So I went to Running Aces, the harness track up north, with a friend on Sunday. To look like I wasn't a total deadbeat all weekend, I mowed both lawns before I left. That made me so tired I barely remembered how I drove from my friend's place to the track. Scary shit, man.
In the program there is a matchplay coupon. It entitles me to use this coupon alongside an actual bet, and if I win, I get the winnings from what is essentially free money. So after I tried to take a nap to prevent what happened on the way to Running Aces to happen on my way from Running Aces and failed, I got in line at the information booth.
From what I can recollect because my head was still groggy and overheated from my sweaty time in my car, even with the windows rolled slightly down, there were two people sitting behind the counter. One of them was helping out the guy in front of me. The girl sitting next to her ... wasn't doing anything. She was looking at her co-worker, then looking around.
A woman hurriedly ran up behind me. She saw this employee not doing anything, so she yelled out to this her, "Excuse me, could you help this man, please?"
She had this surprised look on her face for a millisecond before she said to me, "How can I help you?" Being pulled into the middle of a rather nasty interaction between worker and customer, all I decided I could do was to not immediately go up to the worker, but twist my legs around, give this hollering woman a wry smile (she could take it any way she liked, I just wanted to let her know this was not my deal), then walk slowly towards the counter.
Look, I have been in a different frame of mind where I would go off when I want something now-now-now, and I see some idiot is loafing. It looks like she determined that this worker wasn't doing her job and that was going to end right now, goddammit. I can see that. But, I think I'll believe that she was just spacing out, trapped in a dead-end job she doesn't necessarily like. Or maybe she was tired and needed her brain to go dead for a second before raring to go and helping people again. Yeah, that makes more sense: The woman behind me was being a bitch.
So, anyway, when I come up to her I ask about this matchplay coupon. I was secretly hoping that this woman, who is kind of sexy, would prove my nascent optimism correct and that she really was a good co-worker. Uh, not exactly. She was fairly terse and quick to reach for the pen when I asked to cash in this coupon. More tellingly, I gave her my entire program with the coupon on the page, to which she replied, tersely, "You have to tear that out." I do. Well. ...
She didn't establish any eye contact with me as she started to write some shit down. I asked her where I could play this coupon thing, specifically could I use it to bet on the horses; "No," she replied, again curtly, "Just blackjack."
She was done with me once she gave me this redemption coupon that is the actual coupon I use to give to the 21 dealer. But the guy ahead of me was still talking to his employee. So that pushy bitch was still waiting. I didn't want a confrontation betweent these two women, so even though this customer service rep wasn't being all that hospitable, I kind of stalled. I looked around, sighed, tapped the coupon she gave me on the counter ... I did as much as I could until, finally, this guy walked away, and this woman who demanded service right now! went up to the other woman. I was free to walk away, relieved that I had kept the peace.
Look, she was probably unhappy that she had to deal with a part of a very embarrassing situation in public. I've been there, and I don't like it, even if the customer I was helping wasn't the source of my humiliation. I can see that. But I now think that this bitch was as bad and surly of a worker for Running Aces as the bitch standing behind me thought. Because she sucked. ... No, to be honest, I can see that as well.
I don't know. It was a lose-lose situation.
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