Monday, March 15, 2010
Twilight Zone
Today is my day off and I had to go out in to the public which is something I dread greatly. If you have read here for any length of time, you know that most of the time I go out, or even when you go out, for that matter, I have to deal with a bunch of assholes. It never fails that I will encounter rude, stupid, selfish, assholes and finding someone who speaks English in this town is like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
One of the reasons I have requested to have Mondays and Tuesdays off is because when I do have to go out in to public, most of the public is at work and that helps minimize my asshole quota for the weekend.
So, it was with great reluctance that I pulled myself out of bed this morning to get dressed and prepare myself for the onslaught of shitstupid pricks. I just hoped that I could get out there, get my stuff and be back within a short period of time to lessen the drama and heartache.
I hopped in my car and pulled out of my neighborhood only to find myself with a pretty clear road ahead. Nice. It wasn’t until about the middle of my travels that, naturally, some douche pulled out in front of me. Scoff, of course! However, it wasn’t too long before I had to make a turn and they went in the opposite direction so it wasn’t too bad.
After my turn, I continued on and was again about halfway down the road when yet again, another twit pulled out in front of me. I hate when people fucking do this especially when there is NO ONE behind me! You can’t wait 5 fucking seconds for a clear, free turn? But again, it wasn’t long before I had to make another turn so it wasn’t too bad.
I pulled up in to the parking lot of the grocery store and got out with a sigh and steeled myself to deal with arrogant fucks inside the store who get pissy with me for having the audacity to speak English. Here. In America. The nerve of me.
I did my shopping and for the most part, it was empty so I didn’t have to encounter too many rude snots shoving me to the side of the aisle. Got everything and proceeded to check out.
No line. In fact, a checker saw me looking for an open register and told me to come to his lane and got me started right away. And he spoke to me in English. In fact, he spoke English right from the start and did not ask me how I was doing in Spanish. WHAT!?! That was surprising, as well as refreshing.
Got done with that, loaded the car and headed off to Home Depot. Now...kids. I despise going to this Home Depot because I can never find any help, no one speaks English very well and it typically takes me an hour to do something that should take only 5 minutes. One time I actually was so pissed off I did call for the manager after waiting a half an hour for someone to show up to help me when they had been paged by another Home Depot employee. I was NOT looking forward to this.
I walked in the door and was immediately greeted by a lady who, AGAIN, spoke to me in English right off the bat and asked me if I needed any help finding anything.
HOLY SHIT! Really?! SERIOUSLY!?!?!
I informed her of what I needed and she thought for a minute thinking it was on aisle 10 but asked another employee just to make sure.
I almost fell over in a faint.
The product I needed was actually in aisle 9 and that was confirmed by the other employee she asked just to make sure. Still, she was only one aisle off and she made sure before I even started looking.
I went to aisle 9, found just what I needed and proceeded to check out. This particular Home Depot is pretty notorious for NOT having anyone around in a regular check out stand but pretty much makes everyone do self check out. For anyone who has read all 7 years of my site, you know how I feel about self check out. And, usually, I can find no one around to assist when self checkout hell begins. (The machine starts yelling at me that I’m doing it wrong and mayhem ensues and it’s all rather embarrassing, chaotic, annoying and mentally exhausting.)
However, when I walked up to self checkout hell and placed my items on the ground to get my money ready so that the machine would not start yelling at me to give it my money, NOW, damnit, you snail, you moron, give me your money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, someone came over and scanned the items for me!
HOLY SHIT! ASSISTANCE? Assistance before the crap starts?
This gave me ample time to get my money and insert the cash in to the slot before I got my ass chewed out by a fucking machine. I did, apparently, take too long to pick up my items as I was trying to put my wallet back in my bag but again, it wasn’t too bad.
I then proceeded out the door and immediately some man asked if he could help me carry my stuff to my car.
HOLY SHIT! Kindness?!?!!? You sure you don’t want to just watch me struggle instead?! (One time, I actually had someone stop and stare at me and say, “I’m just wondering how you’re going to carry all of that! I can’t believe you’re going to carry that without any help. Don’t you have a husband or kid to help you?” as he stood there, NOT helping.)
I told the guy he could help carry one awkward box for me and when we got to my car, I thanked him very much. All he said was, “No, no, no problem!”
Woah!
I got in to my car and headed for home.
Not one single person pulled out in front of me and most people actually drove the speed limit.
I was done with my errands a half an hour earlier than I was hoping for.
I don’t know what they put in to the water today but I hope to God they keep doing it. In fact, I’m so pleased with it all that I’m actually going to take the opinion survey for Home Depot and let them know what a great improvement today was over every other time I’ve been there. Companies need to know when they do something right, too, ya know.
After that, I’m going to continue sitting here in a state of shock that people were actually helpful, considerate and kind today. I’m not quite sure how to handle that! I just know that I like it.
