I have been filling my time on the weekends picking up some extra cash being a barista at the coffee shop where I held my first real job from the age of 16 to 18. I am greatful for the owner giving me these hours and I enjoy being there in the bustling (well, when it is not slow) atmosphere of a coffee shop. There is light or classic rock on the radio and that lovely scent of coffee lingering on the air. My favorite and least favorite part of the position is the people that come in.
Some of them are friendly and we are on a first name basis, some even remembered me even after so long (even if I may not have remembered them, making for a rather awkward conversation where I had to pretend to remember that particular person), and some are like the Hanging Chad Lady, as she has officially been dubbed.
I think that something that should not ever be brought up in a 5 minute conversation with a bartista just trying to get through the day is politics. Even worse, possibly, as this lady did, is bringing up politics from a good long time ago. When I punched her frequent coffee buyer card, the piece of paper did not fall out all of the way and she said "gotta hate those hanging chads huh!" and I agreed that yes, they were quite annoying, and then bid her have a nice day and went off to make her sandwich. She, however, was not finished with her conversation and came over to the sandwich area to continue talking with me, much to my, um... pleasure...
"You must be WAY too young to know what hanging chads are, I guess," she began. I just smiled at her and told her I knew what they were. "Let me tell you about them", she continued, clearly ignoring my last statement. "Hanging chads are from the presidential election in 2000 between two men named Al Gore and George Bush", she said. I wanted it to end right there so I tried to speed up the sandwich making process. She had not only entered into a subject matter that I really did not want to get into ever, but she also severely insulted my intelligence and clearly thought I was around 12 years old, which is actually about how old I was when the election to which she was referring happened. She then said something to this effect: "you see, in Florida, that happened to a bunch of the ballots and then all went to hell because it was an inaccurate count and Bush won". She sounded so angry, and I just wanted to punch her in the face for assuming that I did not know who Bush and Gore are, and also tell her to get over it because that was 11 years ago. Dwelling on something for 11 years is a bit much.
I said "hm, yes" and handed her the sandwich and she exited the shop and my life, hopefully forever.
Some of them are friendly and we are on a first name basis, some even remembered me even after so long (even if I may not have remembered them, making for a rather awkward conversation where I had to pretend to remember that particular person), and some are like the Hanging Chad Lady, as she has officially been dubbed.
I think that something that should not ever be brought up in a 5 minute conversation with a bartista just trying to get through the day is politics. Even worse, possibly, as this lady did, is bringing up politics from a good long time ago. When I punched her frequent coffee buyer card, the piece of paper did not fall out all of the way and she said "gotta hate those hanging chads huh!" and I agreed that yes, they were quite annoying, and then bid her have a nice day and went off to make her sandwich. She, however, was not finished with her conversation and came over to the sandwich area to continue talking with me, much to my, um... pleasure...
"You must be WAY too young to know what hanging chads are, I guess," she began. I just smiled at her and told her I knew what they were. "Let me tell you about them", she continued, clearly ignoring my last statement. "Hanging chads are from the presidential election in 2000 between two men named Al Gore and George Bush", she said. I wanted it to end right there so I tried to speed up the sandwich making process. She had not only entered into a subject matter that I really did not want to get into ever, but she also severely insulted my intelligence and clearly thought I was around 12 years old, which is actually about how old I was when the election to which she was referring happened. She then said something to this effect: "you see, in Florida, that happened to a bunch of the ballots and then all went to hell because it was an inaccurate count and Bush won". She sounded so angry, and I just wanted to punch her in the face for assuming that I did not know who Bush and Gore are, and also tell her to get over it because that was 11 years ago. Dwelling on something for 11 years is a bit much.
I said "hm, yes" and handed her the sandwich and she exited the shop and my life, hopefully forever.
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