How To Ruin Someone's Day

Gage and the iron rod that was blasted
through his skull.

Yesterday my day was ruined when I didn't get my senior discount at a grocery store that shall remain nameless so I don't get any more tweets from the Employee Retribution Department - and it "ruined my day." That's what I told my husband, anyway, and proceeded to do some serious moping because what is the point of getting old if you don't reap some minor benefit of sixty cents off or something.

Anyway.

My husband said, "Don't let this ruin your day." I pouted more. "Well, only let it ruin your day for a little bit," he amended. "Like an hour or two?" I bargained. And really, if I hadn't embarked an hour later on nattering about my reading of an article about Phineas Gage, my ruined day would have continued with sullen silences and meaningful sighs, even in the face of BBC Radio Comedy and All the Jigsaws In the World.

So, if I don't want the careless clerk tracked down and lectured/humiliated/docked/fired, then how do I intend to remedy this situation? Well, by golly, next time I will repeat my demand for the senior discount right there at the till even if there is a line behind me. If I want that discount so badly, I will just have to keep insisting on it, despite the embarrassment entailed and the annoyance of people behind me. If the company does anything, it should be to tell everyone how this seemingly minuscule slight causes pain and suffering all out of logical proportion. I mean, look at Phineas Gage! His iron rod was blasted through his skull one day and did he whine about it? Did it ruin his day? Well, it may have ruined that day. And maybe a few after that ...

Most of my job is customer service (that which isn't playing with puppets, singing songs, and making simple crafts with children), and I have to rain on someone's parade every day. I get no pleasure out of telling people they can't have a laptop because they don't have a child with them. It would make my work life easier and more pleasant if I could just hand out the laptops willy-nilly without having to check to see they 1) have a child with them, 2) have a clean library account, and 3) don't run off with it. But it does give me pleasure to find a book for someone and put it right in their hands in a timely manner. I don't give up after looking for one minute or pausing to answer someone's question. I will stick with it until I have either found something or determined that what the patron was looking for just plain isn't there. I would be mortified to discover I had done less.

So, unnamed clerk, you are forgiven. I'm sort of over it. Some day when you look in the mirror and see your parent's face looking back at you and you reel in horror, that free coffee (ew!) for being over 55 or sales tax forgiveness of 1% for being over 85 may be all there is to make you feel better and you'll understand.

By the way, Sam Kean's book, The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons sounds delightful!