It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Saturday, October 5
We saw the AGM before reporting for duty at the hotel tonite…We were walking in and we saw a pickup pulling out of the porte-cochere and it starts to head out when it stops and someone says “Hi, Sparrow”…We recognized neither the voice nor the truck but it turns out to be the AGM…Why we didn’t recognize his voice may never be clear, tho maybe we were so focused on warming up for our shift that we were blocking everything out…Call it the focus all the great ones have if you must.
We go up to say “howdy” and ask if he’s been promoted to GM yet…He said no but added he had news: the management company the new owners hired when they took over a couple of years ago has been fired; he noted the owners are forming their own management company to run us and some of their other hotels…(All told, the old company lost 18 hotels…It’s unknown why they changed, tho the AGM speculated the owners wanted to cut out the middleman, believable when you consider the economies we go thru sometimes.)
This means we all need to be rehired again, the same corporate nonsense we had to go thru two years ago, with the AGM noting a couple of onboarding sessions have been scheduled next week…We noted how we’ll either be working at the General Hospital Security Department (GHSD) or sleeping at both those times, but we’re both reasonable people and agreed it will all work out…We attended the last onboarding session at great inconvenience to ourselves and we’ve determined we will not do that again…We’ll do it when we can make it.
The Assistant Front Desk Manager (AFDM) was there when we actually reported for duty and, frankly, some air came out of his sails when he realized I’d already heard the latest news…The AFDM, of course, is the main clearing house for official hotel gossip (OHG), but the blabbermouth AGM outranked him; there was little he could do.
He did have commentary on the matter, tho, wondering about working conditions and whatnot, and noting that if the AGM doesn’t get the A dropped from his title, he will probably leave…He noted this could lead to a mass exodus because both he and Tammy are on record as saying they won’t work here without the AGM, but you know how us masses can talk in situations like this.
There was the strength we were looking for in the gym tonite…It wasn’t easy, tho, because the place was packed: people moving weight, people doing cardio, kids running around the basketball court…It was so busy we were obliged – heavens to Murgatroyd – to alter our routine!!!…We are not making that up.
To start, some dufus was using the leg curl/extension machine…This isn’t ideal because we start with leg work, but it’s hardly the end of the world, either, and we dove in on shoulder work…We would’ve supersetted – or, more accurately, circuited – it with bicep work, but another guy was using the z-bar…This guy was strong, too, his startup set was 35 lbs on each side, only a few ounces less than my final set.
He was done soon enuff and we were able to follow shoulder work with biceps, with leg work after that, before finishing strong with bench press/tricep work…We ran/jogged around the gym, too, after most – but not all – sets.
Friday we took taser training at GHSD…It was pretty useful…The taser is a weapon that gives the recipient a jolt of electricity sufficient to paralyze muscles tho not enuff to cause your heart to give out…Unless your heart is very weak to begin with, then you’re probably dead…Tho if your heart’s that bad, you’re probably not making too much of a fuss about anything…It does this by shooting two barbed prongs into you, which will also hurt when they’re taken out…
The first part of the day was theoretical stuff, the second practical and hands on, getting familiar with and used to drawing, holstering, and using a taser…With your offhand, too, because it’s kept on the support side of your duty belt and not your strong side because your gun is kept on your strong side not that we pack heat at GHSD…Still tho, tasers are on your weak side.
The written test was funny…Instructor Scott took pains to note the test was open note and that he would be leaving the conference room to go chat with Hunter during our taking of the test and that there was absolutely no way he would know what in the living hell would be going in in here while he was gone…When we were all done, someone – tho not everyone – should come get him.
This was pretty funny: immediately after Scott left, yours truly stood up, walked around the table to the front of the class and said “All right, question#1…” which got the good laffs it deserved…We teamed up to only miss one, a question that Scott gracefully conceded hadn’t been covered.
At least we didn’t have to be tased in order to pass…Back at a hotel in Sin City, we were obliged to get pepper sprayed in order to qualify to carry pepper spray…Not only that, we were obliged to carry out some defense tactics, too, and the effects of getting pepper sprayed lasted several hours.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log:
1630 Thursday until 0130 Friday
1630 Friday until 2030 Friday
0930 Saturday until 1800 Saturday
21.0 hours for the period and – including an excellent Saturday finale – and 53.0 hours for the week, about the total we’re looking for…God bless all of you.
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The Diary of a Nobody is a novel. All elements are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Anything else is a coincidence.
The Diary of a Nobody was inspired by the 19th-century British novel of the same name.
Coming soon! Gaylon’s books in actual book form!
