I can put up with a lot of things, but for some reason impatience really ticks me off.
I am standing in line at the grocery store. There is an older couple in front of me checking out, then there is about two and a half feet of space, then there’s me. So I’m standing there patiently waiting my turn when a woman pushing a cart full of groceries comes up and proceeds to try to wedge her cart and herself into the two and a half feet of space in front of me. Now, I don’t like to press myself right up against people when I am waiting in line, but two and a half feet really isn’t THAT much space. So I stand there, being polite as ever. After what seems to be about 30 minutes, the lady finally formulates a thought in her pea sized brain. She turns to me and says, “Are you in line?” It wasn’t a “Oh excuse me, are you next in line” or a “Sorry, didn’t see you there because I am blind” or anything remotely like that. It was a gruff statement as though the fact that she had to ask me was really putting her out. So, I look at the couple in front of me, then down at myself, then at the couple in front of me, down at myself again, then say “Why yes, I am.” So after what seemed to be another ten minutes of standing there, the lady finally has another thought shoot through her head and pulls the corner of her cart out of the small space in front of me and gets in line behind me.
Then the cashier picks up the intercom and says, “Judy, check on two please.” Before the sentence was even completely out of the cashiers mouth, the lady bolts toward checkout stand number two. It’s really very rare that I want to punch a woman in the head, but I seriously wanted to punch that woman in the head. Seriously.
I ignored her rude behavior thinking that maybe she was just in a hurry. After all, she can’t figure out how lines work so I shouldn’t expect her to figure out how to time things so that she isn’t running behind. Only that wasn’t it, because once I get outside she is just standing there talking to the bag boy. After I load up my groceries and pull out of the lot? Still talking. So it turns out she wasn’t in a hurry. All I could think of as I drove away was a line used often by Alice from the Dilbert comic strip. Must… control….. fist …. of death.
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