Rudeness at the Gas Pump
Have I mentioned that I hate people? Not everyone mind you, just everyone I don't know. Seems most people I encounter are either rude or ignorant or have a little from column A and a little from column B.
Yesterday on the way home from Chapel Hill on I-40, I stopped at a gas station that had unleaded fuel advertised at $2.71 while pumps actually in Chapel Hill were priced at $2.91. I pulled up and saw that every pump was taken, and people were beginning to line up behind cars that were fueling. The closest pump to me was one outside pump, and because of the position of the car that was filling up and the location of my gas tank, I had to line up so that I was facing the car that was currently fueling.
Other spots opened up at pumps nearby, but I chose not to take them because people who were pumping would have had no exit because they were hemmed in on all sides by people who were in line. Of course, those pumps ended up getting taken away by people without the powers of observation, people who pulled up out of nowhere and skipped people who were in other lines and were perfectly capable of reversing and pulling into the currently available pump.
While I waited on the woman in front of me to get back from paying her gas and to start fueling, a car pulled up behind her car, so now both cars were facing me. This put me in the unfortunate position of being unable to get to the pump before the second car, since the first would have to drive off in my direction.
I should have gotten out and made sure that the second woman did indeed see that I was waiting in line, and was therefore next to have access to the pump, but I did not want to underestimate her own abilities and presume she was dumb enough to not see me through the first car's windshield, as I could clearly see her through it. I didn't want to anger this person by presuming she was stupid and then have her take the pump anyway, so I sat in the car and said nothing. Another car, a small Geo Tracker looking vehicle, pulls up behind the second lady, high enough to clearly see me and my car, three cars in front of her.
After waiting ten minutes, the first woman finally comes out and finishes fueling. I start easing up to the pump, but leave enough room for the first woman to pull out and leave. Sure enough, that second lady zooms up to the pump and takes my spot. I open my car door and step out, saying to the overweight woman who surely must not have made a mistake, as she could clearly see me waiting when she first pulled up, "Hey, you do realize you've just cut in front of me? I'm sorry, but I was waiting here first."
The woman sizes me up for a second, then breaks eye contact, looks away and says "I didn't see you," quite rudely, and turns her back on me to start pumping. I reply "Yes you did see me, and you just cut in line, I hope you know that."
Without looking back at me, she says "Too late to do anything about that now." My girlfriend Jennifer points out that at this point, if had it had been a mistake or even if it had not, the proper polite thing to do would have been to apologize and say something along the lines of "I'm sorry, I'll make sure you get in next."
But before I can continue to communicate with this whale of a jerk, the third woman, the one driving the Geo Tracker, steps out of her vehicle and calls out to me "I'm next!"
I'm not rude, but I'm not polite either when I curtly reply "No, you're not."
"Yes I AM, I just pulled around the whole gas station," she says, and then she gets back into her car. Well that's it. I can't stand by and passively allow people to skip me after I've been waiting fifteen minutes for gas. I get out of my cat, slam my door, march right past the fat cow who stole my spot in the first place, and go up to the woman in the Tracker. As I approach, she's shaking her head and saying things I can't understand because her window is up. She has huge Bono sunglasses on too, so I can't tell if she's making eye contact or not, but I'm pretty sure she isn't, just as Orca Lady avoided my eyes, a sign that they don't want to communicate, negotiate, or even acknowledge that they could have possibly been wrong.
I say to the glass, and I say "glass" because this was like having a conversation with a brick wall, not a person, "I'm sorry, but that woman in front of you skipped ME. I was here first." The whole time I'm speaking, she's looking straight ahead, shaking her head, mouthing words and making hand gestures that I interpret to mean "I just drove around the whole station, I was here first."
"I can't hear you through glass, would you mind lowering your window just a crack so we can actually talk?" More head shaking.
I try to use logic on her, but a tactic like that is lost when dealing with people of this caliber. "Was that lady here when you pulled up? Was that person in front of you, RIGHT HERE when you pulled up the first time?"
She shakes her head "yes" and continues to mouth soundless words. I continue.
"Well, I was here BE-FORE that lady ever got here, don't you understand? She skipped ME first, I was here before either of YOU, and I was waiting on the first person to get out. My pump is on the PASSENGER SIDE, so I CAN'T line up like you guys. I had to wait on the OTHER SIDE of the car, and I was here before YOU TWO."
But she won't have any of it. She won't have a civilized conversation about this. To her, all that matters is beating me to the pump. It's just GAS, lady. Apparently that means more than manners, more than being polite, more than being human. Yeah, I went there.
I keep trying to get my point across, that the person in front of her skipped me in the first place, but this woman just can't seem to acknowledge the possibility that I was here before any of them, and keeps mouthing "I'm next, I'm next," as if she's giving up arguing with me, something that she never even participated in really.
