We all scream for ice cream....
2005-08-10, 11:40 p.m.

Well, they've opened a Bruster's down the road from me so the girl & I went to check it out. There was a Bruster's not too far from us in GA, but we never went because it was always too crowded. Even in the dead of winter, with snow on the ground. And it took a lot for those Georgians to get out with snow on the ground. So we get to Bruster's and it was too crowded. But we stayed anyways because what the heck else were we going to do? Plus, I really wanted some freakin' ice cream, and Coldstone Creamery is 15 minutes away as opposed to the five minutes away Bruster's is. They had four lines open AND a drive-thru. The kids working inside looked absolutely clueless. There were little signs in the windows with some cutesie saying. I forget exactly what it said, but it was basically, "Yeah, we know we suck at this, but give us a break - it's probably the first time any of us have ever worked a day in our lives."

So I'm in line, chatting w/ Amanda, but I keep getting distracted by this woman a few places in line ahead of me. She's bitching. And bitching. And bitching some more. And it's making me crazy. She's bitching about how long it's taking, and how the last time she was here they messed up her order, and how they gave her sister the wrong ice cream one time or some crap like that. And blah, blah, blah on and on and on. I mean, other people were grumbling, but this woman just wouldn't shut up.

Now, I'm excellent at tuning people out. I work at a high school, for crying out loud, I can ignore a lot. Normally I would have just ignored this chick. But for some reason she was getting to me. I just wanted to enjoy the day and eat some ice cream. I didn't want to sit in line and hear this woman bitching. I must have made some noise of disgust, because Amanda said, "What's wrong?" I said - loudly, "Nothing, I just can't stand to hear people griping for no reason. It's a beautiful, sunny day, and if the worse thing you can find to complain about is that a hard-working teenager is taking too long to make your ICE CREAM, than you should get down on your knees and thank God you live in America."

I normally don't think out loud like that, but give me a break. I couldn't take it any more. Anyways, it shut her up, thank goodness. So it's finally our turn. We order. We get our ice cream. It looks like crap, but it takes like heaven so I was pretty happy. I felt so bad for the poor harried looking girl and I was still pissed at the master bitcher who had probably given her hell, so I asked her if she was allowed to receive tips. The look she gave me was priceless, so I figured she'd probably been given shit all day. She said, in wide-eyed wonder, "Yes!" So I told her to keep the change. It's pretty bad when $2.75 makes someone grin hugely & thank you profusely. I really hate mean people.

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