Ah summer registration time in our fair city, it's a heady time. Spring break has all but come and gone which means summer is right around the corner and it's time to think about how to keep your little darlings happy and not stuck in front of the boob tube for 10 weeks.
Our city has a fine Parks & Recreation program - Livermore Parks & Recreation Department. LARPD decided to do something different for early bird registration this year. Instead of opening registration on midnight via online (or, I guess, in person?) they held an early bird registration at the Robert Livermore Community Center (RLCC) from 9am - 12-pm today. It's also the same day that Camp Shelly camping registration opens. Hubby and I usually divide and conquer on this day. He goes to register for camping, I drop off Lil Bit at her Junior Ranger program, we meet at registration and then have lunch.
Today we met with a new process (someone had told me it's been attempted before?) which, admittedly, was rather klugy. All of the tables for various programs were around the conference room with one central line for registration. Hubby got in line shortly after 9am and I took over around 9:20am. I stood in line and finished registration at 12:22pm. Yes, 3 hours. Was it the most efficient? No. Was it time I would have preferred doing something else? Yes. Was it time taken out of my day to do something for my child? Yes. Is it easier to stay up until midnight and register my kid at 12:01am? Yes. Hey, guess what? That's being a parent. That's taking one for the team.
All I could hear were complaints about how long it was taking, how stupid the concept was, ad nauseum. I tell you what bugged me most... the older gentleman with the accent behind me who took off his sweatshirt and thwacked me in the head with it.... later he kept bumping into me or hitting me with the sweatshirt (now around his shoulders). I finally turned fast with my patented "Andie bag swing" and "accidentally" bumped him with it... I apologized and motioned with my hands, as well as asked for him to "please give me a little space". I mean, we were going to be in that line for at least 2 hours, I didn't want to marry him. Also, no matter how much you crowd me, we're not getting anywhere faster!!!
The woman behind me started complaining about her aching back 20 minutes into the wait. She kept huffing and puffing and muttering things in the way someone does in order to start a conversation and complain. I kept my nose down in my Kindle. A guy behind her took the bait and I heard her say "normally I'm an honest person, but I feel like I should just run up and cut in line and push someone out of the way". Really, lady? Really?
Keep in mind the doof she was speaking to had just literally reamed LARPD staff a new one because he couldn't bear the wait. Turns out the person he spoke to was the person in charge of setting it up this year. I actually talked to her a bit before I went in, lovely woman. Hey, here's the thing Turkey Tech (I forget what college shirt he had on), nothing ventured nothing gained. Someone had an idea to try to make something better, tried it, it didn't work out great. Remember that time you tried wearing a fanny pack or tried taking a "shortcut" and ended up lost? So, too, many great things are happy accidents. Penicillin, for example. Also, Thomas Edison said I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. It was clear to me by the slight panic stricken look in LARPD-shirted docents eyes that this was not the plan they had in mind. Let's also bear in mind, this is THEIR Saturday too. People don't set out to screw up other people's lives only to be shamed and yelled at in a public place when they can do absolutely nothing about the situation until next year.
Another woman behind me called RLCC front office (literally the next room over) FROM LINE in order to complain. Really?
Here's what I think:
- We live in a city where our Parks Dept offers a pretty amazing variety of classes, camps and the like at reasonable prices. I don't remember these things having grown up in Stockton.
- If you're in line, presumably you have the funds to support your local Parks Department in order to keep your child entertained during summer. Be thankful you have the means to do this.
- Registering displeasure at a process is acceptable, but yelling at someone creating a spectacle is NEVER acceptable. This is a fellow human being, after all who wasn't bent on destroying your Saturday morning watching baseball on the tube with your hand down your pants.
- How many of the complainers in line have ever been to Disneyland, or waited on line for a pro sports game, or a concert or a theater show????
I had my new BFF Tina Fey with me making me chuckle and guffaw every few sentences (read Bossypants, so funny!) It helped that Chris brought me a water and gave me a bathroom break, but with some social skills anyone can have that. In a queue you have to learn to build rapport with your queue-mates. The lady in front of me needed to get her little kids some snacks. Was I happy to hold her place? Absolutely. We're queue-folk, baby... I got your back.
Here's what I also had with me... perspective. If THIS is the worst experience one could hope for, we should all be so lucky. There are a lot of worse "worses", people!!!!
So here's my perspective - it was worse than a mammogram, but better than a root canal. Maybe it's years of being a long-suffering Cubs fan, but in my opinion..... there's always next year to get things right.
