So. The alternator in the truck went out a few days ago. We were hoping it was the battery cable and after what should have been a simple replacement turned into a 6 hour odyssey that ended with us on the side of the highway it was decided the alternator had to be replaced. Today I went to a junkyard and pulled an alternator out of a truck and with a little help, put it into mine. Fingers crossed that it works well.
The truck debacle cost me a lot of hours at work. I totally missed the Slipknot show and an overnight and was very late to the Chris Brown show. I figured I had dodged a bullet after hearing about the number of people carted, carried and fought out the back gate at Slipknot.
Wrong.
I dont understand something. Why would someone pay a lot of money for a concert ticket and then come to the show and proceed to get trashed drunk and show their ass? You might as well have set that ticket money on fucking fire. Part of it is that it makes my life as concert security more difficult, but most of it is the sheer stupidity of paying upwards of $75-$100 for a ticket and then not getting to see the whole show or getting arrested or winding up at first aid. There are a few exceptions, of course. The people who genuinely get dehydrated/sick/heat exhausted and need to go to first aid. I saw and helped a few of them, including one hauntingly beautiful blonde girl who was about as big as one of my legs. She was dehydrated and a little drunk, I led her back to the first aid trailer and gave her a bottle of water. She stayed there a while and then left after another bottle of water. Later she came back with her friend and thanked me for helping her, that was nice.
There were a LOT of drunk people and people who were just plain fucking idiots. Like the guy who is/was a cop for a local town. He started a fight with 4 security guys and then continued it with 3 cops, including a man so large he made me feel very small. It didnt end well for the drunk cop, he got taken to the ground and then taken away in cuffs.
I also had an incident that directly affected me. Towards the end of the night I was working the incident area gate. My job was to keep people who didnt belong from going backstage and keep the area in general clear so that the security guys and cops who were escorting people back to first aid or the holding area had a clear path to get there. My supervisor comes around the corner with a woman who was clearly shitfaced. She was yelling and fighting and he was alone so I went to help him and grabbed this woman by the arm my supervisor didnt have a hold of. She looks over at me and all of a sudden Im this white motherfucker who is laying hands on her and a racist and an evil “cracker ass cracker”. That last part tickled me for some reason and I started laughing. My supervisor looks at me like “Really? Now you have to laugh?” and her arm slips from his grasp. I turn and all I see is a huge fist coming right for me.
Shit.
I ducked my head and turned it a little so that she hit the hardest part of my head, but it still hurt a little. She started flailing and kicking and he got her arm back but this wasnt a small woman and we are now in trouble and looking for help. I see help coming but they are still 50 or so feet away when I look and here comes this bitch getting ready to bite me. Open mouth, growling, teeth bared, she is going to bite the fuck out of my upper arm.
Fuck that noise.
I reached back with my left hand and hit her. Thats generally a no-no in the security world, hitting someone, but I felt justified. I was in fear of being hurt badly. I hit her with my left hand and pulled the punch a little, got her right about three inches in front of the bottom of the ear. The punch served two immediate purposes: It got her to stop trying to bite me and it took her attention away from fighting just long enough for two cops to reach us and help. Then, of course, this bitch went ballistic. They almost had to taze her to get her to stop fighting. It wasnt pretty. When it was over someone, I dont remember who, pointed out to me the irony of hitting a woman at a Chris Brown concert.
Just my luck that three coworkers were nearby and heard that. I was teased pretty hard the rest of the night. I have mixed feelings about it. I wish I hadnt punched her but Im very glad I didnt get bitten. I suppose my mixed feelings says something about me as a person but damned if I know what. Im not going to analyze it, Im just going to move on and hope it doesnt happen again.
