I'm very sad because I'm not scheduled to work all week. I really do miss work. It's pathetic. When I'm working I hate being there and I just want to go home, but now that I'm not spending the majority of my time at The Edge I want to go work. Not only do I miss the people and the atmosphere, but I miss the money. My last paycheck was thirty-four dollars. That sucks because that's only like $60 a month. My tanning is $60 a month! Not taking into account gas and other things! It also sucks because I'm going to GSP this summer, so that's five weeks of unemployment. I am teaching an intense figure skating camp before I leave though. I guess that'll be some extra money. :\

Ok, so I went to work tonight and it was awesome. First of all, no one came to skate and there were seven of us working. I was on admissions cash register so I sat around until about eight until my supervisor realized that no one was going to show up. At that point I was starving because I hadn't eaten dinner, so Carly and I went to Taco Bell still clocked in. Paul was supervising. He's the best supervisor because he doesn't care about anything. We came back ten minutes later with food for everyone except Brittney, my other supervisor, because she had went and got food at KFC. We were all sitting there talking and eating when Brittney starts freaking out. Turns out her lip ring had fallen out somewhere and she didn't know if she had swallowed it or it had fallen on the floor. It was really gross because she had just gotten it pierced the other day. Evidently if the stud comes out of your lip even for a couple of minutes it can start to grow back. Seeing her nasty, bloody lip was revolting. She made us all get down on the floor in the skate room and look for her wretched lip stud. We couldn't find it so we assumed she swallowed it. She then left and sped to Hot Topic to buy a new one before the mall closed. Paul and some other people were making some serious jabs at her while she was gone and then we all felt kind of guilty. So we had to go hunt down the Holy Grail and spit in it. There's this tradition at the rink called the Holy Grail. It's this small styrofoam cup with "Holy Grail" written on it in black ink. We set it up in some remote area of the rink (currently it's on high beam in the breakroom) and it's to stay there unless you sin. When you feel very guilty about sinning you go and spit in the Holy Grail and then move it. It sounds very sacreligious to me so I never take part in the spitting. I don't even know how the tradition started. Apparently it began back at the old rink before it was torn down. Either way, it's kind of funny.

Work is about to get really sad. Most of our staff is made up of seniors, which means they'll all be gone either this summer or in the fall. I say that I hate working at the ice arena, but at the same time it's so much fun. Carly will be staying in town, although she said she's putting in her two weeks soon. That kind of sucks because I'm always used to her being around. We hired two new chicks last week. They get on my nerves. You can just tell they're trying so hard to be a part of The Edge family, but it's just not working out. One has a really smart mouth and is already bossing everyone around. She's not even old enough to drive alone. She's the most annoying. Then there's this other girl who's really quiet and doesn't talk. I don't have anything against her, she's just really awkward. Oh! There's a new guy too. Everyone hates him because he's the suckiest worker. He doesn't do anything. You can tell him to go sweep something up and he'll disappear to go get a broom then you won't see him for thirty minutes. He spends a lot of time in the breakroom texting. It's annoying that we all have to pick up his slack. Not to mention he doesn't even show up to half of his shifts.

I didn't really work hardly at all this week, so I don't have much to blog about. I only worked three days all of Spring Break and I got sent home early every day. The first day I walked in and they sent me home after thirty minutes. The next day I left an hour early. Today I left at two when I was scheduled to stay until four. In the small amount of time I have spent at work, it's been fun. No one comes to The Edge on Spring Break. In fact, on average we only had about eight people an ENTIRE day. This allowed me to spend my time drinking slushies from the concession stand, spinning around in the desk chair, playing Doodle Jump on my newly purchased iPhone, or scribbling in Microsoft Paint on my boss's office computer. I probably earned about eighty bucks this week, which was well earned.

When I talk about work it always deals with one of two extremes: extremely boring or extremely stressful. Yesterday was by far the MOST boring day at work ever. I was on concession stand register, and I kid you not, I rang up a total of seven people over the three-hour public session. Thankfully, the lobby of the rink is equipped with several large, flat screen TVs, so I was able to watch the UK game. In fact, the entire staff was sitting in the lobby watching the game because it was so pitifully boring. I started the morning off at 12:06 with a call from my supervisor while I was pulling into The Edge parking lot. She told me I had to go pick up a cake at the Rolling Pin for a birthday party. That was an adventure because I had no idea where the Rolling Pin was. I finally found it and picked up the Jonas Brothers cake and went back to the rink. I delivered it and spent the next thirty minutes helping a grandma set up for her granddaughter's birthday party. Another party canceled, so we got to eat their cake. It was delicious and the highlight of my day.

