Tonight at work was good and sucked at the same time. More on that later.

First ... my day. I woke up and went to visit my great-grandmother. We got there, we drove her to her various necessary locations and then went to eat at a diner. We went back to her apartment and chatted for a bit and then drove home. I went to the meeting that we had to go to today and it was worthless because only full-time employees were to be there.

OK, onto the important part. My day at work. I had a great staff. Can't complain about that. However, I can complain about one particular customer that wins the "crappy customer of the year award." Up to this point I don't think I really had one that stood out but they won.

Here's how it "went down." I was standing in box while Renee was eating. This lady comes up to me and asks a question or two and I think she may have mentioned a problem she had in a theatre. OK, no problem. THEN, a second woman comes up and tells me that it was ridiculously cold in the one theatre. I told her I would take a look at it. She then proceeded to say that she would report us if this happens again because it's not lawful to have a theatre that cold. I stared at her and let her ramble on about laws that she makes up and then I said I would take a look at it and I apologize. She then ranted about how horrible it was blah blah. I said that we do have someone do theatre checks so I'm surprised I had not heard anything about it sooner. She had said, "what were they 13?" Now ... last I checked ... 13 year olds still had nerve endings and would be able to tell me if the theatre was cold. Hmm ... well she had no argument there except to be retarded. OK, moving on. I said, "no, actually they are 18" and she said, "well they must have had a sweatshirt on or something because it was freezing in there." I went and helped some customers, came back and she continued ranting about the cold and the other lady then began agreeing with this "first to complain" lady. I was like, "yes, I will take a look at it as soon as possible." They walked away and chatted for a bit, came back as I was still in box and said it really was absurd. I said that had I known, I would have taken a look at the thermostat and fixed the problem (all of these were kind hints that they could have come out at any point during their 2 hour movie to mention something). She said, "well a more mature person would have checked the theromostat." Clearly, insulting me will get the job done much easier and more successfully than being nice about the whole thing. Yes. Well, using every ounce of strength, I grinned and walked to help more customers. I came back and they said they want their money back because they felt it was ridiculous and unacceptable. I told them I could give them passes, which they quickly agreed to (note: someone who is really upset will not agree to passes ... especially since they probably wouldn't be coming back if there was truly a problem). I went upstairs and got the passes, handed them to them and then walked back upstairs. Oh, back track here ... I was upstairs getting the passes and Caty got off of break (the one that did the theatre checks). I asked her if she noticed it being cold in any of the theatres and she said she did not know to which I asked how she did not notice any temperature issues in the theatres. I was a bit snippy but to my knowledge I did not yell although I was portrayed as yelling. :-( I apologized later because they just were not trained properly at all at theatre checks plus the theatre wasn't actually cold ... more on that in a sec. OK, so I handed passes and then went upstairs and checked the thermostat. It was 69.5 degrees. 69.5. "Ice cold" "freezing" "same temperature as outside." These are phrases used to describe the temperature they felt but ... no, not even close. In fact, it was only slightly cold at most. They said they just could not stay warm. Whatever. So I raised the heat and the theatre was comfortable the rest of the evening. I would also like to note that they said everyone else had their coats on in the theatre. A theatre of 70 some people and NO ONE said anything? Interesting ... right. Complain much for free stuff do we? Yeah.

Anyway, that was my fun day. It wouldn't have been too bad if it weren't for the name calling. Caty is much older than 13 and I'm more mature than she is. End of story. I was very tempted to tell her straight out, "excuse me but that is unnecessary. Insulting me or my "maturity" will not solve the temperature problem in the theatre any more quickly and will only inhibit any chance you have of a refund or even of remaining in the theatre for another 5 minutes." I was tempted but I knew I had to hold back because I like my job most of the time. Chris M would have backed me up and I'm sure any others that may have witnessed it would have too but it would have been pointless anyway. Job would have been gone and so would have my raise.

Fortunately this is a rare instance or there would be major issues involving metal objects and customer's heads. ... just kidding of course but seriously, having the constant insult would not be so peachy for me.

This reflects back to my first customer encounter in which I was called sleazy. I won't go into detail unless you REALLY want to know about it but it was fun times. It involved the customers thinking I was the GM and avoiding them so that they would simply "go away." Nope, my old boss just took forever to get dressed. :: sighs :: some people.

Anyway, I got my tax book for this year. That's exciting if I do say so myself ... and I do. I actually tend to look forward to "paying my taxes" because it usually results in me actually getting money back. Always a welcome monetary adjustment when they go, "whoops, you've overpaid by 700 dollars." Cha-ching! :-)

So onto the good stuff of the evening. I got multiple hugs, which made me feel good. Gretchen hugged me twice and Caty hugged me twice (well, rested her head on me once with her arm around me and hugged me the second time). I just get that feeling of love in the heart from it and I love it. It's great. I'm very thankful for Gretchen and Caty (and Chris since he provoked the second hug from Caty) for making me smile. Oh, and let's not forget Tiff who hugs me frequently too. Hugs are just always appreciated in general. I cannot actually remember if I got hugged by others tonight because I'm trying to block some of my evening.

So I distributed some Christmas gifts last night. Matt and Melissa opened theirs in front of me and at least pretended to like them but Megan left without opening it ... soo ... I'm hoping she liked it like Matt and Melissa claimed to.

My only problem with Christmas is I don't make a list so there is always a chance that I miss someone. I got more gifts this year than last but I think I actually wound up spending less money, which surprised me.

So tomorrow! I actually have a day planned out before I'm in it. I'm going to see The Aviator with Tiff and I'm going to eat and bowl as well (with Tiff). I'm not sure if she has invited others ... I invited some for whatever they may be able to attend but I guess we'll see how successful that was when it arrives. If you weren't invited by me, you are now: come watch The Aviator at 4 and/or come bowling at 9 ($1 bowling ... can't go wrong with that).

Well ... on that note I'm going to head off. Have a good night.