I'm sure I'm making some sort of scene, that everyone else pumping up can hear me talking loudly to get through the glass barrier, but this woman needs to know she's wrong. Rude people who intentionally do things like this need to know they're wrong. I don't care if I get loud, I don't care how it looks. People like that can't get away scott free. They need something to remind them that they are in the wrong, so maybe next time they will think twice when they pull a stunt like this. Next time they may actually skip a much angrier and much more violent person than myself. Then there would be trouble.
It took all the strength I had not to call the woman a b--ch through the glass, and even more strength not to tell her "It's taking all the strength I have not to call you a b--ch through the glass." I walked away and just let it happen. Orca Lady pulls away. Idiot Woman pulls up. I just stand there, hanging on to the driver's side door and watch her as she pumps. I wish now that I would have gone back up to talk to her now that she was out from behind her sound-proof barrier of lies.
Another car soon pulls up behind the tracker. See, this side of the pumps had three pumping stations. The very first was out of order, the second, in which Orca Lady waited to skip me, was only for diesel, and the third was the one Idiot Woman was now at. This person who just pulled up has the gas tank on the passenger side, like I do, so he reverses into the pump. Jennifer asks "Do you want me to stand and wait behind the car so this guy doesn't take it?"
I reply "No, I don't think anyone else can be IDIOTIC enough to not realize I'm here waiting before them," and believe me I do stress the word "idiotic" so Idiot Woman can hear me.
She soon finishes fueling, and I call out to her "Thank you and good bye."
Luckily, the man at the diesel pump has just made a mistake, thinking the pump was a normal unleaded and premium pump, which is what I'm entirely sure Orca Lady and Idiot Woman thought when they arrived at what appeared to be two open pumps. Instead of rectifying their mistake by getting in line, they decided to just skip me once they saw they had the advantageous position of being behind the fueling car instead of in front, as I was. The man at the diesel did not have time to enact such a plan.
So finally, after much angry waiting, I was able to fuel up for my trip back home. That incident came close to ruining my mood for the whole drive back to Charlotte, and it's people like those two women that really make me hate other people sometimes and turn me into a misanthrope. They displayed two of the qualities I dislike most in others: rudeness and ignorance. Arrogance is another one of those qualities, but that's a story for another day.
--Cbake
Yesterday on the way home from Chapel Hill on I-40, I stopped at a gas station that had unleaded fuel advertised at $2.71 while pumps actually in Chapel Hill were priced at $2.91. I pulled up and saw that every pump was taken, and people were beginning to line up behind cars that were fueling. The closest pump to me was one outside pump, and because of the position of the car that was filling up and the location of my gas tank, I had to line up so that I was facing the car that was currently fueling.
Other spots opened up at pumps nearby, but I chose not to take them because people who were pumping would have had no exit because they were hemmed in on all sides by people who were in line. Of course, those pumps ended up getting taken away by people without the powers of observation, people who pulled up out of nowhere and skipped people who were in other lines and were perfectly capable of reversing and pulling into the currently available pump.
While I waited on the woman in front of me to get back from paying her gas and to start fueling, a car pulled up behind her car, so now both cars were facing me. This put me in the unfortunate position of being unable to get to the pump before the second car, since the first would have to drive off in my direction.
I should have gotten out and made sure that the second woman did indeed see that I was waiting in line, and was therefore next to have access to the pump, but I did not want to underestimate her own abilities and presume she was dumb enough to not see me through the first car's windshield, as I could clearly see her through it. I didn't want to anger this person by presuming she was stupid and then have her take the pump anyway, so I sat in the car and said nothing. Another car, a small Geo Tracker looking vehicle, pulls up behind the second lady, high enough to clearly see me and my car, three cars in front of her.
After waiting ten minutes, the first woman finally comes out and finishes fueling. I start easing up to the pump, but leave enough room for the first woman to pull out and leave. Sure enough, that second lady zooms up to the pump and takes my spot. I open my car door and step out, saying to the overweight woman who surely must not have made a mistake, as she could clearly see me waiting when she first pulled up, "Hey, you do realize you've just cut in front of me? I'm sorry, but I was waiting here first."
The woman sizes me up for a second, then breaks eye contact, looks away and says "I didn't see you," quite rudely, and turns her back on me to start pumping. I reply "Yes you did see me, and you just cut in line, I hope you know that."
Without looking back at me, she says "Too late to do anything about that now." My girlfriend Jennifer points out that at this point, if had it had been a mistake or even if it had not, the proper polite thing to do would have been to apologize and say something along the lines of "I'm sorry, I'll make sure you get in next."
But before I can continue to communicate with this whale of a jerk, the third woman, the one driving the Geo Tracker, steps out of her vehicle and calls out to me "I'm next!"
I'm not rude, but I'm not polite either when I curtly reply "No, you're not."
