it was “his own fault” and that it would be better if they just kept going. He kept saying he was “making a big deal out of nothing” and was getting more frustrated at the driver as the conversation went on. This conversation went on for another few minutes when the driver just put the bus out of service, and had us get on the next bus.

Now, it was 3:30pm when I got on the bus, and I needed to get to Yonge/Sheppard by 4:30pm. The express bus takes 30 minutes to get to Finch station, and the regular bus takes 40+ minutes. If I had taken the express bus, I would have got to my destination in 40 minutes, which leaves me 20 minutes of breathing room. The delay caused by the driver’s conversation with the customer meant that I was taking the next bus at 3:45pm, and it was a regular bus, not an express. I would most likely be late for work.

4:25pm rolls along and we’re pulling into Finch station. I will still be late, but only by a couple of minutes, so it’s not that bad. I run down to take the subway, and as I sit down I hear another announcement: “We are currently experiencing a delay southbound on our Yonge/University line at North York Centre station. One of our trains is experiencing a mechanical problem. Emergency crews are on the scene and are working to restore service as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and we thank you for your patience.”

Motherfucker!

It’s two stops from Finch to Sheppard, and there just happens to be a delay at the stop in between Finch and Sheppard. ARGH! Of all the fucking days! So I wait, and 10 minutes later the problem is fixed and I’m back on my way. I arrived at work 15 minutes late, which irks me to no end, but the lot’s busy and it’s the end of the month meaning I have to renew people’s monthly cards as well. Within 5 minutes of my shift a lady puts her bent-as-shit credit card into the machine and it not only fucks up the machine, but gets her credit card stuck too. I had to use a pair of scissors to get her credit card out, and then had to stand outside to talk to all the customers and make sure nobody else puts stuff into the machine. I called someone and they sent someone nearby in to fix the machine for me.

Could this be the end of my bad day? Nope! Because at the end of my shift what I’m supposed to do is put the money I earned into a bank bag, and the money that is from my float into a white bag. They were all out of white bags. What I wanted to do was call the supervisor to ask him if it was ok if I put the float into a bank bag, and label it clearly so people can tell the difference. Simple. Real. Fucking. Simple.

I called and it was one of the students on the line and I asked to speak to the supervisor. He told me that he was out and was busy, but that he’d get him to call me back. Ok, cool! Five minutes later I get a call back and it’s the student asking me what’s wrong. I asked him where the supervisor was, and he told me the guy was eating in the office and he wanted to see if he could figure it out with me.

Alright, I’ll play along.

Red: “There’s no more white bags, so I just want to know if I can put the float into a bank bag instead and just label it.”
Student: “That’s interesting.”
R: “Yeah, any ideas?”
S: “Well, won’t the security guys just throw it in without reading? I don’t think they check.”
R: “They do check, they have to make sure that the bags they pick up are the bags that are signed in. But, since this lot doesn’t have a sign-in sheet, it’s the supervisors that pick this up.”
S: “I don’t know man…”
R: “Can I just talk to the supervisor?”
S: “He’s eating. I’ll tell him to call you back.”
*click*

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! CAN’T I JUST TALK TO THE FUCKIN’ GUY?! IS IT THAT HARD?!

Five minutes pass and it’s the student again. He tells me to put it into the bank bag and label it, because it’s the supervisors who pick it up in the morning. THAT IS WHAT I TOLD HIM FROM THE START! WHY DID THIS PROCESS TAKE 15 MINUTES?!

All I wanted was to talk to my god damn supervisor, so I could tell him what I’m going to do. I ain’t asking, because there isn’t any other solution, so I’m telling him because this is the best way to do things. Instead I have to talk through some buffer who doesn’t know shit about the situation or how to solve it, and 15 minutes later get the same fucking solution that I put forth in the beginning.

I am about to go fuckin’ postal. Man, what a shitty day.

