How rude!

Want to know a secret? I write these posts in advance. Maybe not a secret, since I've already told you that I think. But that secret is applicable today because I'll be at a work conference today and tomorrow (Tuesday and Wednesday), rendering me unable to write. Soooo here I sit, Monday night and you know what? I'm going to write today's posts right now. But I'll post it tomorrow morning (today, actually, since I'm writing in advance....this could get confusing).  And I'm sorry to say that I won't be able to post on Wednesday.  But I'll return on Thursday, promise!

I have to apologize, because I seem to be latching onto certain subjects and beating the life out of them. And then beating them a little more, just for good measure. (I promise this post is not about bathing suits.) But seriously, this cannot go without being posted about.

Yesterday I blogged about being a total weenie when it comes to saying no to little children selling things outside the grocery store. Well, if you go out to any store ever (even if only 3 times a year, in which case I'd like to know how you do it), you have probably noticed the little deals at the cash registers where the cashier asks if you want to donate a nominal sum ($1 or $5 most) to some worthy cause.

For me, these are usually much easier to say no to because the people asking are rarely the actual people benefited by the cause. And usually a polite, "No, thank you, not today" more than suffices. But people, you are not going to believe what happened to me yesterday.

As I mentioned, I'm at a work conference today. At this conference, I will be seeing many of my counterparts that work in my area whom I normally don't get to see, save for at these conferences. I have not seen these ladies since before L was born, and I've only emailed them a few pictures since I'm horrible at taking pictures and just really a bad mom in that sense. So I know that when I get there, I'll be asked a million times, "Do you have any pictures?" And if I tell these women that I do not, I kid you not, they will act like I just told them I left my baby at home with Conner as the babysitter.

So I needed to get some recent pictures printed. I love Costco (in theory. Though I hate actually going there because it's a madhouse and a zoo and it stresses me out) and I love one-hour printing, so yesterday I ordered 5 or 6 pictures from Costco and scheduled to pick them up on my lunch. I went in and stood in a line 5 people deep (seriously, why are there always so many people at Costco? Don't these people have jobs?) to pick up my pictures.

I have to tell you that things are tight financially this month. A lot of stuff is going on, and pretty much every dollar coming in is going out just as fast or faster. This is not usually the case, but this month it is. So I have literally $4 in both my bank accounts because of bills and stuff. Costco doesn't take credit cards, I had no cash and didn't feel like accruing a $3 fee by taking $20 out of D's and my joint account at the ATM to pay for my pictures that were literally 69 cents (sorry to overuse "literally", there's literally no other good word to use in its place). So I had to use my debit card, which is slightly embarrassing for such a small purchase, but no biggie.

I got up to pick up and pay for my pictures, and as the cashier was ringing me up, she asked, "Would you be so kind as to donate $1 to The Children's Fund (or something)?"

And I said very politely, "No thank you, not today."

So she starts scanning my pictures and then lifts the keyboard and scans something underneath. Then she said, "That will be 49 cents."

I swipe my debit card and start keying in my pin number and she says, "Yeah, I gave you a coupon discount, even though you wouldn't make a donation."

........."Excuse me?"

"I said, 'I gave you the coupon even though you wouldn't make a donation to the children.'"

I looked at her incredulously. Not only did she say it once, she repeated herself. I looked her straight in the eye and said, "I'm sorry (in a not at all sorry voice), but I seriously have $3 in my account, I am not in a position to make a $1 donation at this time."

And then she got all embarrassed and said, "Ohhhh I'm just kidding! Really, it's no skin off my nose if you don't donate, I was just kidding."

And normally, I would stumble all over myself to try to ease her embarrassment because it would be embarrassing for me, but come on. If it really was "no skin off her nose" (which is a saying I hate with a passion because whenever someone says it to me, all I can picture is flakes of dead skin coming off their nose) then why the heck would she have said anything in the first place? It is NONE of her business what I contribute to and why. That was just straight-up rude.

And I think she realized it, because she kept on giggling and saying that she was just kidding. Yeah, right. Hilarious.

Oh, rude people. So rude and yet, if it weren't for you, what would I write about?