...and the countdown is on! One last tale.

Today is Saturday, August 27, and I begin my final semester of nursing school on Monday, August 29, at 9 a.m. So the way I see it, I have roughly 38 more hours of freedom. Ha ha - or, one could say, I am 38 hours away from the "beginning of the end" of years of hard work! I can't wait to be finished and I am really looking forward to this semester.

So, seeing how I only have two more weeks to work at my coffee shop job, I'll be out of material for awhile. I do have one decent story to tell that might just get some yucks, though:

We recently catered a luncheon for a tent of judges at a dog show. Whether you know it or not, people who show dogs take dogs, dog paraphernalia, and random things like pooper scoopers very seriously. Don't believe me? Watch Best In Show. Unless you're my husband, you'll find this movie very funny. Anyway, back to my story. I'm working "under the tent," serving a continental breakfast to the show judges and other workers. I had put up the chalkboard announcing the choices for lunch (which, if I remember correctly, included lemon pepper chicken over angel hair, pasta primavera, chicken salad sandwiches, tossed salad, and beef vegetable soup). One of the event photographers approached the table, and as I offered him coffee, he said, "Don't you people have any calcium-fortified orange juice?"

I looked at him blankly. "Uhh, no. In fact, we don't have any juice at all. [DO YOU SEE ANY JUICE HERE?!] We have coffee, though... or you can get an orange juice out of the event coolers over there." (I point.)
"Nah, I want calcium. Fortified. Orange Juice."
"Well, I'm sorry; we don't have any of that."
With disgust: "Well. What you got for lunch? Three choices? All you got's three?"
"I think there are quite a few choices up there. Don't any of those sound good to you?" I say.
"Beef vegetable?! Does your beef vegetable actually have any vegetables in it?"

Huh?

"Well, yes, that's what makes it beef vegetable soup..." I try to smile that one off.
"No kidding, I know THAT. I mean, does it have more than just potatoes, onions, carrots, and celery?"
Thinking that was a rather wide variety of vegetables, I say, "You know, I honestly don't know what kind of vegetables are in it. If you want to walk over to our shake and smoothie stand, you can ask the cook who prepared it. He's right over there."
"Oh, so you don't know anything. You're just the face of the organization."
Unreal. Who IS this guy?! "That's right, I'm just the face. And hopefully you found my face acceptable." Ha ha ha, right?
"Ah well, it's OK I guess." AS HE WALKS AWAY.

You've got to be kidding me! What a jerk! And after all of that, guess what the guy ate for lunch? Tuna fish! Out of his own pocket! Later in the day, when I asked him what he had chosen for lunch, he said, "Ah, I ate my own tuna. I always keep a can of it with me. You see, once I was at this show when...." blah blah blah. The guy proceeded to tell me about how he'd been at an event and had eaten bad food, got diarrhea, ended up in the port-a-john just when they were announcing Best In Show, and realized that there was no toilet paper to be found. OK, sick. I don't care to hear all of that. But you know what? If you had no intentions of even tasting our food, why the heck give me all the trouble of asking what's in it?

Two more weeks of customer service (a.k.a. assertiveness training)...