This week was awful. I worked Tuesday and it was a nightmare. Wednesday was better, but still not fun. Tuesday was awful because we lacked teachers, but gained about forty new students. There were three instructors on staff averaging fifteen students per class and four classes per half hour. You do the math. We had to combine classes of similar levels which should never be done. I get enough complaints when I have a class of ten and I can't give each individual child 110% of my attention, and the number of complaints went through the roof when I had a Beginner/Pre-Alpha class of twenty-two at 4:30. I had a little talk with the person in charge of the ice arena and said something HAS to be done about this. Either she needs to hire new instructors or put a cap on classes. She argued that she doesn't want to turn any student away, but she fails to address the fact that more and more parents are pulling their kids out of classes because of inefficient teaching. I'll fess up and say that teaching is below par, but how good can it be when you have one seventeen-year-old versus twenty eight-year-olds?! Either way, customers will be lost, but she needs to look at the big picture. Should we turn kids away and have our program become more exclusive? Or should we accept everyone, but risk the bad reputation for being an inefficient skating school? Something needs to be done. If not they can count on being short one more teacher next session.

I did not work this weekend so I don't have much to say about work. I did work Tuesday and Wednesday though. We started a new session of figure skating lessons at The Edge this week. Usually I hate lessons and dread having to spend three or four hours there, but this week was awesome. On Tuesdays I teach three Pre-Alpha classes. This week there was some sort of Amish family at the rink. They kind of look like the Duggars from Eighteen Kids and Counting, or whatever that show is called. There's this girl I work with, Rachael, and we call her Duggar because she's able to pop out pretzels and breadsticks in the concession stand at the same rate the Duggars are popping out kids. When we saw their huge family of fourteen walk into the rink, we all told Duggar her long lost family has come to retrieve her. Anyways, this family is adorable. I have three of the younger boys in one of my Pre-Alpha classes. One of their names is Wesley and he is my new favorite. He is the cutest six-year-old I've ever seen. All the brothers are incredibly smart and funny too. Every time one of their classmates is lagging behind when we're doing swizzles or falls down, one of them will go and help them get up. It's adorable. After their class they stayed out on the ice and talked with me and I ended up sitting down with their whole family and talking to them for about thirty minutes. The rest of the staff was cleaning windows and sweeping, so I felt a little bad, but I'm being paid to teach figure skating lessons (at $2.00 more pay than usual) not to clean. There are staff there on lesson nights that are paid minimum wage to clean and I'm not one of them. So, this family. I met all their brothers and sisters and their parents and they are all as sweet as can be. I'm so excited for this week to see them again. Although I think they might not be there because I vaguely recall them saying they were about to leave for a "trip out West."

I failed to post last week and I apologize. The snow days definitely threw me off. Let's see what has happened since I last wrote.
Saturday
Saturday was an interesting night at work. Actually, I worked all day. I went in at twelve and worked until five. It was an awful five hours. I was sick as a dog and everything went by in a blur. Of course at five I was miraculously cured and went out with Carly to eat at Beef's and then went to Walmart to buy my boyfriend a cake for Valentine's Day. I wanted to pretend like I made him something heartfelt. When I got back to work I can't even remember which station I was working. Concessions I believe? I'm pretty sure I was on cash register. Everything was fine until about eleven. We were all working on cleaning up the place and were tired of being there. We had done every cleaning job possible and our snotty supervisors were naming off stupid jobs left and right. "Emily, go sweep under the dumpsters at the Sportscenter." "You, go wipe down all the bleachers in the rink area." It was eleven fifteen when we were all about to pack up our things and go when they decided that we had a little too much attitude. They punished us like we were in kindergarten and made us clean all the windows in the building. I didn't get home until a little after midnight. Saying we were all livid would be an understatement.
Sunday
Sunday I went in at twelve and worked until seven. It was a wonderful way to spend Valentine's Day...with my real love...The Edge Ice Center. I can't really remember much of Sunday either. Twas a boring blur. I took a break at four and ran to the library to drop off some books and watched Teen Mom in a party room for about fifteen minutes. After I got back from my break things got interesting. At six my supervisor told me to go out and rink guard for a private rental that ended at six thirty. That of course was silly seeing how there was only thirty minutes left and about twenty people on the ice. Nevertheless, I dragged myself out onto the ice. Then this guy starts talking to me. I was in a bad mood because I did not want to be spending Valentine's Day rink guarding. He kept following me around and talking and asking me to do figure skating tricks. I did a few and then he would attempt them. I must say it was pretty fun until he asked me if I had a partner and if not he could pick me up when I fell. I laughed because I was cheesily getting hit on at The Edge Ice Center on Valentine's Day. I managed to make it through the thirty minutes and at six thirty everyone cleared off the ice. As I was pulling the doors shut to the ice this man came up to me. He starts to tell me how I was talking to his son and how his son wanted my number. I laughed and somewhat ignored him. He would not leave me alone. He kept asking and asking and then I told him I had a boyfriend and he asked what he'd have to do to him so that his son could have my number. It was awkward and finally he left. I went back out into the lobby to take off my skates and the son came and sat next to me and said, "I don't know if my dad has already talked to you, but I just wanted to know if I could have your number." I then told him no and that I was in a relationship and I got up. It was rather awkward. He later added me on Facebook and I found out he was born in the eighties...my parents were still in school in the eighties. Well, he was born in '89. He was 21? I just found the whole thing freaky. I rejected his friend request.
Tuesday/Wednesday
I had all my figure skating classes these two days. They were the last classes of the six-week session and I got the privilege of graduating all my students. It was such a relief to know that I was done teaching lessons for a while. Then I realized we start a new session next week. Hoorah.