First Day of School

Today was my first day of being a student-teacher/volunteer at Banting and Best and it was a blast! Holy crap were the kids ever fun. I am totally committed to being a teacher now. I’m currently in a grade 6 class, but I’ve been told I get to work with the grade 8s and grade 7/8 class as well. The grade 6s are pretty funny so far, here’s a smattering of the conversations I had with them today:

“Hey what’s your name?”
“It’s Redford.”
“Is that your real name?”
“Yes it is. Why would I make up a name like Redford? I’m stuck with it.”
“You can always change your name.”
“Yeah, but, it’d really hurt my parents’ feelings.”

“Redford, are you a dropout?”
“No, I’m not a dropout. Why would a dropout want to teach? Wouldn’t they drop out because they hate school?”
“I don’t know! You tell me.”

“Redford, do you have a girlfriend?”
“No comment! I’m not answering that question.”
“Does that mean you’re a loner?”

I’m sure there’s more to come later, but this is precisely why I want to teach. They’re fun to be around and seem to be enjoying themselves at school. When it comes down to actually teaching and stuff they’re really smart as well. It’s a lot of work too, because you have to plan with the kids, but in the end, it’s worth it.

Voice

I’m putting on my jacket in the office and I’m about to leave to go home. This was at the end of my 10 hour shift and I’m pretty exhausted considering I didn’t get much rest the night before. As I’m zipping up my jacket I hear a customer scream.

“WHAT THE FUCK? LET ME OUT OF HERE!”

Man! I hope I can get out of here before she notices I’m in here. But no! She knocks!

So I go out and she tells me to get back into the booth to take her transaction. Of course, the minute someone tells me to do something, I say no. Then she screams that her credit card got canceled and she needs to find a way to pay. I told her use coins. She told me she doesn’t have coins and she has to pay cash. Well bitch, you’re shit out of luck!

If she had just asked me rather than scream and curse at me, I would have found a better way to help her. And her voice was annoying. It was like talking to a banshee. So I told her to push the help button, and she refused, so I was like, “alright, hold on a second then.”

I go back inside, turn off the lights to my office, punch in the security code, locked up. Then left. I was exhausted, I didn’t want to deal with her anymore and she just stood there screaming at me as I walked away.

Wiseass

This is why people probably hate me...

I didn’t actually go through with it. I know when to be a Jackass and when not to be, and it is plainly obvious that this wasn’t a good time to be one. Although I must admit, the opportunity was so ripe and inviting that I could have gotten away with it. Maybe.

Target Sports

The last time I tried going to Target Sports, I booked an appointment the day of, and to no one’s surprise but myself, the place was completely booked. This time around, I booked a few days in advance and managed to secure a 5pm time slot (despite booking like a few days in advance, their afternoon slots were mostly booked!)

Having spent a large part of my life watching Action movies, I didn’t think guns would be that hard to fire. I mean, if Chow-Yun Fat can fly through the air with two Berettas or a shotgun, just wasting people then how hard can it be to fire one gun with two hands? Well….pretty damn hard. We worked our way up the calibers, starting with .22 caliber gun, which had very little kick, to a 9mm which had a significant change, and finally ending with a shotgun which was so ridiculously hard to aim that I just gave up and shot the gun as best as I could.

The .22 and the 9mm weren’t that hard to aim with. Most of my shots were around the bulls-eye with one or two shots fluking a direct hit, but then came…the shotgun. It was a bit heavy and the instructor kept telling us to hold the gun stock tightly against our shoulders, or else the kick is gonna hurt us. Well, I did that, but man, what a kick! I remember watching Terminator 2 and thinking it was pretty damn impressive of Arnold to shoot a shotgun with one hand, but to actually feel the recoil on the gun and imagine Arnold doing that with one hand? That’s extra impressive.

So if you have some free-time, I would highly recommend anyone go to this place. They have some pretty cool instructors, and it’s always fun to do some target shooting. I can’t wait to go again! I’ll post pics as soon as Mari posts them, she took the lion’s share of photos that day.