We were doing our quarterly stand and chair sorting for stage crew. Department certified. We are paid by the School of Music.
Aaaaaalright. So the round-up at Weigel went off without a hitch. That's fantastic. And then we moved onto Hughes. What is the one major difference between Hughes and Weigel?
THE JANITORS.
Henry had a freak encounter with one earlier in the summer in which involved an improper slash non-existent block of a bathroom. The janitor WATCHED HIM FINISH PEEING. What the hell????
Our job is to go through Hughes and collect all stands, chairs, and tables and put them in their respective places- stands go to 109, tables to Weigel, chairs to their respective buildings. While we gather the goods we propped the door of the elevator open with a chair. Sweeping a floor takes no more than 3 minutes.
The story picks up when we are on the third floor all the way down the hall from the elevator. From this point on I will continue like a novel.
"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" the enraged janitor shouted, snatching the chair from the elevator door and whipping it down the hallway.
The 4 of us stood frozen with wide eyes and stands in our hands.
"YOU CAN'T PROP THE ELEVATOR OPEN! I'VE ALREADY TALKED TO THEM ABOUT YOU DOING THIS! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!"
My mind was completely frozen but soon I felt the all to familiar rush of anger, a rush I last got when arguing with my parents in high school. I opened my mouth to speak, but suddenly Nathaniel rushed forward. I closed my mouth, satisfied with the man chosen to represent our side of the argument.
What followed next was an onslaught of insults, literally a verbal battle. The janitor would foolishly throw out the best insults he could come up with only to be countered by Nathaniel's remarks.
" I don't care about any of you kids." A spoken stab aimed directly at the heart.
"Well we don't care about you!" A parry! Haha!
Soon the fighting was reaching an awkward kind of stagnant- the remaining three of us sought shelter in an occupied practice room...
This did not improve the awkwardness of the situation. Sorry Norman.
After vacating the practice room we headed to the fourth floor stairwell. To eavesdrop of course.
It seemed like by this time they were beginning to exhaust themselves. The janitor had been backed into a corner- all he had left was wild accusations and a threat to call the cops. Over a held elevator. That, dear sir, is a SEVERE overreaction.
Soon they parted ways, Nathaniel peeved but not even red in the face.
I believe this entire ordeal was made both more uncomfortable for the janitor because of an encounter we had not 5 minutes before. *fade into flashback* I had entered a completely dark staff lounge to gather stands only to be confronted with an aggressive, "Can I help you?!?". By this same janitor. Sitting alone. On the couch. In the dark. On his shift. With his glasses off. And I was the one intruding right? I was the one in the wrong. Paha, right. *end flashback*
Essentially this is the end of the story.
I don't want this guy to get fired. And honestly I can even identify with his frustration...mostly because the janitors have a tendency to hold the elevators in the morning. But for me it was the giant lack of respect that he showed. I have always tried to be kind or at least tolerant and polite to them. I mean, they're janitors in Hughes Hall- chances are they don't live a charmed life. And there's also the fact that every human being deserves to be treated with some kind of decency. But he has never been anything but rude to me. He's flat out yelled at me for not putting a chair back before. How frustrating is this?!? I am scared to go practice because they either up-down me in a creepy rapist manner or dish out a heaping helping of disrespect. There are times that I've avoided practicing because of them. I understand it's their job to keep Hughes looking oh-so-sleek but it is MY building. I pay tuition to go there. And I cannot go anywhere else to practice. So they need to start returning the freaking favor at either ignore me completely of speak civilly to me.
Alright- my grateful thingy of the day is MUSIC NERDINESS. I never realized how much I missed it until I was working last night and Liz Thompson said something along the lines of how her whistling range and horn range are the same. And I miss that. I miss band. And the general sharing of music and musical awesomeness.
MKH
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