At my work's Christmas function, I was chatting to one of the waiters as we were setting up. He asked me if I worked anywhere else, and I assumed he assumed I was also one of the waiters and he was asking if I had another job on today (as he, and all the other waiters and chefs we hired, did). So I told him that I was on the social committee and helped organise the function. He said that he thought I looked familiar, and as I processed those words, a chill went down my spine.
I also recognised him - he was someone I saw when I worked at the casino. I would like to think I am a fairly inconspicuous person, not the kind of person you would look twice at if I passed you on the street. Except for a Halloween event I went to where I was at least six years older than everyone else and the guy running the trick or treating wouldn't give me anymore lollies because he remembered me, I think I'm not a very memorable person. So when someone does recognise me, it's never a good thing.
At this point, I was starting to panic. I made some vague statements while I was frantically trying to remember what kind of gambler he was. I knew right away that he wasn't a poker player, as I tend to remember most of the poker players, and they tend to be old Greek men or young Asians/Aussies, of which he was neither. So that left the roulette players. There are a few that I will probably never forget, and they're the ones that hate me a lot (there's an Asian lady who said she wished I were dead), but he definitely wasn't one of them. I had no memory of him being either a big winner or a big loser, so that left only one other option. He must have been one of those lonely souls.
There are a few of them who hang around the casino. They never gamble, they only watch other players, give players advice, and talk to the dealers and supervisors. To be honest, I think it's a pretty clever way to get money at the casino. You hang around and give players advice. If they lose, they lose and it's their fault for listening to you. But sometimes they win, and if they win big, they tend to give a tip for the advice. So it's a no-risk way of making money.
The sad part of it is, I think some of them are just lonely - if you think about it, they might get a $20 tip from someone, but they might only give good advice to a tipper maybe once or twice a night, so if they hang around from 8pm until midnight, that's $20-40 in 4 hours, they'd make much more working at McDonald's. So the real reason they hang around is because it's the cheapest place to find people who will listen to what you say and pretend it's interesting (I sometimes think of retail and hospitality workers as poorly paid psychiatrists). They're usually OK to talk to, if you don't mind hearing the same stories over and over again, but sometimes I want to shake them and ask why they don't take up a hobby or try to make friends online or something.
Back to the waiter, I was a bit wary of chatting with him now. I didn't want to give him the impression that we were going to be friends. That might sound really snobby, like I don't want to be friends with him because he's a waiter, but that's not the reason at all. Cue flashback:
When I was working at the supermarket, there was this guy who would come in every now and again, and he would always buy certain items (no dirty thoughts here, it was stuff like curry powder). One day, I mentioned that I noticed he always bought those items, and he said he was making a Sri Lankan curry that his mum taught him how to make. I said that it was pretty cool that he knew how to cook, and made general complimentary remarks (as you do when you are a customer service oriented person like me! *cough*). The next time he came in, he ended up coming through my checkout again, and I asked if he was making the curry. He seemed surprised that I remembered, and told me that he was. Then he asked what time I finished, and I said 8PM (it was around 5 at the time).
Some of you might be hearing a few alarm bells here, but asking what time someone finishes at a supermarket is a fairly standard question. After you tell them, they either make a sympathetic face and say that it'll go by faster than you think (it never does), or they make a cheerful face and say, "Oh! It's nearly over!" (Worse are the people who just have to go through even though you've put up your sign saying you're closing, and then when you tell them that you were supposed to finish 5 minutes ago they say happily, "I'm really glad you stayed open for me!")
The alarm bells were correct, as he was waiting for me outside the supermarket when I finished. I was smart enough not to let him walk me home so we hung around outside the supermarket for a bit. Then he said he wanted to buy me something from Kmart and even though I kept refusing, he kept insisting. Then he said that he "liked" me and I suddenly felt really bad. I hadn't meant to give him the impression that I was flirting with him or anything. I am really bad with faces, and even worse with names, but for some reason, I seem to be able to remember insignificant facts about people. This seems to give people the impression that I care about them, which is usually true, but not always. So I think that's what caused the misunderstanding.
I imagine being famous would lead to that being magnified and then.... hello, stalkers!
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