Monday, February 27, 2012

Miss Information is annoyed by the gym

Miss Information loves the gym. It is super-extra-annoying to be annoyed by it. But annoyed she is and so she came home and immediately logged on to her neighbour's unsecured wifi to complain about it online.

Every Monday, Miss Information goes to the step class at one of the city's recreation facilities. It's a big centre with a ton of stuff--a basketball court, a couple of swimming pools, a weight room. Miss Information comes for the step aerobics class. There are two locker rooms and for the past decade Miss Information has used the one closest to the fitness studio--mainly because the other one seems to always be full of naked women who are standing around blocking all the lockers. The other change room is designed better. There is a bank of lockers close to the door that is always accessible so when Miss Information has to lock something up that's where she goes.

She really only uses the locker room in the winter when she has a coat to put away, so tonight she did. She then went into the step class where she was stuck for an hour behind a novice stepper who was consistently precisely one beat off. Miss Information wanted to hit her. If you are one beat off, you can sure as hell be on the beat. Just stop for a moment and get back on track! It's not that hard!

In any case, the class ended without making Miss Information feel any more relaxed. She went to grab her coat and discovered the locker room was locked. Huh. There was a sign on the door but it was about a change in the aqua fit schedule so that was no help. Miss Information went looking for assistance. She went into the weight room where she found a staff member and explained the problem. The staff member assured Miss Information that it was entirely her fault because "we always tell people not to use that change room". Miss Information assured the staff member that no one had ever mentioned that to her because if they had she would not have left her stuff in there.

Even more annoying, this particular staff member was the one checking memberships at the door tonight. Miss Information walked past her while wearing a coat, went into the wrong locker room and came out again without a coat and the staff member didn't say a word about it. In any case, the staff member now directed her to yet another staff member who could unlock the door. So, Miss Information ran around and finally found the right person with the right key who also told her that she should have known about recent thefts in the facility and should have known that she couldn't use that locker room--a locker room that was open and had no signage indicating that it would not be open later. Miss Information politely informed her that she was here for step class and not a meeting of local clairvoyants.

When they returned to the locker room there was a group of people who had also been locked out of the locker room and who were also not psychic.

Miss Information understands that things happen and that policies change but she feels that there should at least be some attempt to let tell people what's going on.

Saturday, February 04, 2012

Why Miss Information doesn't get paid enough

There has been a lot of discussion in the media lately about overpaid public service employees and their glamorous lifestyles. It's true, Miss Information does occasionally spring for premium ice cream but it's mainly so she doesn't go insane. Working with the public is no picnic, you know.

This week a very nice woman asked Miss Information to reserve a book for her. The name of the book? Do It Yourself: a Step by Step Guide. Here's what Miss Information did. She refrained from any sarcastic remarks and placed the hold for the woman, who probably could have done it herself.

And that is why Miss Information deserves every cent of her pay cheque this week.