Double Whammy

I was in line at the local deli this afternoon, ready to pick up my order and be on my merry way. As you would expect at a place that makes Boston's Best Chicken Salad, it was a little crowded with the lunchtime rush. This was not unusual and would in and of itself not be worthy of a blog post. I have no problem waiting when there is a good reason. But then I was stuck behind two women who are the absolute worst kind of people to be behind when you are in line and hungry. First off, they were not paying attention to what was going on. They were just wrapped up in their own little world of office politics, talking louder than two people standing next to each other really need to. I don't care if the copier keeps jamming and your boss refuses to pay for a real technician to come in and fix it. Ladies, pay attention and be ready when it is your turn. But, the more annoying point came when the realised it was time to ring them up (separately, naturally, because let's prolong this experience). Both of their bills were less than $5 and both decided to pay with their credit cards. Are you serious? You want to pay interest on a sandwich? Like I said, I don't mind waiting, but don't extend my wait because you didn't think to hit an ATM this morning.

Normally I could deal with these ladies in and of themselves, but their slowness gave birth to an even worse kind of person: the self-important line cutter. You see, he is an important person (you can tell because he wears a suit to work) and doesn't have time to wait in line with the rest of us unwashed masses. Instead what this guy does is skip over everyone in line, walk to the counter, show the cashier what he's buying, leave his money on the counter and walk out. So, not only is this guy important, but he obviously does well and wants us all to know about it, because he doesn't need to wait for change. "Don't worry about those pennies, ladies, I'm above them." This guy infuriates me because he clearly thinks his time is more valuable than everyone in front of him. Do you think I want to be in line right now, sir? Obviously I would rather be in my car and on my way home but I learned in kindergarten that sometimes you just have to wait your turn. Apparently, you skipped that day. Might I also suggest you go back and pay closer attention on the day when we all learned that a penny saved is a penny earned, because your car wasn't that nice.

-While I am quietly optimistic about the Celtics' chances in crucial game 6 tonight, I am also mostly concerned that we're about to see a monster performance from LeBron James. For the last two days everyone has been crapping on his effort in game 5 and now people are taking the extra step of wondering if maybe James is a product of too much hype and not enough results. He's entered the "you're out of other people to blame" phase of his career. While you could make the case that this is long over-due, I fear that the national media has just made him mad and, after seeing a pissed-off LeBron James eviscerate the Celtics in game 3, I'd really rather he be calm. I don't want another 30 point first quarter that has the game decided before the crowd even has time to sit down.