Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Onward and At An Undetermined Angle

Today I made a small scene at the Panera Bread near Northern BLVD in Long Island city. I don't know if any of you have spent much time in this particular area of Queens but it is seriously depressing. All car dealerships and the stench of dying dreams. This was my last day off before starting a new job and I had just been to a movie. I didn't end up having time to buy snacks because there was a group of teenagers buying tickets in front of me and they couldn't seem to figure out how money works. It was a 1:25 Matinee and I hadn't eaten lunch so by the time I got out I was really hungry. Panera Bread was the first thing I found.

I ordered a panini, gave them my name, and sat at the nearest open table to read Game of Thrones while I waited. They seemed to have a loud speaker so I was confident that I would know when my food was ready. I went over to the counter to check every so often and saw nothing that resembled my order so I decided to just sit down and wait for my name. My name was never called, and after some amount of time I politely inquired if perhaps they had heard my name wrong and possibly given my sandwich to the wrong person. "For Emma? Yeah we put that out a WHILE ago" was the very 'tude heavy response from the assembly line. "Sorry miss", said the counter boy, "we'll make you another". "NO," I said in a shaky voice which exposed my overly emotional response to the situation, "I DON'T WANT IT ANYMORE. I JUST WANT MY MONEY BACK."

I can't explain why this was my response at this moment. I knew that these are low paid employees who have no incentive to do their jobs particularly well. I knew that going all bitchface on everyone was not going to do anything but make me feel like an asshole later on. I stopped for a moment and considered rescinding my request, but instead what I said was "I just didn't realize that there would be NO effort made to get that message out." I waived my arms around like a crazy person while I said it. I cried a little. It was not good. The bewildered counter attendant gave me my $10 back and I left.

So that's what I did today. I might be a little stressed out about being unemployed.

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