Special people

How hard is it for people to follow instructions?
Don't answer that... Rhetorical...

Training n00bs it a job that has kind of been handed to me.  A job that amuses me considering the fact that the first warning most n00bs receive is 'This is Ari.  She might be the first person you get into a fight with."

Not that I'm a bad person, on most days.  Just that I think at all  a wee differently from most people at the theater.  And most don't get my thought processes.  Or it could be the fact that my volume nob might be kind of set on loud all the time...
Shut up


Either way I usually end up teaching the n00bs during closing shifts.
The n00b I was teaching this past Saturday ended up making me question my current educational path, the teaching program.
He turned the simple process of cleaning the hot dog machine into one of Hercules tasks.

First came trying to remove the caked on grease from the rollers (an easy task depending on the day).  I watched as the poor boy worked himself into a sweat trying to remove the grease.  I took the sponge from him and removed more grease in a few seconds then he had in a few minutes.  In the end it took him almost an hour to get all the grease off.  After that we are supposed to wipe off the remaining grease and soap with a clean wet sponge.  I left him to it while I helped a customer and turned back in time to see him start pouring water over the hot dog machine from a bucket.  I screeched, ran over to stop him, then stared in dismay at the mess he'd just made.  Greasy soapy smelly water pooled under the machine and dripped onto the floor forming a slippery puddle.

I whimpered in agony as he looked at me vapidly and ask "I wasn't supposed to do that?"  At which point I started to laugh loudly (possibly with a hint of hysteria).  And then, amazingly, he tried to turn the hot dog machine back on the wipe down the rollers.  I stopped him because I really didn't feel like dealing with the paper work that would have come from him electrocuting himself.  I moved that hot machine away and put it on its side to let the water drip out and made him clean up the mess he made.  About an hour later we finally got back to finishing the hot machine.  I watched like a hawk while he finished cleaning it.

In the end a task that takes no more then a half an hour at time took almost three hours.

Needless to say, it was a long night.