Here's the lead up to this story...
I go to Taco Bell a few days later. Part of it was because I only had 5 bucks for lunch, but a much bigger part now was that I wanted to see if the menu boards had been changed. I already knew I would be blogging about all of this, so this had the potential to add more to the story.
And, as you can imagine, I was not disappointed.
The same boards were in the same place. There were two older ladies right ahead of me, and because I was on a time schedule, I was a little fidgety. Though I wasn't fidgety for this purpose, the older ladies in front of me were kind enough to let me go first, as they didn't know exactly what they wanted.
By this point, I'm just going to have some fun here... I got to the counter and smiled, saying, "I want the Deal #4, please add on a cheesy roll up, and I'd like a Doritos Locos Taco Supreme, no lettuce or tomatoes." And then I added on, "And I'd like to pay this price [pointing to the promo menu] and not that price [pointing to the other menu three sections down], if you don't mind."
The cashier looked around at both menus, looked back at the screen and looked up again at the promo menu. "They are two different prices," he observed.
"I know, and I'd rather pay the $1.49, not the $1.69," I said with a pleasant smile.
"Well, I can't do that, because the computer rings it up for $1.69," he started, and I replied, "But you have it on the menu board for $1.49." He pointed way down to the other side and said, "The price is $1.69, though, cause this one [pointing to promo menu] is old."
Perhaps I should have just paid the 20 cents extra and have been done with it. Perhaps I should just chalk up the 20 cents as the price for stupid people, or for incompetence, or just as a Taco Bell thing... but no. Not today. Not with this. I'm right. I don't care about the 20 cents. I don't care if I pay $1.69 forever. I just want someone at this stupid fast food place making $7 bucks an hour (too much for some of these guys) to realize that what they are doing is wrong, and somewhat cheating the customer, because until Vivian pointed the other menu out, I had no clue they were two different prices for the same item--seriously, how often do you check your receipt?
"Well, sir, whether its old or not, you have two prices for the same thing, and I'm asking to pay the cheaper price."
"I'll... well, I'll have to get my manager..." he stammered. I nodded, "That's fine."
While Genius Einstein went to find his manager, I heard the two older ladies behind me with this exchange:
Bertha: He's right, there are two different prices for that same taco
Batilda: I know! How stupid is that to leave that up there?
Bertha: Well, its not his fault they were too lazy to take it down. He should get the cheaper price.
I smiled, knowing at least I had Bertha and Batilda's support.
Instead of Big Brother Manager, I had Forty Something White Guy come out, and say, "Is there a problem?"
Now, up until now, even though its been a level of mediocre service and slight incompetence, everyone has been at least pleasant. This guy, however, changed all that. He didn't want to be there, he didn't like being bothered by something as dumb as a customer being overcharged, and he had this "I'm 44, a shift manager at a Taco Bell on a Tuesday afternoon, where is my life going" air about him. Don't get me wrong--there is nothing bad about working at a Taco Bell in your 40s, because a job is a job, work is work, and who knows what circumstance led him to be here... but he was bitter.
"Yes sir, I noticed that you have two different prices for the Doritos Locos Taco Supreme, and I am requesting to pay the cheaper price."
Like all the other Bell-hops, he glanced at one board, to the other, and back to the first again. He looked at the computer, then back up to the menus once more. "So, you want to pay the $1.49? The price is $1.69."
"Maybe so, but the menu here says $1.49."
"This is an old menu, sir, and we just haven't taken it down yet."
"Again, maybe so, but there is no expiration date on the promo menu, and because its still up, I think you should honor it."
And then, he said the worst thing possible... he looks at me and said, "Okay. I can do it for you THIS TIME. But next time, you'll pay the regular price."
Wait... what? This time? Like I'm asking something unreasonable? Like I am negotiating the price of a taco? Like I'm trying to wear you down, and I lowballed you for a Quesadilla Supreme by not offering a cent more than $1.08? This time? You can do it for me THIS TIME?
