Rudeness

I had to pick up breakfast this morning for a meeting at my office. I was fine with doing this, as I always slip my own order in as my pickup/delivery fee. This morning’s feast happened to be from Metro Crepes, so it was especially alllll gooood.

If you have never been to this establishment, let me describe: it is a funny little place that reminds me of food places in the mall. It is just a cut-out in the wall to which you walk up & order. They don’t have seating, really – but the building in which it is located has tables & chairs set up on their atrium (right in front of the counter). On the left, there is a window that states, “Order Here”. On the right, the signs boldly states, “Pick-Up Here”. While approaching the counter, I quickly dart over to the latter. I stand there for about 30 seconds…nobody around – no customers, no workers, no one! I even threw caution to the wind and walked the 3 feet over to the “Order Here” side (I am daredevil). Still no one. At this point, I start to think that maybe I was the lone survivor in some post-apocalyptic epic turn of events. I turn around & notice a woman walking up…Yay, another survivor! We make eye contact as she approaches the counter to place an order. Just as she does this, a woman walks up from the back of the shop. Before I could so/say a thing, my fellow survivor places her order, even though she clearly saw me walking from side to side. What the eff??!!

As she turned to walk away, I once again made eye contact with her. This time, said interaction included a Charlene D. Evans patented stink eye.

This “incident” makes me ask the question, “Where has the politeness gone”? Seriously, what the HELL?! I am a fairly surly person, but I am not rude. Do I suffer from frequent righteous indignation? Heck yes I do…that’s not what I mean. I am talking about saying “please” and “thank you”. I am talking about telling your muni driver “thanks”. I am talking about getting off your cellphone when you reach the cashier. Seriously, this list could go on & on.

I wish we could take the best aspects of each era/generation & consolidate them in to one super mega era. For instance, wouldn’t the politeness of the 50’s be great without the racial injustice? Bleck, this is just getting me mad again…what’s the solution?