1. "Customer Service" people who refuse to give Customers Service. Last week my car died in the parking lot at McDonald's. (Sad thing was, I wasn't even eating there... long story.) Anywho, Nicole and her mom happened to be just across the street at the mall, but we soon realized that none of us had any jumper cables. So in we go to ask the MickeyD's workers if they might be willing to share. We ask the cashier on duty, who, by the way, was not busy in any form of the word. She turns and screams at all the other workers, each of whom mumble a halfhearted "no, don't got any" in their turn. So the lady turns back to me and says, "I've got some in my trunk." At this point I'm wondering why she felt the need to yelp at the others when she had some all along, but hey, a favor's a favor, right. "Great," we say. Unfortunately, she wasn't done. "Yeah, I've got some in my trunk, but I can't go out and get them, sorry." Seriously? The other customers look at each other in disbelief. We all look at each other in disbelief. We look at her in disbelief. She gives a sort of apologetic smile and turns back to her oh-so-important-guarding-of-the-counter. Now, I used to work at McDonald's. I realize there are rules. I also realize that, in quasi-emergency type situations, the rules are made to be broken. "I'm sorry, sir, but I can't come around the counter to Heimlich that french fry out of your throat. There are rules, you know..." Geez.
2. People who embarrass themselves (and others) with completely irrational statements. Examples are numerous as the sands on the seashore, but I'll go with this one... I have seen one too many facebook statuses in the past couple of days blaming President Obama for the tragedy at Fort Hood. Seriously, people? You don't have to like his politics, you don't have to like anything about him, but really... to imply (or state outright) that he had anything whatever to do with that horror story is absurd. The guy was a Muslim. True. a) Obama is not a Muslim. b) As I told the kids in my class last week, you have to be really careful when throwing out blanket assumptions. "Christians" have bombed many an abortion clinic, but that doesn't mean that those radicals are representative of Christianity as a whole. Let's learn from the plight of Japanese Americans in World War II, and not overreach. Be angry at the individual who committed the crime, and not an entire race of people. Don't let prejudice take root in your heart. Nothing good comes of that.
3. Scrooges who don't like Christmas. This one is thrown in just for good measure... Santa Claus is coming to town, folks, so you might as well enjoy it!
