The brutal boring booth

Andrea Howell spends 40 hours a week in a building about the size of a portable toilet.\nWhen it rains, water seeps through her sliding door. When there's lightning, she has to leave for fear of another strike. When she has to use the restroom, first she must call for backup.\nAs an attendant at one of six parking booths on campus, Howell has one of Bloomington's most boring and brutal jobs.\nShe has cried at least twice in her PortaKing booth across from the Indiana Memorial Union, but she always holds her ground with difficult customers.\n"I just try to smile and be positive and wear my sunglasses to avoid looking at them," said Howell, a Bloomington resident.\nIn her two years as a parking attendant, Howell has been cussed out by hundreds of people.\nSome students immediately resort to profane name-calling when they roll up to her booth. Others try any number of excuses to get out of paying for parking -- they don't have their wallet, class got canceled or they thought it was free.\nThe more creative guys offer to take her out. The more desperate ones drive right through the gate.\nAnd it's the students with the nicest cars who complain most about parking prices, said Howell, who brings in about $500 during her eight-hour shift.\nHowell works for one of two parking booths run by the IMU. Parking Operations manages the others.\nMartha Floyd, who has worked as an attendant at Atwater Garage as long as most students have been alive, has heard all the excuses.\nShe knows many of her customers and has developed relationships with students. She knows more people here than she does in her hometown of Bloomfield, Ind.\nBut she still gets cussed out.\n"We take a lot of crap from the customers," Floyd said. "I'd like to say something back, but I can't."\nShe's not the only employee who tolerates occasional rude customers. There isn't much turnover for parking booth attendants, said director of Parking Operations Doug Porter.\nMany attendants have grown accustomed to their cozy parking huts and enjoy their jobs.\nTo pass the time, Howell listens to NPR and is reading "The Book of Shadows" by James Reese. She keeps her booth clean and has decorated it with a Native American-themed calendar and a photo of her new baby, Zahavah. Her heater/air conditioner works most of the time, and she occasionally gets tips from alumni who play basketball at the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.\nSince Floyd began work as a parking attendant in 1981, she has cut out quilt blocks, crocheted pot holders and read the newspaper every morning.\nA frequent customer Floyd often talks with said she planned to throw away some yarn, so Floyd offered to make her an afghan.\nThese days, that's how Floyd is passing the hours.