Line Up and Die

Usually when one stands in line . . . said line starts moving, and shortly that person gets through the line. I spent 4 hours in a line today. Standing. Bored. Speaking with random strangers and sighing a lot along with 250 other people. No, I wasn't in line for a cool concert. No, I wasn't at the DMV or some sort of government agency. And no, I was not stuck in Disneyland's pre-line lines. I was at what was supposed to be a 10 minute fingerprinting trip for the job I start tomorrow.

The staffing agency had asked me to go there between 10am - 3pm for that little thing. They said it would be a snap and that I would go back the next day for training. I got there at 11am figuring that would be ok. I got there and there were just a ton of people. Apparently this company is currently hiring 6,000 employees for a 30 day stint in telephonic damage control for the victims of hurricane Katrina.

Which is great, I don't have a problem with doing the kind of job. It's the short-term gig that I need while I wait for the permanent benefit laden job that's close to home. So, there I am, standing around this ginormous cubicle farm. Looking for something to hang myself with after the 2nd hour. The line itself wasn't staggeringly long either. Not even a city block in length. The problem was with the people manning the fingerprinting devices. I guess the government had sent them in late and this was the first time they had used them. Oh, and there were only 2 of these machines for the hundreds of people standing in line.

This little delay pretty much ruined my rest of the day. I had planned on doing a couple of things and taking the wife out to lunch. But that was pre-empted by the lack of foresight this company had. No hard feelings though. I'm going in for my training tomorrow bright and early, 6 am. I just hope I get out of there before midnight. They say training would end around 3 pm . . . but you never know with these fucktards.