Are there people in your life that you’re forced to interact with that can’t seem to say anything to you that doesn’t constitute bitching about something you do? Well I have two of them and unfortunately I have to see at least one of them almost every day. One is this guy that works at the cafeteria where I eat. He’s relatively new there so that might be the only reason he is the way he is. He’s been bothering me about not signing in every time I get something from the cafeteria. The way the food system at the school works is that you purchase a meal plan at the beginning of the semester that has X number of meals you get per week. I think I have 19 or something per week. Anyway, you’re supposed to go up to the counter in front of the grill and give the person there your name which they check off on a computer. It’s basically to make sure they know when they can charge you money for exceeding your meal plan which has never happened and will never happen to me. After that, you can order something from the grill or get something lying out on the opposite wall like pizza or salad bar. That’s the way you’re “supposed” to do it. The way it’s actually done, (over the two years I’ve been there), is you go order/get what you want and eat it. The person at the computer either sees you or doesn’t see you doing this and signs you in… or not. Its not Arma-fucking-geddon if you aren’t signed in. Since there’s food that’s already out why not just get it and eat it instead of walking past it to go wait in a line just to say your name and then go back to get a slice of pizza or a drink? That just waste’s *everyone’s* time. I always saw it as a method of regulating gridlock at the grill.
So he came up to me on several occasions while I was eating and told me I needed to sign in. He knows my damn name. In the time it took him to accost me he could have signed me in himself like everyone else does. It takes more time and energy to leave the kitchen, harass me, and return then it does to press two buttons on a touch screen monitor. So what… he wants me to go with him back to where he was just standing and watching me from to get signed in? If he knows my name and he knows I’m eating, what more information does he need? He doesn’t need me to wait in line at the grill and *prompt* him to sign me in so that I can go get a cup of juice.
I actually failed to sign in so many times, (3-4), that he wrote me up for it. I don’t know what that means for me but for him I’m pretty sure it means he’s anal-retentive. He’s the only one that gives a shit about what I do in the cafeteria and if he wants to fill out papers to uphold his subscribed bureaucratic protocol then that’s his prerogative. I just don’t know why anyone would expend so much time and energy to be a pain in the ass ultimately. Recently he’s been bothering me about how much salad I put on my plate and I can’t decide if it’s more or equally as trivial.
The other guy that won’t stop harassing me works in the IDS shop. Huh, both of them stand behind counters; weird. Well it’s not like there’s a specific thing he gets on me about, it’s anything and everything. It’s something new every time. Actually it’s often about cleaning something. Any time he’s in the room I feel like I need to stop whatever I’m doing or else I’ll be provoking him in some unknown way. Most of the stuff he says is small but he hounds you about things so constantly that it wares down your resistance and after a certain point everything he says just seems to set you off. Clean these tools off. Put a clamp on that. You’re going to clean this up right? Don’t use that. Why aren’t you cleaning? Turn on the dust collector. It’s nice that they have a sign on the band saw and a shop-tec to yell at you to turn on the dust collector but that still doesn’t tell me how to turn it on. Assuming you know what a dust collector is, the switch is still behind another machine. I saw a guy using a chop saw and he yelled at him to turn on the dust collector. Of course he had to ask where the switch was because it’s not at all apparent. He told him and then he asked “which one, there’s like four.” After all of the oblivious students they’ve had asking about the switch you’d think they’d make it a little less ambiguous. Or maybe it’s just too much fun haranguing them about it.
Another time he pontificated on this girl and I about not doing our part in clean-up time. At random intervals during the day a shop-tec gets on a megaphone and informs everyone in the shop that it’s time to clean up. If you’re unlucky enough to drift in during clean-up time, you get unjustly burdened with it like we did. We never heard the announcement but that doesn’t make us immune to being scolded for not doing what it said.
Yet another time, (after I had switched from using one lathe to the one next to it because the speed controls wouldn't stay where I put them); he came up and asked if I was going to clean up the other lathe. Would it be OK if I finished making the mess before I start cleaning it up? Son of a bitch! Just leave me alone. I hadn't even done anything wrong yet.
The time he pissed me off the most was when I lost the needle to my paint gun inside the gun washer. I usually take my gun apart and put it in the washer and it’s fine. There is a mesh metal sheet at the bottom of the washer to let thinner drain through and keep your gun from falling down. There are a few holes that are larger than the rest on the mesh and can allow the passage of a loose needle. On this occasion was when it happened. My first thought was to just remove the mesh and fish out the needle. The mesh isn’t secured in place at all. It’s just sitting on some pegs. Then I thought I should get a shop-tec to get it out because I don’t want to mess around with the washer. I should have just ignored that thought. When I went up to the counter the only tec there was… that guy. Oh goodie. I can’t wait to hear this one. I reluctantly went up and explained to him that I lost a gun part in the washer. As soon as I mentioned that my gun was disassembled while in the washer, it seemed to activate his big fat lecture mouth. He starts *complaining* (he never actually sounds like he's just requesting or advising), about how you're not supposed to put a disassembled gun in the washer. That's just stupid in my opinion. The inside, (AKA the important part of the gun), will not get cleaned at all unless it's disassembled and cleaning the outside of the gun is unnecessary. If I don't put the gun in the washer while it's disassembled there's no point in putting it in the washer at all. Anyway, he starts acting skeptical that he can get the needle back. He opened a panel on the side of the washer and confirmed his own suspicions by briefly glancing at the internals of the machine. Then He basically said that he couldn't get it out and to go ask so-and-so if they could do anything about it. I knew I should have just gone with my first instinct and done it myself or at least left *him* out of it. I waited for him to leave, removed the mesh in the washer and retrieved the needle. After reassembling my gun, I walked out of the room and passed the shop counter where he was. He asked if so-and-so got it out. I lied and said he did. Then he gives me this look and says, (emphasizing the word don't), "don't do it again." If there was ever a conversation in my life that required a crass rebuttal, that was probably it. A nice *go fuck yourself* or a *shove it up your ass* would have been most efficacious. I know it's never a good idea to have verbal altercations with someone I'm going to have to interact with several times from now until I graduate so I just walked away. I just wish I could have let him know that I managed to do the task that he couldn't, in less than 30 seconds.
