Patience

I am easily the most impatient person I know. Without a doubt. It comes out when I'm around people I love...I try very hard not to direct it at them, but I do let my feelings show, especially with Mike. Thank goodness he's patient with me :)

I do not, however, let these feelings of impatience out with strangers. I'm extremely patient with customer service people, don't mind waiting on one of our elders to tell me a 20 minute story, or waiting on our niece or nephews to figure something out for themselves. Thus, I expect the same from others. It's rude to be blatantly impatient with others, especially when it's nothing they can control.

The reason I'm telling you this:

I went to the store today to get some things we needed for our upcoming golf benefit. The woman working the cash register was newer and a little slow. No big deal, everyone has to learn at some point. I was chatting with a woman who had gone through the line in front of me. She politely asked the cashier if she could get some change for her son to get something out of the vending machine. She waited patiently and I had some quarters, so I traded her. No big deal. It made her son's day though, which was nice.

I had like 15 items for her to scan. The gentleman (I use that term very loosely) behind me was tapping his foot already at me when I put my things down. Then, as the cashier was ringing my items up at a pace that wasn't quick enough for this guy, he asks me if I thought I picked up enough crap to buy. I politely ignored his rudeness. When it was time, I slid my debit card through the machine, told them I didn't want cash back, and then waited on the cashier. She apologized for the machine being so slow and I smiled and told her it was no big deal (it really wasn't. I had nowhere to be and it's not her fault.) So, I was chatting with a lady behind this "gentleman" about places I knew of where her 14 year old daughter could work and all of a sudden this "gentleman" starts loudly saying "yes, Yes, YES..." Now, baring the obvious conclusion that my talk of supermarket shelf stocking was getting him hot and he was having a spontaneous orgasm (sorry, too much?), I had no idea what his problem was. I glared at him and saw that he was pointing at the credit card machine, who was waiting for me to tell it if the amount was okay or not.

I was extremely tempted to push no and make them go through all of that again. Had it not been for the nice people waiting behind this guy or the new cashier who was trying so hard, I probably would have. I think it's good to teach rude people how their behavior affects people. I didn't though. I rolled my eyes at the cashier, who looked nervous to help this man next, and then smiled and thanked her politely. I did, however, take my sweet time moving away from the counter so he could get up to the machine.

Seriously, who's in that big of a hurry? What emergency was he about to face with his dollar store loofah and chipped blue cereal bowl?

Maybe I don't want to know.