I paused for a minute, bit my tongue, and quickly assembled my respectful, yet direct, response. "Well, sir, until you change the menu, you'll have to do it again, because you are offering this item for $1.49." Seriously? He'll do it for me this time?
Anyway, it was changed, and my bill went down 20 cents.
My plan is to visit Taco Bell over the next few days and see if the boards are different. Wanna bet they won't be? We'll see if Grumpy Manager will do it for me this time again.
PS... I drove by Taco Bell this evening, glancing in the window as I zipped through the parking lot. Guess which menu boards were still up? Yup. I almost went in, not to order, but to just say, "Did you know that you have the same taco up there for two different prices? Just sayin'..."
Showing posts with label Taco Bell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taco Bell. Show all posts
Monday, June 18, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
paying the price at taco bell
I do love me some Taco Bell. Mostly because it's cheap, but in addition to that, the food is pretty good. Okay, let's be real... its almost 99% because its cheap, and the other 1% or so is because of the food. Its not that good, but the cheapness of it overrides the not good tasteness of it any day. Why do you think I go to Krystal's sometimes? Of course, Krystal's isn't cheap either, when you get more than one or two Krystal's, or toss in a Chik or even a Corn Dog Pup, but still...
Back to Taco Bell.
I'm a creature of frugal habit, and at Taco Bell, I dig on The Deal #4. Its a burrito with a bag of Doritos and a drink for like, $2.39 or something. I add on a 99 cent cheesy roll-up and up until recently, I'd add on a regular soft taco for 89 cents and my entire meal tops out at around 5 bucks, tax included.
Lately, however, I've been on this Doritos Locos Taco kick... if you don't know much about it, its simply a regular hard shell taco, yet the shell is made of an actual Dorito, all cheesy and greasy and fattening and everything else. I'm personally a Cool Ranch Dorito guy myself, so the day they come out with that puppy will be the day I'll be living at Taco Bell, but I digress.
I also enjoy sour cream on my Mexican food. Tacos are not any different, even when its fake Mexican like Taco Bell... the problem at The Bell, however, is sour cream comes at a premium. Its 45 cents extra to get sour cream, and they essentially take what must be an actual tea spoon, scoop out a slight dot of sour cream and glop it right in the middle of your taco. So for your 45 cents, you get two bites of your taco that taste normal, one glorious, sour cream filled bite in the middle, then two more regular, bland bites. I must also tell you that I ask for no lettuce on my taco, so it really is just a meat and cheese experience.
So the first time I got my Deal #4 at Taco Bell, I added on my cheesy roll up, and decided to try the Doritos Locos Taco... the food was good, as usual, but the Doritos Locos Taco was marvelous. So the next time, I figured I'd get the same thing, but added on the 45 cent sour cream. Again, it was awesome, though that one single bite with the glop of sour cream right in the middle was marvelouser. So, so good.
The next time I visited Taco Bell--mind you, this is over a matter of weeks, lest you think I'm just kicking it Bell School nine times per week--I did something a little different. I noticed the price of the Doritos Locos Taco was $1.29. The Doritos Locos Taco Supreme, however, was $1.49. For you math scholars out there, that's a 20 cent different. Add the 45 cents to the $1.29 price, and I'm paying $1.74 per taco...
however comma...
...the Doritos Locos Taco Supreme comes WITH the sour cream in that $1.49 price. And they don't just drip it on in a minuscule amount... nay nay, since the sour cream is an actual ingredient in the recipe, they use that big sour cream tubey thing and smear it from one end of that crunchy Doritos shell to the other. So this day, I ordered a Doritos Locos Taco Supreme with no lettuce or tomato for $1.49. How smart am I, right?
Now, what kind of blog post would this be were there not some conflict? And I'm not just talking internally with stomach issues later, 3 to 5 hours after dinner...
