Monday, March 26, 2012

Inside Looking Out, Pt. 5

Spa Day at the Frazier

If, upon seeing the above title, you imagine the museum I work in sending its poor, tired workers to a relaxing retreat, forget it. Though we may imagine or wish it were so, nowhere but in our dreams is this ever going to happen. The tableau employees, on the other hand, they get treated totally different. If you’ve been here then you know exactly who I’m talking about. If not, they are the life-like figures all around the museum and depict different moments in history. Since they work soooo hard *eye rolling and sarcasm* every day…by standing around, they get the spa treatment a couple times a year.

Someone from exhibits pulls out the special spa tools (brushes, vacuum, and attachments) and goes around pampering our small bunch of prima donnas. Just this week was spa day for the two men on horseback in the Great Hall. As I came out of the Education Center, Anna was gently tending to our gentlemen and their mounts. While she lightly runs what looks like a powder brush over manes and tails, she uses the vacuum to remove the stirred up dust. She never gets too close for fear of sucking the hair itself up. I agree that I can’t think of anything worse than a bald horse. When I stopped to watch her, she informed me, “When I vacuum their faces I think they’re probably really uncomfortable.” That is the second thing I can whole-heartedly agree with. I can’t imagine attempting to stand still while someone sucked up my face with the vacuum.
This gives me pause and I realize no matter how hard I work, I certainly wouldn’t want the spa service perks given to the tableau employees. I’ll just stick with the ability to go home in the evening.