Let's be honest: There are times that you absolutely curse yourself when you decide to take a trip to a store. Whether it be bad traffic, during a thunderstorm, etc....sometimes you just feel like someone is out to get you and make your life a living hell just by stepping out of your house. It comes in all different forms. However, there are certain ones I will not stand for.
The other day, Eric and I were doing a couple of errands. I needed to pick up my car as well as a few things from Old Navy while he wanted to swing by Lowe's to pick up something for his Halloween costume. Little did we know that it was going to result in being subjected to two forms of solicitation that pretty much made me go "What the hell?"
First off, we went to Lowe's. As we were walking up to the store, we noticed that near the exit was a man in a Boy Scouts of America uniform along with a very young child, probably no older than five or six. He was a Cub Scout, which I have no problem with. I did the Boy Scout thing for a little while during elementary school, but eventually it just wasn't for me. What I did have a problem with was how they had positioned themselves to make sure that it wasn't just seeing people walking in....they were going to have to see them walking out. Now, truth be told, I did not see what the reasoning was for them being there, but I did see a random table filled with various food items that made me remember a fundraiser that I did. A lot of it is stuff that you would find at Sam's Club: Giant boxes of cheese, meats, drinks, etc. Curiously, though, I wondered if they were violating a law with Lowe's having the gigantic "No Solicitation" sign on the entranceway. I'm going to guess that it means they couldn't say anything to Lowe's, but were allowed to be outside. This one was not the one that really got to me, though. Eric and I walked out, politely said "No thank you" before they could even get half a sentence out, and walked to the car. Generally, this is the best way to handle these situations.
At Old Navy, however....I was subjected to one that truly pissed me off.
Old Navy is a pretty solid clothing store. Low prices, good clothes, and I have never had an issue going in or out of there because no one ever thinks to set up a shop outside of there. People generally do it at grocery stores or department stores. While Old Navy technically can fall under that last category, I don't think I've ever seen an Old Navy at a mall. They are generally stand-alone shops. So, much to my dismay, the second instance happened almost immediately getting out of my car, which really caught me off guard because Eric managed to avoid this altogether.
Coming around the backside of the car, this woman who had just parked herself looks over at me and gives me the visual stop sign. You've seen this before: Arm straight out at you, fingers spread out, basically saying "Hold the fuck on!" Well, this woman did it to me...and I'm not a fan of someone who does that, especially a person that I don't know.
Within two seconds, I immediately learn that this woman is deaf. Alright, no big deal. I figured she was stopping me because she had maybe seen something wrong with the car and that was the urgency.
Nope.
Not even close.
She hands me a card. The title of this index card is "Did you know that November is Deaf Awareness Month?"
First off, it's not November. Second off, no I didn't, but it doesn't shock me. EVERYTHING has an "Awareness Month" or "Thinking of you day" or "Sorry I gave you Chlamydia day." So I quickly glance over the card, probably spending all of five seconds actually reading it, and at the bottom it says "Please spare five dollars for me."
Are you fucking kidding me?
Look, I've donated money before for certain causes, but they are to non-profits that I actually believe in. Case in point: The V Foundation. I've donated to them a couple of times because it's a good cause and one that I think needs plenty of help with research. I've also donated change to the Salvation Army every Christmas to the guys ringing the bell. That is also a good cause.
This is not a good cause. Especially considering the fact that this person was just out and about, doing her thing, obviously not having a problem getting around. She wasn't homeless. She had just gotten out of a fairly new car, which wasn't anything special, but still, a pretty nice car, dressed fairly well.
So, apparently she feels the need to hand me this card just out and about, with no proof that she's doing it for a cause thanks to the shoddiness of the card that this information was printed on. And I'm supposed to give you five dollars?
There are many reasons I don't carry cash with me anymore. This is probably fairly low on the list, but it's on there.
Look, while I'm not insensitive to causes, a situation like that just screams "Scam" at me. Yes, this woman was definitely deaf, but how in the hell is she to expect someone to react positively when she comes at them like a bat out of hell, holding up her hand, and then handing them a card?
While the first situation was not really a guilt trip, this certainly was an attempt at such a thing, though she did a pretty piss poor job of it. We've all been "victims" of guilt trips, mainly by our parents when we were younger. Parents are absolute professionals at pulling it off, and when we all get older, we will be professionals at doing it ourselves. Why? Because children don't know what a guilt trip is and, thus, it works. Pulling it off on adults though?
I wish you luck, especially to the woman handing out these index cards.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
The opening post: A lesson in dealing with ignorance.
Ah yes, the wonderful world of blogging. It's an art form that has been around since the internet became bigger than the news of O.J. Simpson running from the cops or the day that Crystal Pepsi was released. Regardless of the level of enthusiasm that one shows when it comes to writing about their personal feelings and thoughts on the internet to share with whoever the hell is bored enough to read through it, I'm going to write about random things through my daily experiences. I hope you get some form of entertainment out of them, at least. If anything, it gives me the chance to vent without actually opening my mouth at any point in this.
