Today was a disappointing day. I don't expect everyone to live up to my crazy own self imposed standards, but I do strongly believe that people should at least be decent to one another.
My first exposure to rudeness was at the Gap Outlet this afternoon. Maybe there should have been more than one solitary register open in the store, but honestly, it is a Thursday in Freeport (not the day before Christmas Thursday or Black Friday Thursday, but a regular old Thursday). I stood waiting at what I would have designated to be the front of the line and some lady nearly knocked over my 2 year old with her giant old lady bag before barking at me that I was not actually in the proper area. I looked around, there were no other people waiting with arms overflowing and guess what? I was next so, whatever. But then, she grumps at the Gap girl to call for back-up (poor little Gap girl) and before I even grab my bag of goodies and my baby and the stroller and take a step away from the counter, she tosses her item in front of me. Grrr. I don't like my personal space or that of my child's invaded. The cashier then proceeded to ask if she can have her zip code and she retorts, "NO." She tries again, "oh, are you from out of state because..." Cranky lady interupts her with a nasty, "does it really matter?!" Truth be told, it doesn't really matter and if I didn't want anyone to know my zip code (it's not that personal) I could probably a) make one up or, 2) just say no, thank you. Oh, yeah, and she didn't hold the door for us when she stormed out of the door ahead of me. She must have been French (I can say that because I was almost fluent in French at one point and also, my husband's family is FrancoAmerican).
Next, the lady at a toy store (sounds like Lay and Plearn) is no Mr. Magorium (remember Dustin Hoffman with funny teeth and pants and hair?). The store is closing and there is a whopping (sarcasm inserted here) 20% off sale on the remaining bits of scraps that reside in the store. (FYI, don't bother.) She complained loudly about customers the entire 16 minutes that I walked around. Needless to say, I left empty handed - partially because there wasn't anything good, but mostly out of principle. I am chock full of principles, you know...
And for the piece de resistance (see? French!), I was driving home when I came upon a rusty old pick-up truck, directly past the railroad tracks, parked askew on the side of the road with a young blonde shorts wearing woman standing next to it. I immediately assessed the situation for safety and when I realized that there was not a gang of carjackers hiding downwind, I pulled over and inquired if she was ok. She was, but the old (he was 97 if he was a year) man was not. He lost his wheel - the entire wheel - when he drove over the tracks and she saw it roll 1/2 mile down the road and retrieved it and his hearing aid wasn't working and he couldn't remember his son's cell phone number and he just had some kind of surgery and was doing work in the barn today - "you know, with the animals" (he was very chatty). Anyway, he got ahold of his boy and he was going to rescue him tout suite (more French). This was neither unhuman or unkind, but guess what was? Do you know how many people stopped to see if everyone was ok? That's right - only me and the other toothy blonde. I bet I saw 20ish cars speed by (and not even slow down) and most of them were big, stupid, truck driving men (not saying all men that drive trucks are stupid or big, but in the instance, they were). What the heck? Where is chivalry? Common courtesy? Human kindness? Holiday spirit? Good will? Ba humbug!
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