People As We Know Them

Well, today was muggy but beautiful. I found myself washing trays this morning and thinking, "I am not even using 10% of my brain capacity doing this." So I began talking with myself, to get some cerebral juices flowing. Incidentally I had quite the conversation with myself, but at one point I got stuck because I couldn't think of what I wanted to say. I was trying to imagine myself as a 90 year old woman, and I was wondering if I would have lost my mind by then. Then I added (to clarify for myself),

"But this is only metaphorically speaking... Is it metaphorical? No... That's not the word I want. What's that one word? I used to say it all the time..." It bugged me and bugged me, until I waylaid one of my managers and he helped me out.

"Hypothetically speaking."

"Thank you so much! Hypothetically speaking."

He looked at me oddly and I continued to humbly wipe trays. Have you ever had that happen to you? Where you just...can't...remember? Or worse - a song is going through your head and you keep humming it and you can't figure out where it's from. That's pretty much the worst thing that can happen to you, because it's easy to explain a word that you can't think of, but it's a lot more humbling to try to hum the song swimming around in your head (especially if you get all the lyrics wrong, and the person just looks at you, like, "O-kay....") I hate that when someone looks at me like I'm wierd. It really is interesting to me, though, how some of the wierdest people in the world consider everybody else wierd. (Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me-lol.)

Speaking of forgetfulness, my whole family has been asking each other all day, "So, have you heard the news about Brett Favre? You know... how he had is officially last day on Lambeau Field today." Pretty sure I heard that on the radio like twice, and then my mom told me about it as she read it on the internet, and then my dad just asked my mom if she heard the news. What's funnier yet, is that each time I heard it "announced" it was as though each person "announcing it" had breaking news and they were the first to share it. "Did you know..." People make me laugh (which means I have an ongoing affair of amusement with myself).

Did you know that the study of people is called 'anthropology'? I knew that, I just thought I would make sure you did. I should major in 'anthropology' instead of 'journalism'. It's just that I find both the study of people and their effect on the world so interesting, I can't help but write about both. It's not that I'm a young, fresh, wet-behind-the-ears intern who is exhaustingly excited about intricate political affairs. No. I am a person who happens to be young and happens to be interested in the things going on around me. If I happen to live in America, and my country happens to be winning a war in a foreign country, well, then I find that interesting. And... if my coworker begins complaining about a customer, or my mom confesses to me how many chips she ate in one day, well, that's interesting too. (Granted, it get's a little boring if someone talks about how 'good' so and so is. That doesn't interest me. Give me blood, betrayal, and sarcasm any day.)

I think it was yesterday that I was writing something down about myself that was horribly conceited (and I quote), "I marvel that I can both observe and interact with my fellow man so well". That's like ASKING to get jinxed. And, yes, today I was completely uninterested in conversing with customer after customer, saying the same old thing to each uninterested person.

ME: "Hi!" (Said brightly for emphasis), "How you doing?" (Joey style)

THEM: "Yeah, I'm doing good, good. Real good. And you?" (Shutup, and give me my food all ready)

ME: "Well, I'm doing well, thank you. It's a beautiful day!"

THEM: (silence)

ME: "Well, your sandwich will be out in a little bit, but until then you can decide what you would like on your sandwich. Did you know whether you would like to eat here or to go?"

THEM: "Yeah, to go. I'll take (and the rambling ensues)."

See, I've discovered that if I try to save time and say the exact same thing to every customer, not every customer responds the same. You may say that all they want is their sandwich, but that is rarely true. People (myself included) really do want to be treated like they matter. Thus, I must prove my individual ability to make every customers' sandwich... over, and over, and over, and over again. So, I should probably not do what I did today - and totally bomb the whole "I care about you, what can I get for you" customer service thing.

I did see one of my old metivante customers today. That was really pleasant! He was actually nice, AND he asked how I was doing! I had to hurry and go put trays away, but I felt all warm and skippy when I walked. It's really nice to feel loved and cared about.

There. That's my people study. And I conclude that if everybody is just like me, well, they honestly just want people to treat them with respect, treat them with understanding, treat them with something other than a company line, and treat them with love.

Thus, a sandwich made with love still applies. Stop looking at me like I'm wierd.

I hate that, remember?

A Parade of Faces

You know, it’s interesting what you can see when you are looking. I got off work early today due to the lackage of holiday sandwich eaters. In other words, work was excruciatingly slow. My protests were quite weak when my manager asked me if I’d like to get off work early. In all truth, I wanted to join my little family for a little parade in my sister and brother-in-laws little neighborhood. This is because I haven’t been to a parade in years (the last time I went I had a little bucket and bobbed around looking for candy on the street).

I should add here that parades are the only time when it is socially acceptable to eat things off the road.

Another reason why I like Fourth of July parades is because the streets are filled with people that consider it cool to wear red, white, and blue. For the little bit of time I was at work today, I was severely disheartened by those who wore green, and other completely unpatriotic colors. I made sure I wore my blue Pot Belly shirt and a little red apron and I looked down my nose at people who didn’t. Today is the only day out of the 365.25 days in the year that I allow myself to judge.

Another nice thing about parads is that people freely yell, “Happy Fourth of July!” and have big smiles on their face that one can’t help smiling back at. I tried that at work. Know what I got in return?

“Yeah, I’d like lettuce, mayo, and a little hot peppers on that.”

Then if I had the guts to try again with, “Have any exciting plans for today?”

My customer would add dismissively, “I’ll take that to go.”

Wow. Some plans. Unfortunately for them, customers like that bring out the sarcasm in me. I attempted to bring out their patriotic spirit, and well, it was deemed non-existent. There were a couple gems in the bunch, but mostly I felt like the only fiercely patriotic person there. Thus is why the parade was cute and exciting for me. I ended up getting lots of candy thrown my way because I happened to sit in a children-free zone. I must have looked youthful as I took the peoples‘ pictures, because I often had to duck from 80 mph tootsie rolls thrown at me.

Actually, I don’t know if you guys know this, but the Declaration of Independence was written and signed on July 2nd, and was only copied on July 4th. This wasn’t announced until July 6th. That’s just an interesting fact for you.

No Fourth of July article is complete without patriotic pictures (the ones I took today). That’s a fact. So I, the neutral party, observed all the different faces of patriotism at the parade I attended. And, I can say without bias that the pictures capture the essence of patriotism. The faces you are about to see, are characters that represent a pride in the land I live in.
The pictured essence represents diversity; young and old, politician and farmer, suburban wife and Harley girlfriend, the child throwing candy and the child collecting candy, the emasculated Scottish men and the uniformed firemen, the woman sprawled out in the lawn chair with a coke and the woman reliving the glory days of twirling a baton for the band…. This represents all of us Americans, leading different lives but uniting all down the blocks of little neighborhoods across the country to celebrate this fourth of July.