Things I'm boycotting - part 5*

*And I promise this is the last one.

Mean people.

In fact, I'm gonna start right now. I'm not even gonna go off on mean people. Acknowledging that they exist gives them some kind of power, and I don't want to give them the pleasure of knowing that we are talking about them.

Instead, howsabout a story of a truly nice person?

So the other day, we were having a bad one. Had to do with one of the mean people that I've already decided not to talk about. So after a lot of crap we turned around and realized it was pretty late and we hadn't had dinner. Too late to eat out and we were both too tired to cook anything.

So I headed out the door to the local fast food joint. In a bad mood, frankly. I head inside because they always fuck you at the drive thru. There is one other person ordering. A woman about my age. She has two teenaged girls with her. It takes me a second, but I soon realize that there is something...off about her. She's mentally handicapped. I don't know if the girls are hers or if they are watching her, but she is definitely ready for the Special Olympics. And she can't find her debit card.

Great! Not only am I in a bad mood, but now I am gonna have to wait because Rainwoman over there can't find her fucking debit card!

Then she starts to freak out. Bad.

She thinks she may have left her card at home, and she is hitting herself in the head calling herself "stupid" over and over again. The girls try to help, but she is having none of it. I quickly glance at the bill and see it is only around $15 bucks, so I take a $20 out of my pocket to slide over to one of the girls.

But before I could do it, this incredible 19 year-old "manager" came out and talked her down. He calmly asked her what the problem was. He told her he leaves his card at home all the time and it is such a hassle. Then he tells her to write down her name and her phone number and she can pay for her meal the next time she comes in. She cried and told him that she doesn't drive and she wouldn't be able to get there for a few days. He told her that it could be the next day, the next week or the next month. Didn't matter, because he trusted her to come back. And he did this all with such a sincere honesty and calmness that it actually changed my mood.

A fucking 19 year-old working at a fast food place. Can you believe that? The way he talked that woman down was simply amazing. I gave him a thumbs-up after he was done with her and he just smiled and nodded. Doing his job.

That's a special kid right there. Good thing he decided a long time ago that mean people suck. Maybe he was just following corporate policy, I don't know. I just needed to believe right then and there that he was simply being nice.

I needed to believe that.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. All the nice folk are doing it.