impatient

On Monday I needed to stop by the post office over lunch. I have done this before, so I know that I should expect a crowd. I don't like it, but it isn't something worth griping about.

When I got to the post office, I noticed that I was supposed to take a number to be served. This sort of made sense, but it was the first time I had seen this in a post office. The waiting time was around fifteen minutes.

Every couple of minutes one of the cashiers would call a number, and another one if no one responded to the previous number. Not long before my turn to the cashier someone complained that he had been skipped. A lady behind the counter told the man that she was not currently on a register so the next available cashier could take care of him. I didn't see it because I was across the room but the rumblings in line were that the guy got upset and left in a huff. I just don't understand this.

Why do people expect the world to revolve around them? I understand getting frustrated. I don't like waiting for my turn in line either. If I hadn't been paying attention when my number was called, though, I would accept that as my own fault.

Golden and I witnessed a similar, but perhaps more stupid, incident a couple of years ago. It was Christmas Eve and we were stuck in Philadelphia International Airport. The baggage handlers for US Airways had staged a sick out, so a ton of people were stuck in Philadelphia and Charlotte. Almost everyone who was stuck understood that there was nothing that could be done and that the people at the US Airways counter could do nothing about it. Almost everyone swapped stories and tried to make the best of a bad situation. Not absolutely everyone, though.

While we were waiting for a plane that was supposed to take off at 6:30PM to get its necessary crew at 7:30, then 8:30, everyone was getting a little irritable. Most of the people had been there since the morning, and it was Christmas Eve. One person took the cake, though.

This lady was traveling with what I assume were her three daughters. She was probably in her mid forties and her daughters were probably ten to eighteen in age. Slowly throughout our wait, the mother got more and more antsy, and she went over to talk not-so-nicely with the man at the desk at our gate multiple times. The guy couldn't do anything, so he just tried to mollify her the best he could. Finally, the woman told the guy at the counter to forget it. She and her daughters weren't going to get on the plane. She'd just give up her seats. I think she thought she won a moral victory. Her daughters were visibly unhappy with her decision, though.

A half hour later, an intercom announcement stated that the plane would be boarding shortly. The last I saw of the woman, she was trying unsuccessfully to get her seats back. I often wonder how that incident worked itself out. I'm sure the woman learned a valuable lesson about patience and vowed to be a more tolerant person in the future. Or not.