The Gemini Center closes at 7pm on Saturdays; however, tonight I stayed until 8pm because of Jack. Don’t get me wrong, I have stayed late before due to tournaments or banquet parties, but I always had notice. Tonight an AAU basketball team was holding tryouts. They started at 6pm and when I told the head coach that he only had an hour for tryouts he brought up the fact that Jack told him that he had the main gym reserved until 9pm. I was very taken aback since this was not on the schedule nor had Jack mentioned it to me previously. A member of the front desk actually called Jack and he stated that he had never talked with that coach and that they should not be there. When I questioned the coach, he showed me e-mails from Jack that said the facility closes at 8pm and he could use the gyms until close for today’s date. At this point, there is really nothing that I can do. They were told they could stay and the second age group for tryouts from 7-8pm were coming in. I have to stay until the building is empty so I just sat up front and made sure no members were trying to come in to work out. The unfortunate part is that it definitely slowed down the maintenance staff. Whoever was cleaning the gyms got an hour taken out of cleaning time. Personally, I do not understand why Jack would not remember being in contact with this coach or why he would say the Gemini closes at 8pm.
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Everything was going smoothly today until about 8:30pm. I saw this guy limping in the gym so I went over to see is everything was alright. He told me that he had landed on his ankle wrong in his pick-up game and may have sprained it. I asked him if he wanted an ice pack or a wrap but he refused. I noticed that he could not even walk on it, so I told him to sit down and we would get the wheelchair to take him out of the building. He was very hesitant and said he could make it but as he was gathering his stuff, you could tell he was in pain and eventually agreed to the wheelchair. A member of the maintenance crew wheeled him to the front while he waited for his parent to pick him up.
There are two schools in Fairview Park: St. Angela (K-8 catholic school) and Fairview Park (public school). Today I learned that these two schools do not get along. There was a birthday party in one of the banquet rooms and after the party, a few of the boys signed in as members to play in the gym. I learned later that those boys went to St. Angela. When I walked into the gym, the St. Angela boys were playing 4-on-4 with a few of the Fairview Park boys. To me, it seemed like nothing; boys were playing a pick-up game. When I came back into the gym, the boys were up in each other’s faces. I go over to see what is wrong….this is how I know I have matured because the issue is so stupid to me….the Fairview boys had won the game but the St. Angela boys were still playing on the court. The gym was pretty full that day and I wasn’t surprised that the boys didn’t move. They should have all just played together. The Fairview boys started smack-talking the St. Angela boys and I had to pull a few of the Fairview boys aside. Unfortunately, like the boys they are, they all surrounded me and tried to interrupt my conversation with the Fairview boys, who were in the wrong. At one point, one kid got in my face just to tell me it was all the St. Angela’s boys’ fault. They were the ones causing a scene, not the St. Angela boys. One of the Fairview kids started calling them names and a St. Angela boy responded with a middle-finger and swearing at him…..all over basketball court mind you….so again I had to pull more kids aside. With all of the chaos, I was so frustrated that I just brought both groups together and told them they either have to go home, play on a different court or co-exist. If the fighting continued, I was just going to throw them all out. No one wanted to leave so they all calmed down and separated themselves. Literally 15 minutes after all of the chaos, they were all playing basketball in the same court together.
Well my supervisor just resigned. Personally, I am not emotionally effected by this; she was always gone by the time I came at 5pm so I rarely had a chance to talk with her. However, there are many employees who were thrilled to see her go. One aspect of the Gemini Center that I have failed to talk about is the gossip between part-time, evening employees. Everybody talks about everything that happens and fills each other in on news of that week. When Amanda resigned, there were many people at the front desk who were happy. Apparently, she would send them e-mails that appeared demeaning and as though they did not know what was going on. Many of the fitness floor, building supervisors and maintenance workers were happy because, during her 3 years at the Gemini Center, she would create these ridiculous rules and not work. When the Gemini Center got a new director in 2013, he had brought Amanda with him and created a position specifically for her. Her position was facility director and I kid you not no one knew what her job duties were or what her day-to-day tasks were. She would apparently leave for hours on a lunch break and always leave the office by 4:30pm.
Right now, we do not know who is going to take Amanda’s position. It is highly rumored that Jack, the programs director, will move over to her position and Bob, the programs intern, will move into a full-time position as the new program director. Again, nothing is set in stone, but Bob has been working with the Gemini Center for over a year helping Jack. Lately, I have been talking about how busy the Gemini Center can be. Overall, it has not been too crazy for myself. I spend a lot of my time just talking to the kids or watching them play basketball. If I am not in the gym I am most likely on the fitness floor talking to the worker up there, sitting in the break room and eating dinner (since I come straight from my full-time job I do not get a chance to eat) or at the front desk talking to members as they come into the Gemini Center. It is nice when you now that the Gemini Center is running smoothly and nothing too crazy is going on.
Miscommunication at its finest right here folks!
