Tiny earthquakes, Knott's stories

About 5 minutes ago there was another little earthquake. I felt the shuddering and heard the house moving. It reminded me that another one struck during the night last night. I'm pretty sensitive to the signs. During the super mild ones, it sounds like the entire house is whispering. I heard that sound and jerked awake suddenly to see if it would get worse. It went away. But I had disturbing dreams after that. With my kids in danger, of course.

My oldest 2 are coming home with some interesting work stories from Knotts. My DS-16 almost got punched by a guest a few days ago. He was working in a game booth with another coworker and some young men were hanging out at the booth joking around with them. One of the kids was joking with my son and may have said some insulting things. My son at one point said "You idiot..." to the kid, at which point the kid went ballistic, jumped into the booth, grabbed my son and said, "What did you say, BITCH???? SAY IT AGAIN!!! SAY IT AGAIN!!!!" DS apologized over and over and his coworker convinced the kids to leave. DS talked to his supervisor about it and his supervisor told him that he shouldn't have called the kid an idiot. DS told me that he was only "joking", and that he had not expected the kid to "go all 'gang'" on him. I told him that these kids are not the suburban kids that he grew up with, and that some of them do indeed belong to gangs. Also, he insulted the kid in front of his friends. And in addition, I spoke at length about how he had the responsibility to act professionally because he was the one wearing the uniform for Knotts. Overall, this is exactly the kind of lesson DS needed to learn. I'm so glad he wasn't hurt in the process. But he really *does* have a big mouth, and even at home with my he can say the most hurtful things, saying afterwards that he was joking. I have told him over and over that it's not a joke when *he* is the only one laughing. And that hurting people is not funny. But maybe he needed somebody to get in his face like that to learn how to control his mouth. And 16 is a much better age to learn this than later in his 20s. He is essentially taking a crash course in human communication and interaction this summer, and he is getting paid for it. I expect he will be able to get along better with classmates in the future, and he will certainly know how to act more professionally in the workplace, interacting with customers, coworkers and supervisors. My whole idea was that even if he ended up getting fired from his job this summer, it would still be a positive experience because he would have learned something. It looks like he won't be fired over this incident, though, he just got his hours for next week and he has a full schedule. Also, he tends to earn about three times what the average worker earns in any booth he works. I think partly because he has ADHD and he loves games, and he has a lot of energy and enthusiasm, which is infectious.

DD also has had some interesting work politics going on at the Knotts restaurant where she works. There are or rather *were* 3 hostesses on staff there. One of the hostesses, let's call her M, was widely hated by the servers because she was a complete ditz. She sat customers all clumped on some stations and none in others and didn't seem to understand the concept of how to distribute groups in a restaurant, no matter how many times she was told. And she got punitive if any of the servers complained, purposefully not seating their stations. So DD comes in there 2 weeks ago and it took her a full 2 hours to learn the concept. She has been doing well there and has been given a *ton* of hours while M has had her hours cut, probably due to staff complaints. And M was also told not to seat anybody when DD was working, so all she did was wander around the restaurant straightening salt shakers. Things came to a head yesterday when M seated 7 people at a table meant for 4 and crammed them in front of an exit. All the servers wanted her fired, but DD came up with the idea of making the gal a bus person. This seemed a good idea because the gal likes to straighten things up, and she had been inquiring lately about how much the bus people make in tips, and how that wasn't fair because the hostesses get no tips. So she can be a bus person, make more money, get more hours, and stop making her coworkers miserable. They moved her to another restaurant too, which is probably good, so she can have a fresh start. The good thing is, that nobody knows it was DD's idea. She really didn't want to get in the middle of all the politics right after starting work. But she may have saved this gal from losing her job.

Less driving today than usual. Both of their work shifts end within a couple of hours of each other, so I asked the kids to wait around for each other. That means I only have to drive over there twice today. Yay! I'm heating the jacuzzi for the 2 youngest ones right now so they can get a little swimming in before lunch and nap. DS8 is off with his Dad this weekend.