Working stiff

Yet again, I've found myself working for the corporate machine, little more than a nameless cog, employee #----. I try to tell myself I'm balancing it by my internship (free labor!) at an alt. newsweekly in Philly (yay alternate news sources!), but alas, the guilt remains: I am a new employee at Loews Theaters, which will soon be swallowed whole by AMC. I started work last Friday, and it's surprisingly not that bad.

I must question their scheduling a bit. Saturday night, my second shift working at the theater, I was put on the concession stand. A very hot Saturday night. It was very, very busy. I kept my cool through the entire shift, even when the Sprite dispenser at my station stopped working. Even when the receipt printer decided to disobey the Second Law of Robotics (this moment of pure geekiness brought to you by Mr. Asimov) and randomly spool out literally multiple feet of blank paper. I had to keep it unplugged unless someone used a credit card or ordered a kitchen item, therefore requiring a receipt. I even stayed calm when my cash drawer simply stopped working, forcing me to just leave it open the entire time. But I did decently, sold a bunch of combos. A few observations:

• No employees actually use the suggested greetings. "Welcome to Loews," maybe. At the box office, the sticker on the counter tells us to say, "It would be my PLEASURE to help the next guest." We don't say that. I didn't hear much of, "Welcome to Loews, would you like to try one of our candy combos?" much at the concession stand, either.
  
• Standing for eight hours at a stretch is worse at the concession stand. There's no nice comfy mat for your feet. It's hard at the box office, too.
  
• Even at its busiest (last night, when War of the Worlds opened and kept selling out), it was nowhere near as bad as when Subway got busy. Fewer variables to keep track of, I guess,
• After a while, popcorn stops looking appealing.
• It's kind of painful, selling a couple hundred tickets for a movie you really, really want to see, knowing you can't see it yet.

That's all for now. Next up, later tonight if I'm in the mood (so to speak): Tales from Community College!