Today during the basketball games, a woman was setting up the concession stand tables with tablecloths and balloons as if a birthday party was going on. I checked the front desk’s schedule to see it she was supposed to be setting up and there was nothing noted. When I approached the woman, she said that she had talked to Mary Long, the rental coordinator, and already paid to have the party and use the multi-purpose room. I got her name and after the front desk looked her up in the system, her contract was found. No one knew. On top of that, SOAR, a program for autistic adults, came to play volleyball in the multi-purpose room at 5:30pm. First, the rental birthday party was set until 6pm. Second, SOAR was also not on the schedule for that day. Nancy and I had to improvise and figure out where we could put SOAR. Thankfully, the basketball games were done at 5pm so we used one of the courts to set up for SOAR and only left one for open gym. It was such a frustrating day. So many surprises and so much going on that was not communicated to those working this weekend. Every weekend, we get an events list of what is going on and neither of those events were on it. Thankfully, we were able to adapt and come up with solutions for problems that arose. Saturdays are always the craziest time in the winter. There are recreation basketball tournaments for boys and girls from 10am-5pm. While I start my Saturday shift at 2pm, it is always a mad-house when I arrive. Tons of people in the stands, in the concession area and by the doors of the gym. While I really enjoy watching the games, sometimes these tournaments can be a really big pain. The spectators will bring tons of food into the gym and they are all video-taping their children. I am constantly reminding parents and siblings that food is prohibited and that they need to stop filming. Many times, the spectators are apologetic, but there are always those who will fight me, roll their eyes or ask for an exception.
Like I said before, when the gyms are full, the kids still hang out around the Gemini Center. Sometimes between games or time-outs, the kids will run on the court and start shooting around. I have to constantly scold them that it is not open gym and they need to get off. Sometimes even referees need to tell them. Finally, when all is said and done, you would not believe the mess that these teams make! Nancy, the full-time head of night maintenance, always helps puts tables and chairs away after the games are all over and there are always tons of water bottles just lying on the floor. It drives me nuts because it is so disrespectful! These games are set up by the Gemini Center and they are leaving it a mess. Clean up after yourselves or at least the coaches should be telling the kids to clean up after themselves! Having people leaving messes on the court or even in the stands is very frustrating because I know how hard the maintenance staff works to keep the place clean. Winter is so busy. There are basketball practices and different events that take place in all of the gyms almost every night. While it is great for the Gemini Center to stay so active, it is very difficult for the kids. There are kids who are in the Gemini Center from 3pm after school until 7:30 or 8pm. However, when the gyms are closed starting at 5:30pm and they are too young to be on the fitness floor, it leaves them sitting in the concession area for hours on end.
I’m not going to lie; it is definitely a load off of my mind when the gyms are full. There are coaches or instructors to lead everything which essentially make me obsolete since I do not have to come and constantly check if they are following the rules. That is when I can sit down, talk with other employees, etc. On the other side of that, the kids do not go home. They stay and eat and make a mess or they are playing music with swear words that I need to tell them to turn off. Sometimes they will walk a few blocks away to get food and just bring it back to the Gemini Center just to sit around. It makes no sense to me but I also find it sad that these kids have nowhere else to go when the gyms are full. Ironically, after talking about first aid training, I have sad news to share. On Tuesday, Nov 24, a gentleman had a heart attack right outside of our elevator (the elevators take those who can’t use the stairs up to the fitness floor). I was not there and truthfully I did not know about it until I saw an e-mail from my supervisor about how no one was to speak about it and if asked questions we are told to go straight to the director. Unfortunately, it was Jenn’s dad. Jenn is a building supervisor at the Gemini Center, the first person I trained with, and a cross country/track coach at the high school. Her father was also very well-known in the Fairview Park community. When I came into work, a few of the staff members filled me in on what had happened: that he had fallen as he was getting off the elevator, Terry, the building supervisor that day, tried everything that he could to save him and unfortunately, he had passed away on the way to the hospital. Many of the employees were also enraged by the e-mail. Like I said, her father was an influential presence in the community, having worked with the police department. Personally, I thought it was to keep privacy within the family, but one of the front desk workers told me that even Jenn was upset that my supervisor sent that out on her behalf without consulting her.
The last time I had first aid training, I was in RA training in undergrad roughly 4 years ago. It is definitely important to get caught up on first aid since you will never know when you will need it. We primarily went over all of the signs of heart attacks, strokes, seizures, etc. in full detail. That seemed to be the focus of the training: looking for signs and how to properly give care to those people. We also practiced giving CPR on the dummies, where I learned it is 30 compressions then two breaths for six minutes as opposed to two breaths then 15 compressions like I had previously been taught. I was really surprised that we did not go over how to wrap ankles or injuries. Yes, we touched on it, but not as thoroughly as I would have thought. Thinking back on it, it is probably because it is what the largest group of people would see. As the building supervisor, I would be the only one dealing with a sprained ankle in the gym, but an older gentleman could be having symptoms of a stroke anywhere in the building: fitness floor, gym, locker rooms, etc.
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August 2016
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