"Yes I AM, I just pulled around the whole gas station," she says, and then she gets back into her car. Well that's it. I can't stand by and passively allow people to skip me after I've been waiting fifteen minutes for gas. I get out of my cat, slam my door, march right past the fat cow who stole my spot in the first place, and go up to the woman in the Tracker. As I approach, she's shaking her head and saying things I can't understand because her window is up. She has huge Bono sunglasses on too, so I can't tell if she's making eye contact or not, but I'm pretty sure she isn't, just as Orca Lady avoided my eyes, a sign that they don't want to communicate, negotiate, or even acknowledge that they could have possibly been wrong.
I say to the glass, and I say "glass" because this was like having a conversation with a brick wall, not a person, "I'm sorry, but that woman in front of you skipped ME. I was here first." The whole time I'm speaking, she's looking straight ahead, shaking her head, mouthing words and making hand gestures that I interpret to mean "I just drove around the whole station, I was here first."
"I can't hear you through glass, would you mind lowering your window just a crack so we can actually talk?" More head shaking.
I try to use logic on her, but a tactic like that is lost when dealing with people of this caliber. "Was that lady here when you pulled up? Was that person in front of you, RIGHT HERE when you pulled up the first time?"
She shakes her head "yes" and continues to mouth soundless words. I continue.
"Well, I was here BE-FORE that lady ever got here, don't you understand? She skipped ME first, I was here before either of YOU, and I was waiting on the first person to get out. My pump is on the PASSENGER SIDE, so I CAN'T line up like you guys. I had to wait on the OTHER SIDE of the car, and I was here before YOU TWO."
But she won't have any of it. She won't have a civilized conversation about this. To her, all that matters is beating me to the pump. It's just GAS, lady. Apparently that means more than manners, more than being polite, more than being human. Yeah, I went there.
I keep trying to get my point across, that the person in front of her skipped me in the first place, but this woman just can't seem to acknowledge the possibility that I was here before any of them, and keeps mouthing "I'm next, I'm next," as if she's giving up arguing with me, something that she never even participated in really.
I'm sure I'm making some sort of scene, that everyone else pumping up can hear me talking loudly to get through the glass barrier, but this woman needs to know she's wrong. Rude people who intentionally do things like this need to know they're wrong. I don't care if I get loud, I don't care how it looks. People like that can't get away scott free. They need something to remind them that they are in the wrong, so maybe next time they will think twice when they pull a stunt like this. Next time they may actually skip a much angrier and much more violent person than myself. Then there would be trouble.
It took all the strength I had not to call the woman a b--ch through the glass, and even more strength not to tell her "It's taking all the strength I have not to call you a b--ch through the glass." I walked away and just let it happen. Orca Lady pulls away. Idiot Woman pulls up. I just stand there, hanging on to the driver's side door and watch her as she pumps. I wish now that I would have gone back up to talk to her now that she was out from behind her sound-proof barrier of lies.
Another car soon pulls up behind the tracker. See, this side of the pumps had three pumping stations. The very first was out of order, the second, in which Orca Lady waited to skip me, was only for diesel, and the third was the one Idiot Woman was now at. This person who just pulled up has the gas tank on the passenger side, like I do, so he reverses into the pump. Jennifer asks "Do you want me to stand and wait behind the car so this guy doesn't take it?"
I reply "No, I don't think anyone else can be IDIOTIC enough to not realize I'm here waiting before them," and believe me I do stress the word "idiotic" so Idiot Woman can hear me.
She soon finishes fueling, and I call out to her "Thank you and good bye."
Luckily, the man at the diesel pump has just made a mistake, thinking the pump was a normal unleaded and premium pump, which is what I'm entirely sure Orca Lady and Idiot Woman thought when they arrived at what appeared to be two open pumps. Instead of rectifying their mistake by getting in line, they decided to just skip me once they saw they had the advantageous position of being behind the fueling car instead of in front, as I was. The man at the diesel did not have time to enact such a plan.
So finally, after much angry waiting, I was able to fuel up for my trip back home. That incident came close to ruining my mood for the whole drive back to Charlotte, and it's people like those two women that really make me hate other people sometimes and turn me into a misanthrope. They displayed two of the qualities I dislike most in others: rudeness and ignorance. Arrogance is another one of those qualities, but that's a story for another day.
--Cbake
posted by Cbake at 1:41 PM
1 Comments:
Its agism my friend - if you had been 15 years older, they never would have said a word. I don't hate people, I find I just have a hard time with anyone between the ages of 35 and 50. (Not all of them - just most) They are always right, and you as their younger counter part should always yield in all situations. (My mom says I should extend the ages to 56 or so) They're at that age where they apend all their time arguing with their kids and exerting their power over them, so they assume that everyone else under the age of 30 is theirs to control too. The main problem is, no one of our age can legitmately argue with an "adult" in public or in private without it being "rude" or "immature". It sucks. But I know that once I hit that "magic age" I'm going to be rude, and demand respect - because I'll deserve it then - thus propogating the vicious cycle for one more generation.
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