This weekend has been crazy. I must apologize for the late blog. I was planning on doing it yesterday and then I got sick and didn't wake up until about thirty minutes ago. This weekend was my birthday weekend so I took off Saturday and Sunday. I did work Friday night though. I had a blast. I hid out in the break room with Wyatt, Ashton, and Allyson until my supervisor came in at 7:10 and told us to get to work. We sat back there and ate some of Wyatt's nasty, yet addictive pretzels. We also gossiped about the newest piece of information circulating around The Edge: my supervisor's sudden pregnancy. I can already tell that the next nine months are going to be nothing short of Hell. She's officially three and a half weeks pregnant, and she's already complaining about the side effects. "I'm so tired. I don't think I can help put these skates up." "I'd do that, but I really can't be standing." "Oh my gosh, I have to go to the bathroom and I think I'm going to be sick." "Can you go sweep for me? My ankles and feet are swollen and they hurt." Wyatt brought up a good point by saying that a gamete cannot evoke all these so-called "complications." She's just shy of a month pregnant and she's already complaining, so I can't imagine what it's going to be like when she actually has something to complain about. Aside from finding out about the mommy-to-be, work was very fun. I rink guarded for what seemed like forever, but it was a total bore. Nothing interesting happened. I then went back into the concession stand to work with Allyson, Wyatt, and Taylor. No one ever really came to the concession stand. At ten Allyson and I went out to the rink area to sweep. We started reminiscing and lost track of time. At 11:10 everyone came out asking what was taking us so long. We ended up leaving at 11:20ish. The night went pretty well until I went out to my car. It had snowed some since I'd arrived at work, so when I opened my doors all the snow fell into my seat. Then when I was pulling out of the parking lot, I realized I needed to get the snow off my windows so I rolled them all down, which just made even MORE snow get in my car. I'm supposed to go to work tonight, so hopefully it will be just as fun as Friday was.

Work at The Edge this week has been nothing short of lame. I worked for thirty minutes Friday night. My boyfriend had driven me to work and my mom was planning on picking me up at 10:30. Of course the weather was getting bad so she felt the need to get me at seven. My supervisors were disgruntled, but let me leave without much to say. On Saturday I worked from noon to about five. It was boring as well. I think maybe three people came through the door. I spent my day doing productive things like making twenty-three fortune tellers of various sizes (you know, the kind that we all used to make in third grade), cleaning out the tubing in the hot chocolate machine (a task that has not been done since the machine was bought), arranging all the dollar bills in the cash drawer to face the same way, and talking about the new mysterious supervisor-to-be. Actually, my co-workers and I have discovered who the new supervisor(s) will be. I won't state any names because who knows what will be posted about them in future blogs. Let's say that they currently have a sketchy reputation at the ice arena and that feelings about their mangagement skills are mixed. Anyways, I also worked yesterday from three to eight. Sundays are laid back so I went to work in my muddy sledding gear. I was about two minutes late because my boyfriend and I had prolonged our sledding trip a bit too long. No one said anything really because yet again, no one was at the rink and there wasn't much work to be done anyways. Yesterday though, was perhaps more boring than Saturday. I drank approximately six cups of blue Chilly Willy and did the deposit for my supervisor who was stressed and about to cry. My boyfriend then showed up about two hours before my shift was over and we went into the Zamboni room and melted all the snow and ice that the Zamboni leaves around. Melting snow is probably the most exciting task at The Edge. The Zamboni room (where the Zamboni is parked) has a giant hole in the middle of it that is surrounded by grating. The Zamboni dumps all the snow it picks up after an ice cut and dumps it in this hole. After a few cuts, the snow is piled extremely high, so someone has to go in and melt it. To melt it, you take this nozzle, that is actually a gas pump nozzle, and spray sizzling, hot water on to the ice. It's fun. After that, I then left work. It was a boring week.

I just woke up and realized I had forgotten to post my blog. This is probably due to the fact that this weekend at work has been so boring! There's not much to say. I worked Saturday night from six to midnight. I was on admissions cash register, which means I just sat there the entire time. Then after the public session was over at ten I went into the breakroom and helped my supervisor do the deposit until midnight. I then went home. Actually, when I was walking to my car I found a lost puppy. It had a collar around its neck, so I was going to pick it up and keep it until the next day when I could find its owner. Then the puppy ran away when I tried to chase and catch it. I just went home after that.