About a week ago, I went in with intentions on getting my Deal #4, and this time, skipping the cheesy roll up for two of the Doritos Locos Taco Supreme, minus the lettuce and tomato. I'm not going to give you the location (Highway 280) of the one I visited, but when you stand at the register, you can look up and dead center to you is a menu panel that says the words "FEATURED: DORITOS LOCOS TACOS", with pictures of the supreme and a few of the tacos in a box. Below that are your options... the regular ($1.29), the supreme ($1.49) and the box ($5.00). Its important to note that this is so plainly right in front of you, so remember this.
I don't remember the little 50-something white lady I talked to, but we'll call her Vivian...
Vivian: What can we get for you?
Me: I want to get a Deal #4 please, and please add on two Doritos Locos Taco Supremes, minus the lettuce and tomato on both.
Vivian: You know its the lettuce and tomato that make the supreme, right?
Me: Yes, but it also has sour cream on it. If I get the regular, its an additional 45 cents for a very small amount. Or, I can pay only 20 cents more and get a larger amount included.
Vivian: Oh, okay, I guess that makes sense.
She rings me up, I pay, and then stand off to the side with my receipt. Had Vivian stopped there, I don't know that this post would exist, because I honestly can't tell you I'd be any the wiser... but she didn't stop there.
As I stood over to the side, she came over and said, "You know, if you wanted to, you could just get a 45 cup of sour cream on the side..." and I replied, "That's true, but then I'd have to put it on the taco myself, and its just easier to take off the lettuce and tomato from the supreme." She then said, "Well, if you get a couple of them, it would be a little cheaper than the $1.69 price in the long run..." She pointed not to the Featured Doritos menu board, but to another menu board about two sections of the left of middle.
The board also had pictures of the Doritos Locos Taco with "$1.29" beside it, but then it had a Doritos Locos Taco Supreme, not priced at $1.49, but $1.69.
Wait... what?
I stared at this menu for several seconds, then took three or four steps to my right, back to the middle and stared at that board. I looked down at my receipt, looked back up at both boards, stared again at the middle board searching for something that said "Offer good from -- to --", saw none, then looked back at the other board. They were the exact same items offered for two different prices.
I looked again at my receipt, did the quick math and realized that I paid the $1.69 price, not the $1.49 price for both Doritos Locos Taco Supreme.
"Um," I asked, "can you tell me why you have the same item offered for two different prices?"
Vivian, who was wiping the counter, looked up at me in confusion. I continued, "Ma'am, I ordered the Doritos Locos Taco Supreme, for $1.49 each, as you have on the menu. But you charged me $1.69 for each one, the price on that menu board."
She stepped back and looked at both boards, then back at me. "Well, how about that? I guess that's a mistake. We should probably pull this menu board [the cheaper one] down."
I chuckled, knowing this would be the response, and replied, "Maybe so, but you overcharged me."
Her smile faded slightly, and said, "Well, its $1.69 in the computer, and that's what I have to charge you."
Now, understand, this is not about the 38 cents I would save. In fact, I told her that I didn't want a refund... but this is about the principle that I, as the consumer, am being overcharged for an item they are offering at a lower price. Its also important to note I was being very respectful and kept my tone very light while saying all of this, so please don't think I was being a jerk.
"Well, ma'am, first, I've worked retail and fast food in my days, and can pretty much guarantee there is a function on that register to change an amount on an item," I said. "Secondly, you overcharged me. You are offering the same item for two different prices, and are charging me the higher price."
"You have a valid point, I'll definitely take it up with my manager."
"Understand, I don't want a refund, but I want you to see that its wrong to show an item for two different prices then charge the higher price. If you went to a steakhouse and ordered a steak dinner for $12, then saw the same steak dinner on another page of the menu, you wouldn't be happy if they charged you $16 instead of the $12 you ordered."
"You have a valid point, I'll definitely take it up with my manager," she said again.
