People are Stupid: Strange Things Were Afoot at the 7-11

As many of you know, I am a Coke addict (Coca-cola, that is).  There is nary a Coke to be seen in my house, so I scrounged up some changed and walked to the 7-11 to get a fix.

I'm trying to walk more often as sort of thought therapy, but this ended up being quite a lesson in human nature.

So I walk to the 7-11, and I had that weird awkward do-si-do when you're trying to get in and someone else is trying to get out.  The guy had a good sense of humor about it.  It was especially funny because I'm 5'2" and he was well over 6', so it must have looked hilarious.

"Well," I thought to myself, "that must have been the adventure for this trip."

I should know better than to ever say that to myself ...

I got my Coke, salivating all the way, and stood in line as the guy in front of me ordered two "big hot dogs".  The cashier went and put on the gloves and put two hot dogs into buns then into the little cardboard container; I watched this, and they weren't even my hot dogs.

At about this point, this guy wearing suspenders and a smug look stood between the counter and the door, waving a five dollar bill around.  I should also mention that the line had grown exponentially as the cashier got the hot dogs.

Back to the guy with the hot dogs, who apparently wanted little big hot dogs (???? his English wasn't great), but he was a good sport and seemed willing to pay and walk away.

At this point, however, my attention was diverted when a second cashier joined the first behind the counter.  I was next in line (and it was a pretty long line by then), so I stepped forward with my beautiful Coke.

The guy in the suspenders said, "Uh, excuse me, I just need five dollars in gas on pump three."

Before I could say, "And, uh, I've been waiting since you got into the store and I just have one item and I REALLY want a Coke right now", the cashier lit into him and basically said if he'd just gotten in line in the first place instead of trying to push hi way ahead of people, he'd have had his turn.

The guy got all red, muttered that he'd take his business elsewhere, and stormed out.

I have two questions ...

1.  Who the hell did he think he was?  I mean, yeah, it's a pain in the ass to wait in line, especially if you're just getting something small (*cough*Coke*cough*), but what made this guy think that he was so special that he should get pushed to the front of the line when everyone else was waiting patiently?

2.  How far does $5 in gas get you, anyway?

Anyway, I started to have a little bit of anxiety because confrontation and bullies and yelling and unfairness get me all freaked out, but I just took a deep breath and laughed.

Because sometimes, that's the only thing you can do ;-)

The Art of Sharing the Road

I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that I can't stand bicyclists.

Actually, that's not completely accurate.  Most of them are just fine.  In fact, my favorite aunt is a bicyclist and participates in rides for good causes and so on.  It's just that the ones that are rude and nearly cause serious car accidents or almost hit children stand out more than the hundreds that are respectful and aware and so on.

Which is, I suppose, true for everything in life.

For some reason, I am running into (not literally, obviously) a significant percentage of the entitled, "I don't want to share the road, I want to own the road" bicyclists this summer.

I was going to go through my list of obnoxious bicyclist behavior--the one that rode in the middle of the lane on a curvy road and almost caused a head on collision when the car in front of me tried to go around him (the posted speed limit was 45 MPH ... he was going significantly below that); the one that pulled right out in front of me with no warning at all (and there wasn't a light or a stop sign or anything, he just suddenly appeared); the one that started screaming at a group of children trying to cross on a crosswalk at a busy intersection near the beach--but there are just too many of them.

It's gotten to the point where I see a bicyclist, and my heart goes into my throat and adrenaline starts pushing through my bloodstream and I am already pissed off at the cyclist before s/he does anything to warrant it (which, to be fair, most of them do not).

Which, considering that I live in a summer resort town that is rather heavy on cyclists, is not a good thing.

I hate it when somebody else's actions change my mindset on things ... and I hate it even more when I am aware of it yet somehow helpless to stop it.  Oh, and the fact that those memorable SOBs are almost always in the minority, but they are the ones you remember.

Reading over this, I realized that this post isn't really about bicyclists.  Instead, it's about learning to rise above the few and far between that are rude, disrespectful, self-obsessed, "the-rules-don't-apply-to-me", and so on.

Most people are good ... what a treat it is to accidentally remind yourself of that :-)

Happy Friday!