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I was waiting in line in a convenience store yesterday. There was a lady (BIG lady) who had charged in the door like she was in a rush so when it was my turn at the register I told her to go ahead. She never acknowleged my act of kindness. I guess it was owed her.:icon_wink: She then asked for a pack of Salem Light 100s and began taking change out of her purse. It took her and the over achiever behind the counter about two minutes to count out $4.50 or so. All the change is lying out on the counter, sorted out pennys, nickles, dimes (no quarters). The big lady with the smokes then walks away, still never saying a word. Then the attendent rakes all the change off the counter into her hand which mixed it up again. She then began to pick the coins out of her hand, one at a time, and place them in the register. She looked up at me and said, "Sorry, this could take a minute." Finally I asked her if she HAD to do that right now and she got the hint.
how about this for a peeve related to that:
the conditioned response to politely refuse when someone makes an offer like that.
thoughtful person ahead of me in line: "go ahead. you don't have much."
me: "oh, no, you go right ahead. i'm not in a hurry."
me silently to myself: "what am i saying? i've got to get out of here quick or i'm going to be late for ____"
Ah, yes. My peeve is with the argument over who pays the check. Not so much the expected one time "no, no, this is on me" response, but it drives me crazy when it escalates into an actual battle complete with bribing waiters, trying to sneak money to kids, and a game of tug-o-war.
C.S. Lewis has a great piece (maybe in Screwtape) about how we can drive each other crazy by defering so much that no one gets what they want and everyone suffers.
I read something recently on how hard it is to be a second generation Chinese person returning to visit. The author talked about having been sent with tons of gifts that he couldn't get anyone to take (and that he must not return with) and being forbidden to accept anything. He spent the whole trip arguing with relatives about how he couldn't take their gift, but that they have to take his. He finally accepted some small gifts just to put an end to it and when he got home he found out that his parents had already been asked about their "greedy" child.
Aggressive car salesmen.
For pettesake man! I'm just killing time while I wait on my oil change. There is NO chance I will buy a Sequoia today!