Ring of Fire

This weekend has been INCREDIBLY difficult so I'm calling it the ring of fire because it was three days of circular insanity.

Thanksgiving was lovely, I spent it with my cousins and some of their extended family in Irvine - we sat around, listened to music, drank wine, and ate a lovely dinner.  Very relaxed, no stress, no snippiness or anything negative.  Just a nice afternoon/evening with family.

Friday, on the other hand, I spent at work, and it was just waves of people, then a slow spell...then waves of people and then a slow spell.  All.  Day.
Rick says it's always like that Thanksgiving weekend because people have their family over for the whole weekend and need something to do.  And there I was thinking it'd be empty because everyone would be shopping or sleeping!
Suffice it to say, I got home Friday and went right to bed (after microwaving the Thanksgiving leftovers Aunt Anne was kind enough to give me - she legitimately gave me half the meal!!) and stayed there for a couple hours before getting up and working on my novels for a few hours.

Saturday was a hideously busy day too, I'm not used to two busy days in a row there (that really doesn't seem to happen much), so I was pretty grumpy.  It's really hard to smile at people when they ask questions like, "Why does your exhibit go from 200 CE to 600 CE?  That's a really big jump!"
Dude, I'm a security guard.  It's my job to make sure you don't steal anything.
However, I did not say that.  I smiled as best I could, and said, "Well, it's a four-room exhibit, with approximately 200 pieces, so there are only so many dynasties they can cover."
The person who asked me the question was all, "Oh, what a good point" and wandered off.  It was so hard to NOT facepalm.  But I managed it, so I'm a little proud of myself.  I'll be prouder when I stop stuttering. 

I don't know why my stupid stutter had to come back, but there's something about wandering around in Bowers (weather eye always on the alert for camera flashes), thinking about money/my thesis/football/food, and being interrupted by some question I could never have anticipated that just brings my stutter to the surface.

Today was slower, but I was exhausted so it felt longer, and more difficult.  Today my first shift was in the terra cotta exhibit, and I was walking around in the pit (the middle rooms of the four) and a gentleman approached me and asked, "Where are the large terra cotta warriors?"

I suppose I first should explain that there are four rooms in terra cotta (officially known as Tombs and Temples):
1) The "front room" - containing four life-sized warriors, a life-sized horse, and other artifacts from the Qin Dynasty
2) The "pit" - the Han Dynasty room with about a dozen miniature warriors, miniature farm animals, a set of weights and measures, and a tomb door.
3) the "pit" - the Tang Dynasty (I think) with pottery, grave goods, and lots of beautiful metal objects that were the heritage of metalworking skills and trade resulting from the Silk Road
4) the "back" - the last room, focusing on Buddha and Chinese Buddhists, with items like an alms bowl, a large Buddha sitting on a lotus flower (I'd say 2/3 life-size ish), and the four reliquary boxes that held Buddha's fingerbone.  (The bone is now touring Buddhist countries as an item of reverence.)

We were in room 2.  There is a large window between room 1 and room 2.  The couple had come from room 1.

I just stood there, completely dumbfounded.  Somehow I gathered enough of my wits together to point to room one and say, "In that room there."  I hoped they had come from room 4 (some people do wander through that way, somehow completely bypassing both security and visitor services, although it doesn't happen often) and my hopes were dashed when the wife said, "We just saw them!" and he looks back through the window and says, "Oh, I must have missed them!"

They walk off, and I just stand there.  Room 1 is a rectangular room with one giant platform that is the best-lit thing in the room, easily some 20 feet by 10, with four life-size terracotta men and a life-size terra cotta horse.  There are four other cases in the room, all smaller than 3X3.  How, and I say this with every drop of kindness I can wring from my soul...HOW DO YOU MISS THE SOLDIERS?!

That incident is pretty  much representative of the day; I found two girls taking pictures with flash in the second room and when I went over and politely informed them that no flash was allowed the girl said, "I know, I just forgot."
I just shook my head and walked away; turns out they'd been informed by the guard in the front room to not use flash earlier.  I saw them two hours later in the permanent Chinese exhibit (called 5,000 Years of China) and they were using flash AGAIN - one of the docents reprimanded them as I was walking over to do it.  I wish I were allowed to throw people like that out.  I refuse to believe a teenager with a camera they've owned more than two hours doesn't know how to turn off the flash.  It was just general lack of respect.  And that deserves being thrown out on your bum, in my opinion.  Unfortunately, I don't get to do that.  Please, Parents of the World - teach your children to respect museums/schools/knowledge in general, if you teach them nothing else.

Okay, I want to kick back with some popcorn and The Big Bang Theory now.  Hooray for mindless zoning!