Last night, I landed back to Texas, and after waiting about 30 minutes for luggage, then found my shuttle to the extended parking lot. I was the only one on the shuttle, so the driver started having a conversation with me about vitamin K and sunburns and suntans. Apparently, he spends a lot of time at GNC, because he was quite knowledgeable. He had a short stature, longer gray hair swept back on the sides with a shiney scalp on top, and a white moustache. His voice was very raspy, but sounded strangely familiar. It took until this morning for my brain to process that he looked and sounded just like Clark Griswold's boss from Christmas Vacation.
He asked me if I cared if we journeyed to Terminal C, and I said no, and when we arrived a huge group crowded onto the shuttle. Many of the people were 20ish tourists of all different ethnicities. When the shuttle was too full, the driver had two people waiting outside the door, and said he just had room for a single. So a lady got on, and the man standing outside started whining about how two shuttles had already passed him up, and how he was tired of waiting. The driver apologized, and the man said he would stand.
Immediately, I did not like the complaining man. He kept on saying rude things to the driver and tried to get the lady formerly waiting with him who was now sharing a seat with me to agree with him about how the driver was incompetent and to join him in his negativity party. I kept getting more and more irritated, and couldn't even look at him for fear I would lash out at him with, "How rude." or "You must've forgotten your manners with your breath mints." or maybe, "Okay, Mr. Rudey-Pants. Point taken, now shut it." But then, I would be playing the rude-game right back at Mr. Rudeness.
I realized right then that my ultimate pet-peeve is rudeness. Not that I'm always Susie Sunshine Politeness, but I get really bothered when consumers treat people in service jobs like 2nd class citizens. I've even been out with friends to dinner where this has happened, and it's quite embarrassing. And on dates, this is definitely a deal breaker with me--an immediate flag on the play.
On the flipside, I also get bothered when people in service jobs treat customers like it's a pain to have to interact with them. But in this particular case, Clark Griswold's boss was not being rude, but he was getting treated that way.
I prayed hard to be compassionate to Mr. Rudeness. It was difficult. Everything in me wanted to be rude to him to pay him back. I tried to imagine that he might be an orphan or maybe as a child, he was the last picked for kickball, but nothing seemed to break my heart for him--except for thinking, "He just doesn't get it, but hopefully one day he will."
I noticed that as the driver let everyone out with their luggage, he let them struggle getting it off the shuttle. I was 2nd to last to leave (he apologized for the irony), and he not only took my luggage off the shuttle, he loaded it into my hatchback.
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He asked me if I cared if we journeyed to Terminal C, and I said no, and when we arrived a huge group crowded onto the shuttle. Many of the people were 20ish tourists of all different ethnicities. When the shuttle was too full, the driver had two people waiting outside the door, and said he just had room for a single. So a lady got on, and the man standing outside started whining about how two shuttles had already passed him up, and how he was tired of waiting. The driver apologized, and the man said he would stand.
Immediately, I did not like the complaining man. He kept on saying rude things to the driver and tried to get the lady formerly waiting with him who was now sharing a seat with me to agree with him about how the driver was incompetent and to join him in his negativity party. I kept getting more and more irritated, and couldn't even look at him for fear I would lash out at him with, "How rude." or "You must've forgotten your manners with your breath mints." or maybe, "Okay, Mr. Rudey-Pants. Point taken, now shut it." But then, I would be playing the rude-game right back at Mr. Rudeness.
I realized right then that my ultimate pet-peeve is rudeness. Not that I'm always Susie Sunshine Politeness, but I get really bothered when consumers treat people in service jobs like 2nd class citizens. I've even been out with friends to dinner where this has happened, and it's quite embarrassing. And on dates, this is definitely a deal breaker with me--an immediate flag on the play.
On the flipside, I also get bothered when people in service jobs treat customers like it's a pain to have to interact with them. But in this particular case, Clark Griswold's boss was not being rude, but he was getting treated that way.
I prayed hard to be compassionate to Mr. Rudeness. It was difficult. Everything in me wanted to be rude to him to pay him back. I tried to imagine that he might be an orphan or maybe as a child, he was the last picked for kickball, but nothing seemed to break my heart for him--except for thinking, "He just doesn't get it, but hopefully one day he will."
I noticed that as the driver let everyone out with their luggage, he let them struggle getting it off the shuttle. I was 2nd to last to leave (he apologized for the irony), and he not only took my luggage off the shuttle, he loaded it into my hatchback.
Change the world with e-mail. Join the i'm Initiative from Microsoft.
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