Yesterday was extremely boring at work yet stressful. I got to work and was greeted by the supervisor I despise. I clocked in and went to the bathroom to change into my sweatpants and she yelled at me. She accused me of wasting company time and that the city does not want to pay me to change clothes. I find this proposterous because it took me thirty seconds to change. So what did that cost the city? Two pennies? Funny thing is though, that they pay on a fifteen-minute loop. For example, if you clock in at three and clock out at 3:46 they'll give you a full hour's pay. Last time I checked it does not take me fifteen minutes to change.

I came up with this brillant plan to post my 95 Theses/Grievances with The Edge Ice Center yesterday as well. I was rinkguarding for the first hour and the lazy supervisor was watching my every move and constantly motioning for me to come over to her so she could criticize something I was doing. I'd like to see her get out on the ice and catch every person that falls. I'd have to say my biggest problem with The Edge is this one particular supervisor. Everything bad about the rink spawns from her. She is a forty-year-old that acts like she's thirteen. She's always spreading gossip and acting like she's better than everyone else. It's ridiculous. Not to mention she's creepy. She has this "boyfriend", his name is Frank, who comes to the rink every day. He's a total creeper too. He has this thin, Italian mustache, although I'm pretty sure he's not Italian. He also has these slanted eyes (this is not meant to be derrogatory, he's not Asian) that give me the shivers. Anyways, we always joke around about Frank, but yesterday said supervisor crossed the line. After session she decided that everyone, including the other two supervisors, was going to sweep and clean the bleachers. This is a very time-consuming task even when everyone pitches in. Of course, she did not pitch in. Finally, someone with some guts yelled at her to do something. The conversation then went like so:
Evil Supervisor: I can't bend over because I have hurt my back. So, I can't sweep or clean anything. Sorry guys. I just can't bend over.
Person: That's not what Frank said.
Evil Supervisor: I'm sure!
Then an awkward silence followed and then everyone dry heaved and ran to clock out. The sad thing is that her seventeen-year-old son works with her, meaning he heard it. When we asked how he felt about her random outbursts of such talk (it happens quite frequently) he said, "I'm used to it." Poor child.

Since this is a blog about my place of wonderful employment, I suppose I should open with a little introductory paragraph. I work at The Edge Ice Center which is the new replacement for the old ice arena. I work mostly on weekdays and holidays and twice during the week when I teach snotty-nosed children how to figure skate. I get paid minimum wage to deal with stressful and dramatic situations. Except for when I teach figure skating lessons when I earn $9.25. It's wonderful.

Nobody believes me when I talk about how stressful and over dramatized my work is. Not to be derogatory, but ghetto children like to "chill" at the ice arena. They like to sneak in, steal food, push people down on the ice, cause a ruckus, and get in fights. This of course enrages me when I get in trouble for not catching them sneak in, fall for their "but you shortchanged me!" act, or do not blow my whistle at them while I am patrolling the ice. I shall provide a brief example of a normal situation at the rink.

Last weekend I was rink guarding at a Friday night session which runs from seven to ten. I try to be a cool rink guard. I really do. I am not constantly yelling at people or blowing my whistle. Actually, I leave my whistle in my car. I'm extremely passive until someone ticks me off. So, this child, actually he was like fourteen, decides to start throwing milk crates at small kids. I have like two four-year-olds laying on the ice crying because the kid has whacked them, purposefully, with milk crates. I'm not lying. So I tell him to quit and that he has to take a five minute timeout. The kid goes bizerk. He runs away from me yelling and cussing. I chase the stupid kid for at least five minutes until he's pushing people out of his way, at which point I grab his shoulder. He turns around and slaps me across the face. Extremely out of character for me, I let a few words slip that should not have and I drag his arrogant butt off the ice with him cussing and hitting me. Finally after I have managed to get him off the ice he rips off his hockey skates and throws them at me. I love children.

Back to today. I worked from eight this morning until two this afternoon. It was not fun. There was a group of one hundred and fifty Girl Scouts and their parents that came at nine and left at ten thirty. At two minutes to eleven (the beginning of our public skating session) there was still a massive pile of skates to put away from the Girl Scouts. I spent the rest of the day on the admissions cash register which is normally a pretty easy station to work. Except everyone and their brother decided to go ice skating today, which really made things hard on me. I had a high school JROTC group of fifty five, three church groups of over thirty people apiece, four birthday parties of about fifteen kids each, plus all the random public that decided to show up. I'm sure I screwed up somewhere along the way and the deposit will come up $30 short or over and then I will be accused of shortchanging or stealing. Hoorah.