Knowing that she would forget this entire thing as soon as I was 10 feet from the counter, I said, "Well, may I say something to your manager?"
Her smile was now completely gone, as she walked over to a large black dude in the kitchen. I heard her say something to the effect of, "I've shown him the price and he wants to pay a cheaper price...", which really annoyed me.
Big Manager Brother came over and asked me, "What's the problem, sir?" I said, "Well, its not necessarily a problem, but I wanted you to know that you have a the same item for two different prices, and I don't think its right to charge me the higher price, especially when your promo menu doesn't have any sort of expiration date on it."
He looked carefully at both menus for a moment, and then said, "Wow, your right. Same taco."
I said, "Yep."
He said, "We shoulda already taken this promo menu down."
I said, "Perhaps, but your failure to take it down isn't my fault. Again, I don't want a refund, but if I come in again, I'll ask to pay the $1.49 price and expect you guys to honor it, if both menus are still up."
He said, "Oh, we will get this down tonight, cause we can't have both of these up..."
Vivian just smiled, somewhat fake, and waited for me to leave. Yes, I had a valid point.
And I did go back in a few days later. And here's what happened...
Back to Taco Bell.
I'm a creature of frugal habit, and at Taco Bell, I dig on The Deal #4. Its a burrito with a bag of Doritos and a drink for like, $2.39 or something. I add on a 99 cent cheesy roll-up and up until recently, I'd add on a regular soft taco for 89 cents and my entire meal tops out at around 5 bucks, tax included.
Lately, however, I've been on this Doritos Locos Taco kick... if you don't know much about it, its simply a regular hard shell taco, yet the shell is made of an actual Dorito, all cheesy and greasy and fattening and everything else. I'm personally a Cool Ranch Dorito guy myself, so the day they come out with that puppy will be the day I'll be living at Taco Bell, but I digress.
I also enjoy sour cream on my Mexican food. Tacos are not any different, even when its fake Mexican like Taco Bell... the problem at The Bell, however, is sour cream comes at a premium. Its 45 cents extra to get sour cream, and they essentially take what must be an actual tea spoon, scoop out a slight dot of sour cream and glop it right in the middle of your taco. So for your 45 cents, you get two bites of your taco that taste normal, one glorious, sour cream filled bite in the middle, then two more regular, bland bites. I must also tell you that I ask for no lettuce on my taco, so it really is just a meat and cheese experience.
So the first time I got my Deal #4 at Taco Bell, I added on my cheesy roll up, and decided to try the Doritos Locos Taco... the food was good, as usual, but the Doritos Locos Taco was marvelous. So the next time, I figured I'd get the same thing, but added on the 45 cent sour cream. Again, it was awesome, though that one single bite with the glop of sour cream right in the middle was marvelouser. So, so good.
The next time I visited Taco Bell--mind you, this is over a matter of weeks, lest you think I'm just kicking it Bell School nine times per week--I did something a little different. I noticed the price of the Doritos Locos Taco was $1.29. The Doritos Locos Taco Supreme, however, was $1.49. For you math scholars out there, that's a 20 cent different. Add the 45 cents to the $1.29 price, and I'm paying $1.74 per taco...
however comma...
...the Doritos Locos Taco Supreme comes WITH the sour cream in that $1.49 price. And they don't just drip it on in a minuscule amount... nay nay, since the sour cream is an actual ingredient in the recipe, they use that big sour cream tubey thing and smear it from one end of that crunchy Doritos shell to the other. So this day, I ordered a Doritos Locos Taco Supreme with no lettuce or tomato for $1.49. How smart am I, right?
Now, what kind of blog post would this be were there not some conflict? And I'm not just talking internally with stomach issues later, 3 to 5 hours after dinner...
 |
| The view, standing at the middle register and looking at the menus. |
I don't remember the little 50-something white lady I talked to, but we'll call her Vivian...
Vivian: What can we get for you?