It's not a shocking piece of news that there are plenty of ignorant and generally stupid people out there in this world of ours. Sometimes, though, there are special moments in our daily lives that make us seriously want to document just how far someone jumped over the line and if anyone was injured in the process. I witnessed a one of these leaps and bounds today while out and about.
I've never been a big fan of people who seem to be lost when they are driving. Let's face it: About fifty percent of the population probably skated by on their driver's exam when they were sixteen while the instructor just simply hoped to survive the ordeal in one piece. I firmly believe in re-testing at certain ages, especially if you were one of those people who got a 76 on their exam when the passing score was a 75. These people scare me, and I swear that they are all over the Columbus area, especially on Sawmill. Now, back when I took my test in 1997, things were a little bit different. The internet was just beginning to show signs of booming, cell phones were getting smaller but were still out of the dot matrix format and bulky as hell while texting wasn't even a mere thought. Hell, Google wouldn't be founded for another year. So, when I took my test, things were pretty simple on the roads. I had a relatively easy time passing my test and, in the couple of years afterward, I found that most people in the town I went to high school in actually knew how to drive. Tourists, on the other hand, especially those from the city (I'm looking at you, Minneapolis), pretty much stuck their thumbs up their asses and attempted to drive in that position. This would be foreshadowing, although I wouldn't know it for some time.
For the past eleven years, I have lived in Columbus, whether it be on campus or in the suburban areas of the city. It wouldn't be until about 2005, the year that I really kicked into high gear with officiating and traveling to many high schools, that I realized the level of stupidity that people exerted while on the road. It's only gotten worse since then, with little to no sign of improvement.
Now, I'm not saying that everyone is a terrible driver. There are people out there who actually know how to operate a one ton vehicle doing 70 miles an hour without screwing it up. The problem with this, though, is that for every one person that knows how to drive, there are twenty others that don't. I don't think I'm in the wrong when I say that the operationally challenged far outweigh those who aren't.
So, today, I was doing some general errands. Hitting up the grocery store, getting a haircut, nothing out of the ordinary. During my roughly three hour trek, I would drive maybe twenty to thirty minutes of that time. Now, I live in Dublin just off of Sawmill. When I do my errands, it is a rarity for me to actually leave the Sawmill area because I have access to everything that I need off of that road. Of course, this is one of the busiest damn streets in the city, and it is chalk full of people who were probably dreaming of the hot chick in high school when it came time to learn about properly merging into traffic.
The first Darwin Nominee comes in the form of a woman driving a little red Alero. I'll let the sexists get their laughs in right now as they sit here and say "Hahahaha women can't drive!" before continuing. Honestly, I've found that the gender of a person is not what determines their stupidity behind the wheel of a car. In this case, though, this woman managed to block traffic in a very unique way: A failed tailgate attempt while turning.
For those who are not familiar with Columbus, let me tell you about this intersection I was at. About halfway up Sawmill, there is a Sam's Club and Home Depot. There is a road that splits Sawmill, creating an intersection that has a stop light. Nothing new to anyone who has driven a car. Now, we all know that tailgaters exist, and be damned if I don't hate every last one of them. These are the people who will ride your bumper if you are waiting to turn left at one of these intersections. It doesn't matter if you are just past your line, sitting in the intersection, or actually waiting behind the line: They are going to follow you no matter what. Extra forty-five seconds of waiting be damned: They have shit that needs to get done now!
This woman, however, managed to screw this up in a rather epic way. With the car in front of her pulled into the intersection, the light turns yellow. This car, having actually paid attention to the rules of driving, waited for oncoming traffic to stop, then completed her turn....leaving said tailgater behind her, a good third of the way out in the intersection. There was no way in hell she had any intention other than to follow the car in front of her, but low and behold, it seemed as if she had an important text message to answer! It was easy to tell, considering she had her head down and was obviously focused, but the real good part comes next. The people in the turn lanes have now begun to turn onto Sawmill while this woman answers her text message....then proceed to get put into a clusterfuck of epic proportions when the woman realizes she missed her opportunity to tailgate the person in front of her and decided to turn anyways, creating a near accident and definitely blocking traffic. This is what we call in the internet world an epic failure.
Instead of getting mad, I'm sitting a couple cars back of the line laughing hysterically. See, without there being an accident, things instantly become funny in a situation like this, especially when I'm in no rush to get anywhere and enjoy things like this. I get amusement out of the stupidity of others, especially in a case like this. It would take a good thirty seconds of horn blasting and random gestures, most of which were not better than R-Rated, before the jam was resolved and normal traffic resumed. The beauty of this, though, is that the woman in the Alero thought she had done nothing wrong and was flipping the double bird to the people she was blocking. All it takes it to point at the light, make her realize she was in the wrong, and watch as her face goes completely pale.
So, your lesson for the day: Ignorance comes in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and packages. Try to avoid them at all costs.
