More movie theater

Here I am at the conclusion of my second weekend working at the movie theater, and I must say I do like it quite a bit. So far I've ushered and worked the kiosk, both of which have their pros and cons and interesting bits, as follows:

Ushering: such a massive amount of trash to clean up! Especially after a sold-out kid's film like Bolt (which is very popular these days, and in 3-D! oooooh...). Between cleaning the theaters, the floor, the bathrooms, your hands, and then starting all over again, it does get rather exhausting, and the other part of the ushering job is keeping the peace when people (ie kids) act up. One of my co-workers actually informed me that he gets put on ushering sometimes because he "likes throwing people out." I suspect I won't be ushering much in the future mainly because I'm really bad at being mean.
But ushering does have its perks: you get to wander in and see bits of the films on your down time, which is kind of fun. I actually popped in to see bits of Bolt and it was entertaining, though not much else, but certainly better than Hotel for Dogs (yes, Hotel for Dogs... sigh).
So that's ushering, overall hard and tiring, but essentially brainless, which is why they put the newbies on it first, of course.
Things I've learned while ushering: people are slobs, but it's okay because that's why I get paid; if you watch one of those 3-D movies without glasses it gives you a headache after awhile; and a "clean" theater most likely just has all the popcorn and soda straws and used napkins swept under the seats (feel free to check, I'd be curious to know if that applies to all theaters or just the Stratford Picture House). Perhaps that's why they always keep it so dark in there...

And then there's kiosk! Selling popcorn and candy and soda and muffins and beer and lollypops and fruit juice and nachos and sometimes movie tickets... Whew! This one's a bit trickier than ushering, but I actually like it a lot more: you're on the clean end of the mess, so to speak, and I have fun using the till.
Things I've learned while working in the kiosk: people are greedy, but it's okay because that's why I get paid; people are willing to spend a ridiculous amount of money on movie snacks: today I watched a family of four spend more on popcorn, soda, and hot dogs than I spend on a week's worth of groceries; and the most popular things are often the ones that are composed mainly of chemicals and come in generic silver bags (you can't tell the nacho cheese from the slush mix out of context... shudder).

So that's my work so far, and I really don't mind it at all. Thirteen hours wasn't too bad yesterday, and five was a breeze today. And besides the amazingly short commute, there's also plenty of perks to make up for the minimum wages: for instance, I get 20 free movie tickets a week for me and one for a friend, which is really dumb, because who's going to personally see 20 movies a week? But of course the employees get around it by using each other's tickets, through a handy loophole in the system. So basically I never have to pay for a movie again and neither do my friends! Sweet! There's also often waste popcorn and candy at the end of the day, which I'm free to take home. And my coworkers and managers are really nice, which is a major plus.

And that's my new job! Pretty sweet, eh? Just let me know if you're ever in town and need free tickets... ;)