18 June 2008

#12 -- Laugh at another's dilemma

So I had just gotten to school today when the power in the building went out. At that point, I had to assume that it had gone out for the whole building, and not just my office. Everything was completely dark. With the understanding that I'm an engineer, and as any good/typical engineer I work in a small brick room with no windows at a cubicle with nary a bit more than just my computer and a few papers atop the desk, I'm sure you can appreciate just HOW dark it was. Took me a good three minutes to get out of the room and into the hall that was partially, but poorly lit. I tell ya, you never know just how long three minutes actually is until you're wandering around in the dark for the entire time.

Because the power was out and I therefore had nothing feasibly able to accomplish, I decided to head down to the small convenience shop here on campus and get a drink. After working out this morning with a friend, I was completely smashed and really hoped that a Vitamin Water (genius drinks, people--go out and try one) would help perk me up. Well, unfortunately the power was out there too. Apparently, it was out over the entire campus, and it didn't take long before the sounds of fire engines and ambulances came along one of the nearby roads.

To pass a little time, I sat down on one of the outside benches (people were being herded out of all the buildings at an alarming rate and we were all told to stay out until the power came back on) and tried to do some reading. Really not enjoying this most recent book, but getting through it nonetheless. Fifteen minutes later, the convenience store was still not open, and so I decided to return to my office. Power on. No network access. Nuts. Back again.

By the time I returned to the convenience store this third time, they were re-opening their doors and so I waltzed in, hoping to find my self-promised drink.

As I was passing the registers and the flurry of activity surrounding them, I couldn't help but notice a guy approaching said registers with an energy bar and a drink in his hand. He plopped the bar down on the counter and took a long pull from the previously opened drink container.

Now, I need to take a moment to admit to a tiny pet peeve. I find it EXTREMELY annoying for someone to start consuming any food/beverage before they've paid for it. I don't know, it's just something that's always bugged me. I just can't see that any item that I'd like to buy is really mine until AFTER I've paid for it. Once, I even asked a clerk at Wal-mart if this practice bugged her. She said that it didn't for the most part, but once she had had a customer come through her line with the empty peel of a banana that she had already eaten. And, in case you might have forgotten, bananas are sold by WEIGHT. Uh-huh. Yeah. So, anyhow, I saw this guy, rolled my eyes in his general direction, and turned to walk on past.

Then my ear caught one of the clerks behind the counter saying to this guy, "Sorry, our registers are still down, and I don't have any way of charging you for that stuff right now."

I turned and saw him roll his eyes and give out a big sigh.

I just had to laugh. HA! And not a thing there was that he could do about it but sit and wait for their networks to come back up because he had already opened the stupid can and taken a drink.

Serves him right.

As a side note, I might mention that I returned approximately fifteen minutes later (after another boring dip into the aforementioned book), pulled my choice of tasty beverage from the cooler, promptly paid for it, and walked out a happy customer.

1 comment:

Jay said...

So yeah - would you shop out of someone else's cart? I mean, they didn't pay for it yet, so it's not theirs! :o)

J