Thank God. Literally.

Wow. So, Winter break comes around, and I ironically find myself more stressed out than ever. I'm about to make three major points here, people, so keep up:
1. I'm home, and there are lots of people that I would love to see and hang out with while I'm in town. But (and here's the clincher! It's great, o-ho!) all I find myself wanting is alone time, me time, Denise time. Yeah - I might be bipolar. Sure - I might have multiple personalities. Who knows; who cares? Now leave me alone.
Ok, I'm just kidding about that whole me-going-insane part. But I seriously can't bring myself to be social most of the time I'm here. I just need time to sit down, slow down, relax and recuperate from the stress of exams and the horrors I see as a theater worker six days a week. I just need some breathing room sometimes, you know?
2. This ties in with number one: my friends are, of course, NORMAL people who want to spend time with the people they haven't hardly seen since August when we all went our separate ways for college. Me being temporarily anti-social, this creates problems. They want to talk about their ups and their downs, their happiest moments and their tough times of the past four months; all I want to do is be left alone for a few hours. So, I turn down offers to go to IHOP at 2 a.m., I reject the invitations for daytrips to Houston, and I usually refuse to go to the movie theater considering I'm already spending the majority of my time there working. I really hope I'm not hurting my friends' feelings by not hanging out with them that often, because it's really nothing personal toward them - it's just me needing my own time.
3. Work. Should I even go there? Yes, I think I will. You know, it's bad enough, working in the service industry. But somedays I realize exactly how unappreciated service workers are. I've been fuming over this the past day, and now I'm finally just going to get it out here.
Christmas day is special. No matter who you are, no matter what your religion is, most people know to respect the observation of Christmas and to treasure the time you get to spend with your family, exchanging gifts and hugs and words of love. Most businesses even observe the holiday by giving their employees the day off, maybe even the couple of days around Christmas. But of course, the movie theater is part of the entertainment business, and we never take a day off. Unfortunately, the new hires didn't quite understand that part of the deal when they were hired. Each and every one of them were asked "Do you understand that we are open on Christmas Day and that you will have to work one of the two shifts that day?" when they were hired, and each and every one of them said that yes, they understood, and yes, they could work. And what do they do? They ask off. And my manager is way too nice to tell anyone who asks off "No". So each and every one of them got the day off. That left about 10 people total to work the theater yesterday. 10 people to work the only 10-screen theater within a 30 mile radius and practically the only establishment open for business on Christmas Day. So 8 out of the 10 of us ended up working for at least 1.5 shifts worth (8-9 hours), if not a full double shift (11-12 hours) on Christmas Day.
"Ok," you might say. "At least you got holiday pay." Wrong. The entertainment business doesn't get holiday pay. Or at least we don't. Just the same freaking wage as always. I pretty much just ate Christmas dinner and then went to work yesterday - I didn't get to sit around and chat with my cousins. I didn't get to play Blitz or Apples to Apples with my aunt and uncle and brothers. I didn't get to watch Little Miss Sunshine with my parents. Nope - I didn't spend much of my Christmas with my family, but rather at work.
This wouldn't anger me so much except for the fact that Christmas day is the busiest day of the year for us at Starplex - also, it's apparently the most popular day of the year for people to be rude to theater workers. It's Christmas day - why aren't you all at home spending time with your families?! Okay, maybe you are just sick or your family, but you feel bad about not spending time with them, so you figure you'll go to the movies: spend time with them while not actually having to talk to them. But please, please understand this next time you go to the movies on Christmas day: WE ARE BUSY - WE ARE SHORT STAFFED - WE ARE ALL TIRED OF WORKING AN 8-HOUR SHIFT BEHIND A CONCESSION COUNTER NEXT TO SCALDING HOT POPPERS AND NOT EVEN GETTING HOLIDAY PAY. At least you get to see your family, okay? So stop complaining. Please, even if you've been standing in line for popcorn for fifteen minutes, please try to be patient with the workers. Maybe even tip them a quarter. Trust me, anything helps on an ironically hellish day as yesterday was. Each time someone got snippy with me yesterday (which was pretty much every customer), I just wanted to bite their heads off because at least they were seeing their families. It just doesn't seem fair that me and the other nine workers yesterday had to sacrifice our family time just to go to work and be treated like dirt.
That's not even the end of it. Oh yeah, you thought I was done. What irks me even more is that two of the people who asked off work had the nerve to come up to the theater to watch a movie yesterday. They weren't even with their families. They were by themselves. Just bored.
I don't even need to explain that one. I think you understand why I'm angry at them.
For the most part, I would consider this Christmas to be the worst one I've ever had. Poor me, right?
Well, at least the time I did spend at home on Christmas was nice. Dinner - I highly recommend the stuffing - was delicious and fantastic, especially since I got to sit down with some of my favorite people in the world who I know will always love me no matter how much I complain on Blogger.
Hm. I complain too much, don't I? *sigh* None of that is what matters on Christmas. Not really.
Family. Remembering the birth of Christ.
That's what matters. And, in the end, those are the things that will always be there for you at the end of the day, no matter how crappy your day has been.