This is your rant of the day.
It's not a shocking piece of news that there are plenty of ignorant and generally stupid people out there in this world of ours. Sometimes, though, there are special moments in our daily lives that make us seriously want to document just how far someone jumped over the line and if anyone was injured in the process. I witnessed a one of these leaps and bounds today while out and about.
I've never been a big fan of people who seem to be lost when they are driving. Let's face it: About fifty percent of the population probably skated by on their driver's exam when they were sixteen while the instructor just simply hoped to survive the ordeal in one piece. I firmly believe in re-testing at certain ages, especially if you were one of those people who got a 76 on their exam when the passing score was a 75. These people scare me, and I swear that they are all over the Columbus area, especially on Sawmill. Now, back when I took my test in 1997, things were a little bit different. The internet was just beginning to show signs of booming, cell phones were getting smaller but were still out of the dot matrix format and bulky as hell while texting wasn't even a mere thought. Hell, Google wouldn't be founded for another year. So, when I took my test, things were pretty simple on the roads. I had a relatively easy time passing my test and, in the couple of years afterward, I found that most people in the town I went to high school in actually knew how to drive. Tourists, on the other hand, especially those from the city (I'm looking at you, Minneapolis), pretty much stuck their thumbs up their asses and attempted to drive in that position. This would be foreshadowing, although I wouldn't know it for some time.
For the past eleven years, I have lived in Columbus, whether it be on campus or in the suburban areas of the city. It wouldn't be until about 2005, the year that I really kicked into high gear with officiating and traveling to many high schools, that I realized the level of stupidity that people exerted while on the road. It's only gotten worse since then, with little to no sign of improvement.
Now, I'm not saying that everyone is a terrible driver. There are people out there who actually know how to operate a one ton vehicle doing 70 miles an hour without screwing it up. The problem with this, though, is that for every one person that knows how to drive, there are twenty others that don't. I don't think I'm in the wrong when I say that the operationally challenged far outweigh those who aren't.
So, today, I was doing some general errands. Hitting up the grocery store, getting a haircut, nothing out of the ordinary. During my roughly three hour trek, I would drive maybe twenty to thirty minutes of that time. Now, I live in Dublin just off of Sawmill. When I do my errands, it is a rarity for me to actually leave the Sawmill area because I have access to everything that I need off of that road. Of course, this is one of the busiest damn streets in the city, and it is chalk full of people who were probably dreaming of the hot chick in high school when it came time to learn about properly merging into traffic.
The first Darwin Nominee comes in the form of a woman driving a little red Alero. I'll let the sexists get their laughs in right now as they sit here and say "Hahahaha women can't drive!" before continuing. Honestly, I've found that the gender of a person is not what determines their stupidity behind the wheel of a car. In this case, though, this woman managed to block traffic in a very unique way: A failed tailgate attempt while turning.
For those who are not familiar with Columbus, let me tell you about this intersection I was at. About halfway up Sawmill, there is a Sam's Club and Home Depot. There is a road that splits Sawmill, creating an intersection that has a stop light. Nothing new to anyone who has driven a car. Now, we all know that tailgaters exist, and be damned if I don't hate every last one of them. These are the people who will ride your bumper if you are waiting to turn left at one of these intersections. It doesn't matter if you are just past your line, sitting in the intersection, or actually waiting behind the line: They are going to follow you no matter what. Extra forty-five seconds of waiting be damned: They have shit that needs to get done now!
This woman, however, managed to screw this up in a rather epic way. With the car in front of her pulled into the intersection, the light turns yellow. This car, having actually paid attention to the rules of driving, waited for oncoming traffic to stop, then completed her turn....leaving said tailgater behind her, a good third of the way out in the intersection. There was no way in hell she had any intention other than to follow the car in front of her, but low and behold, it seemed as if she had an important text message to answer! It was easy to tell, considering she had her head down and was obviously focused, but the real good part comes next. The people in the turn lanes have now begun to turn onto Sawmill while this woman answers her text message....then proceed to get put into a clusterfuck of epic proportions when the woman realizes she missed her opportunity to tailgate the person in front of her and decided to turn anyways, creating a near accident and definitely blocking traffic. This is what we call in the internet world an epic failure.
Instead of getting mad, I'm sitting a couple cars back of the line laughing hysterically. See, without there being an accident, things instantly become funny in a situation like this, especially when I'm in no rush to get anywhere and enjoy things like this. I get amusement out of the stupidity of others, especially in a case like this. It would take a good thirty seconds of horn blasting and random gestures, most of which were not better than R-Rated, before the jam was resolved and normal traffic resumed. The beauty of this, though, is that the woman in the Alero thought she had done nothing wrong and was flipping the double bird to the people she was blocking. All it takes it to point at the light, make her realize she was in the wrong, and watch as her face goes completely pale.
So, your lesson for the day: Ignorance comes in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and packages. Try to avoid them at all costs.
This is your rant of the day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)