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03 September 2009

So who annoyed who today? For me it was the Lady At the Grocery.

[More:]

It's market rush hour and everyone is running around and the cashiers and floor guys are basically tripping over themselves trying to keep everyone moving and not crashing into each other and happy. I get on a line with a basket of pasta and tonic water in front of a short woman with a baseball cap, shoulders full of freckles, sunglasses, and a huge cart of items.

She then proceeds to weigh each and every item AT the cashier, to figure out which one of the several identical packs of peanuts is the cheapest. She then gets into an argument about the kind of cucumber she picked up. There are at least four lines around us moving at scary assembly-line speed with the floor crew packing up empty carts and baskets in a steady lack, clack, clack soundtrack. I take the time to notice the new kinds of chocolate they make in Madagascar (Mint Salt?) until Tiny Lady In Front Me pulls out her purse.

Then she pulls out a fist full of coupons.

I put my basket down. The line behind me now stretches past beer and into Seafood. I help put away a few baskets, bring a few carts to the Point, I used to work in a supermarket so it's like second nature and I get super-twitchy in lines anyway. A flipped switch. Anyway, I get back to the line and it looks like Baseball Cap-Sunglasses Inside Lady is finally going to pay.

Then she makes it a Delivery order, someplace far away, in an expensive zip code. She argues *again* about the fact that she'll have to take her milk and eggs and whatever with her cause delivery could take a while. She sighs and takes her bag of perishables with her. Then she wanders away, not busing her cart, which is half-full from the items she brought up and discarded.

And then, and only then, did I want to strangle her.
For me it was the data architect who scheduled 4 hours of meetings in such a manner as to deny me a lunch hour. That said, I'm paid to be here, so I defer to your supermonster.
posted by pompomtom 03 September | 23:38
For me it was the publishing intern. I trained her in a couple of systems on my computer, cos she didn't have the programs on hers yet, and she wouldn't get off the computer at all. I couldn't get any work done, the day was a write off, and if I'd known I would have taken today off as carers leave to take care of my mother who just got out of hospital.
posted by jonathanstrange 04 September | 02:15
I used to get really stressed in slow supermarket queues. These days I'm only moderately stressed. This helps me, though it may just seem stupid...

The stoic philosophers reckoned that virtues have to be built up slowly, gradually and with effort, just like building muscles in a gym.

When in a slow supermarket queue, try to think of it as an opportunity to do a bunch of reps for building up your Muscles of Patience. Try to visualize your irritation as a heavy bar-bell, and imagine lifting it up until the frustration is gone.
posted by TheophileEscargot 04 September | 04:14
See, I just usually stab whomever it is that's bugging the shit our of me. Then I usually feel much better.
posted by Specklet 04 September | 04:23
i usually whip out my iphone in this situation, or am likely listening to something interesting on my ipod anyway.
posted by By the Grace of God 04 September | 04:46
... scheduled 4 hours of meetings in such a manner as to deny me a lunch hour
This was my day today - six back-to-back meetings from 9 am to 3 pm. Considering that I did it to myself, I guess I annoyed me. I felt like stabbing myself by about half-way through.
posted by dg 04 September | 07:11
A woman in a black prelude that kept playing leapfrog with me on the interstate got pulled by a sheriff in a speed trap. BD
posted by chewatadistance 04 September | 17:46
A warning sign I put together a while back...
≡ Click to see image ≡
Danger: Psychohazard
posted by Kronos_to_Earth 04 September | 19:48
expensive zip code

Hey, I live in a Forbes magazine-level exorbitant zip code. (In a tiny rented apartment that's more or less the garage of the oldest and most run-down house on the street -- inherited by my retired mechanic landlord from his parents, who bought it in something like 1928. My kitchen is smaller than nearly everyone's bathroom, and I don't have a bathtub.)

I think I behave reasonably well in grocery queues, but I get a tad defensive when people make certain assumptions based on my address.
posted by tangerine 04 September | 23:09
It wasn't the zip code or knock-headed weighing items at the cashier that made her my own personal 2-minute hate, it was that she left her cart, half-full of discarded items, in the middle of a VERY busy floor, where everyone, customers and employees were working to clear it out and bus carts , or just move them out of the way. A huge jack-knifed half-full cart right damn in the middle of a busy 4-line floor when you've just spent a good while complaining that you actually have to "LIFT" and "CARRY" your perishables in another bag just,well, it just seemed really rude.
posted by The Whelk 05 September | 00:20
Is there anybunny listening? || Piglet! OMG!

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