… so don’t tell me how to do mine.

I dealt with a guest today that started off okay. Dressed nice, but he had an air about him. He asked for a couple envelopes and pieces of paper for whatever. I gave it to him, no problem. We had the supplies, why would I say no?

But what he asked next was what made me… not angry, but thoughtful.

“Can you check when the next Southwest plane leaves for Phoenix?”

“No, I’m sorry,” I say with an apologizing smile.

“You don’t? This is business services, isn’t it? You can call them can’t you?”

“Oh yes it is, but I’m sorry, we don’t do that.”

“Well then, I’ll just tell the manager then, won’t I?”

“Okay.”

“You know what, young lady? You’ll get farther in life if you don’t do the robotic act.”

“Okay.”

“I’ve been to this hotel three or four times, and every time they’ve been able to do that for me.”

“Okay.”

“You’re the first person who hasn’t done that for me.”

*flounces off*

I mean, honestly, what do you tell people who lecture you about the way you do your job? I just smile politely and apologize. I mean, there’s not much else you can do.

As a matter of fact, we used to be able to do that sort of thing for guests. But we don’t do that anymore because the rules changed. We are not allowed to book, check, or change anyone’s flight plans whatsoever. Period.

We got in trouble a few months back when one of our agents changed a flight plan for a guest. Long story. The moral of that story is: if you’re gonna get fleeced by a guest, they will find a way to do so by any means possible.

I’m not gonna get in trouble for doing something I was expressly told NOT to do, no matter how many times another agent has done it for them in the past.

And as another matter of fact, I’m not gonna stay in this industry, because of self-righteous guests just like him. I don’t get paid enough to deal with their “make my emergency your emergency” attitude. Like that old cliche, “poor planing on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.”

I’m making moves, making something of myself. I’m gonna get out of this town. The only time I’ll come back to Vegas is to visit family that live here, and the friends that I’ve made. Vegas already has put a bad taste in my mouth… and I haven’t even left yet! It represents drama in my past, drama that probably would’ve been easier to deal with, had I made the right decisions. In the future, I wouldn’t voluntarily live here unless the job was hella good, and it was in my degree field. Then of course, it would have to pay enormously. I’m a capitalist pig, what can I say?

I would’ve told him all this, if he hadn’t lectured me.

But anything I would’ve said would have fallen on deaf ears, I’m sure. People like him, they have no compassion for people on the other side of the counter. They only hear what they wanna hear. And if they don’t like what they hear, then they shut themselves off, like a little kid who plugs their fingers in their ears and says, “blah blah blah.” My mom always said - when talking about how stubborn us kids were - “it’s like talking to a brick wall!”

Which is just as well. I’m gonna put him in one of my stories someday though. That’s why I’m writing about him now. I’ll look back for inspiration at my old blog entries and think, “he’d be perfect for this scene or this character.”

Like Chaucer said in A Knight’s Tale: “I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every pimple, every character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity.”

So I thank you sir, for your inspiring performance.

Someday, you’ll be famous.

?: “How do you deal with people who behave like brick walls?”