Manners

Two incidents happened this past week that have really gotten under my skin. Granted, we have been dealing with amounts of snow that this city and most of its inhabitants are not accustomed to, and most of us are on edge. But that is no excuse for being rude.

In the grocery store on Tuesday morning (between storms) I was in line when the lady in the line next to me dropped her bottle of vegetable oil, breaking the cap and causing a slow leak.  I watched her pick it up, examine it, saw it leaking, and proceeded to leave it on the display of paper towels, rather than give it to the cashier.   So I picked it up from there, and I gave it to the cashier.  The woman's husband saw me and told me, "No - that one's leaking."  I thank GOD for giving me restraint at that moment.  Rather than throw it at him (which I SO wanted to do and that would have been SO satisfying), I snapped instead, "Yeah, and I'm giving it to the cashier so it doesn't leak all over the place."

Now, I am guilty of leaving unwanted items in the wrong place, but not when something is leaking all over the place, and not when I'm three feet away from a store employee who could do something about it.

Yesterday, a friend and I took our sons to the movies.  At the snack bar, I got pretzel bites that came with a side of cheese sauce.  As I was headed toward the theater, a woman who was paying NO attention to where she was going walked right into me, causing cheese sauce to spill on the floor and down the front of my coat, and sending pretzel nuggets flying.  I was pretty shocked, and she said "oh...sorry..." and kept right on to get in line for whatever she wanted.   As my friend and I bitched (loudly) about her, and were cleaning up the cheese sauce from me and the floor, rude woman came back and offered to buy me another (which I accepted), and my friend mentioned that she could also help us clean up (which she did not).

Then, to top it all off, as I stood waiting for my new order, the server came over to me to let me know my new order would be ready soon, and she'd bring it to me.  The woman who ran into me has disappeared, and didn't even have the courage to bring the replaced order to me herself.  So not only was she rude, but a coward too.

Is it too much to ask for a little more politeness these days?  Not everyone has to smile, or say hello.  Or be nice to everyone all the time.  But to be a little less rude would be nice.