Have you ever had one of those moments where someone says something to you or does something, something so ridiculous, that you are dumbfounded and have absolutely no response? I'm pretty quick with one liners and snappy comebacks. I speak clearly and don't have problems communicating (except for when I have pregnancy brain relapses, luckily they are few and far between now). But I admit that there have been times that I was at a complete loss for words. It's not that my mind can't process something quickly enough to respond. I just can't decide which would be the best way to respond.
I'll give you a couple examples...
* It was about a week after I had Ryan. I was home but wasn't allowed to drive and still had my staples in. Mom and I put the kids in the car to head to the grocery store. From our house in Abacoa it was a couple small back roads and a roundabout to get there no major roads. Obviously at the roundabout there is no stop sign but when merging you have to stop if there is a car already there, common sense right? It was kinda busy so there was a small line to merge, 3 cars, we were the 3rd. As we get to the front we also have to break and as we are waiting for the car to pass so we can go...Bam!...we get rear ended. There are no hidden areas at this roundabout you can see whats going on for a half a mile before you get there. Also let me remind you that Ryan was a week old and in the car and I could still barely walk and had staples in my stomach.
The lady that hit us didn't get out of her car, heck she didn't even put it in park! Mom got out and walked back to her car. The lady was on her phone searching around in her console for pen and paper. When mom got there the lady barely even looked at her. Mom goes through the whole you realize you just hit me, didn't you see I was stopped thing and the lady is still talking on her phone writing something down. So mom tells her about me and Ryan and she needs to pay attention and we could have gotten seriously hurt. No joke the lady finally responds "Yeah, but this is a really important phone call". That was it, no 'Hold on a moment, let me call you back' or 'Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry'. She rear ends a newborn and a recovering surgery patient and she wants a free pass because she had an important phone call!
Other than smacking her and calling her a dumb b!#ch, how do you respond to that?
Luckily everyone and everything was ok so we just got back in the car and left but seriously we were dumbfounded.
* It was a few years ago when I started making and using my own reusable shopping bags. It was still a pretty new thing in most of the grocery stores around here and the baggers would look at me and my bags like I had left my antenna up. I'm sure you know how wonderful baggers are at their job anyway. I used to work at Publix and as with everything else in this world you have to sit and watch a video on how to properly bag groceries. I think they all fell asleep. At least 10 items in one bag people! I have watched them put 3 different packages of meat in 3 different bags and then turn around and pile so many cans into one bag that they double bag it. Come on! What is so hard about a few cans, a couple boxes and a loaf of bread on top?!?! Anyway...
I switch over to reusable bags, they are super sturdy and can carry a lot more stuff, of course best of all, they are reusable (are you catching onto that yet? :) The baggers still try to use the store bags, I actually had one guy put my bags into a plastic bag and stick them in my cart...huh? I prefer to bag my own stuff whenever possible but over the years they have gotten better and I don't end my shopping experiences ticked off and re-bagging everything at my car anymore. But this one bagger will forever be at the top of my list. I shopped late so it was a high school age kid that was bagging for me. I had plenty of bags with me and was still in the routine of telling them "I don't need the milk in a bag and I don't want the meat in plastic. Put as much as you can into each bag, they are strong." (just don't squish anything, please) I don't know if I didn't catch the kid in time or if he didn't hear me but he started putting meat in a plastic bag so I caught him mid-bag asking him to use my bags. He kept putting it in the plastic and then grabbed the plastic bag and stuck it in one of my bags. So I took it out and handed him the plastic bag and said "I don't need the plastic bag, there is no point in wasting it" He stares at me for a split second before taking the bag and then said "What, you don't like to recycle?" ...Me, Dumbfounded...
I had no clue how to respond. I was thinking well at least he has recycling on his mind but have kids had recycling so engrained into their heads that they can't even grasp the concept of not being wasteful. I have seen people ask for a bag at the checkout counter for a pack of gum. Take the gum out of the bag while they leave the store and then throw the bag away right outside the store. They asked for the bag!!! Why? Are there people so determined to be dirty and wasteful that they can't pass up the chance to throw away a plastic bag?
* I saw a garbage truck driving down the road today, within a half a mile I watched 6 plastic bottle and 2 newspapers fly off the side of truck (the recyclable material section) because there was no cover on the section. So if you recycle just know that there are trucks out there littering for you. It's things like this that sometimes make me think 'what is the point?' For every one of those bottles there was probably 5 more that didn't even make it to a recycling bin. (I have no studies or research I have just observed how wasteful people can be, and made a random guess) Again, all I can do is shake my head, I'm speechless.
* I dropped AJ off at school one day and as I was leaving campus a driver headed towards me pulled half of their car into my lane, so that they were driving straight for me and started honking at me. I couldn't go anywhere since there was a guard rail and a canal to my right. The only thing I could do was slow down. The driver stopped honking just long enough to throw a few hand gestures my way, get in her lane and turn down an aisle to park. I was too shocked to even be puzzled, let alone think about following her and asking what in the hell she thought I had done to her. So I just kept driving and went home. I guess she was having a bad day.
* This last one had me more mad then speechless. I was driving home another day from taking AJ to school. At a stop light I glanced to the car next to me. The driver was sitting so far back I'm surprised he could reach the pedals or see over the steering wheel. He had a cigarette in one hand, hanging out the window. With his other hand I watched him reach over to the passenger seat and grab a girl by the arm and sit her down on the seat, which was leaned back just as much as his. The girl was no more than 2 years old! There was a car seat in the backseat but here she was climbing and bouncing around in the front seat! I was so mad. He was actually heading the same way I was and I saw him turn into the daycare that is right down the street from mom's house. I got home, exclaimed to mom for a minute how stupid and careless people can be and then called the daycare. Luckily the person I talked to was just as upset as I was and asked for a description of the car and the people so that she could say something. I really hope she did. At least in that situation I could process and take action later, since it really needed to be corrected.
So, in these sorts of situations I am torn between calling the person an idiot, shooting out one of my sarcastic responses, repeating what I said and hoping they figure out what an idiot they are, explaining myself and telling them why their comment wasn't the most intelligent thing they could have said, etc. I am also checking myself and reminding myself that I need to be polite, no name calling, cursing or getting snippy even if they were snide to me. Then there is the little bit of me that just wants to smack them across the face for being a moron or treating me like I'm a moron. I have never done this but there are times it would be so rewarding.
It just never fails to amaze me how little people think nowadays.
- Today I am thankful for a healthy little girl then I had yesterday -
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