Me: I want to get a Deal #4 please, and please add on two Doritos Locos Taco Supremes, minus the lettuce and tomato on both.
Vivian: You know its the lettuce and tomato that make the supreme, right?
Me: Yes, but it also has sour cream on it. If I get the regular, its an additional 45 cents for a very small amount. Or, I can pay only 20 cents more and get a larger amount included.
Vivian: Oh, okay, I guess that makes sense.
She rings me up, I pay, and then stand off to the side with my receipt. Had Vivian stopped there, I don't know that this post would exist, because I honestly can't tell you I'd be any the wiser... but she didn't stop there.
As I stood over to the side, she came over and said, "You know, if you wanted to, you could just get a 45 cup of sour cream on the side..." and I replied, "That's true, but then I'd have to put it on the taco myself, and its just easier to take off the lettuce and tomato from the supreme." She then said, "Well, if you get a couple of them, it would be a little cheaper than the $1.69 price in the long run..." She pointed not to the Featured Doritos menu board, but to another menu board about two sections of the left of middle.
The board also had pictures of the Doritos Locos Taco with "$1.29" beside it, but then it had a Doritos Locos Taco Supreme, not priced at $1.49, but $1.69.
Wait... what?
I stared at this menu for several seconds, then took three or four steps to my right, back to the middle and stared at that board. I looked down at my receipt, looked back up at both boards, stared again at the middle board searching for something that said "Offer good from -- to --", saw none, then looked back at the other board. They were the exact same items offered for two different prices.
I looked again at my receipt, did the quick math and realized that I paid the $1.69 price, not the $1.49 price for both Doritos Locos Taco Supreme.
"Um," I asked, "can you tell me why you have the same item offered for two different prices?"
 |
| This was taken from the cafe, as they were suspiciously eyeing me after I snapped the earlier photo. You can't see the prices, but you can see on the far left board in the pic, the fuzzy image of the Doritos Locos Tacos. And on the far right, you can see part of the promo board. |
She stepped back and looked at both boards, then back at me. "Well, how about that? I guess that's a mistake. We should probably pull this menu board [the cheaper one] down."
I chuckled, knowing this would be the response, and replied, "Maybe so, but you overcharged me."
Her smile faded slightly, and said, "Well, its $1.69 in the computer, and that's what I have to charge you."
Now, understand, this is not about the 38 cents I would save. In fact, I told her that I didn't want a refund... but this is about the principle that I, as the consumer, am being overcharged for an item they are offering at a lower price. Its also important to note I was being very respectful and kept my tone very light while saying all of this, so please don't think I was being a jerk.
"Well, ma'am, first, I've worked retail and fast food in my days, and can pretty much guarantee there is a function on that register to change an amount on an item," I said. "Secondly, you overcharged me. You are offering the same item for two different prices, and are charging me the higher price."
"You have a valid point, I'll definitely take it up with my manager."
"Understand, I don't want a refund, but I want you to see that its wrong to show an item for two different prices then charge the higher price. If you went to a steakhouse and ordered a steak dinner for $12, then saw the same steak dinner on another page of the menu, you wouldn't be happy if they charged you $16 instead of the $12 you ordered."
"You have a valid point, I'll definitely take it up with my manager," she said again.
Knowing that she would forget this entire thing as soon as I was 10 feet from the counter, I said, "Well, may I say something to your manager?"
Her smile was now completely gone, as she walked over to a large black dude in the kitchen. I heard her say something to the effect of, "I've shown him the price and he wants to pay a cheaper price...", which really annoyed me.
Big Manager Brother came over and asked me, "What's the problem, sir?" I said, "Well, its not necessarily a problem, but I wanted you to know that you have a the same item for two different prices, and I don't think its right to charge me the higher price, especially when your promo menu doesn't have any sort of expiration date on it."
He looked carefully at both menus for a moment, and then said, "Wow, your right. Same taco."
I said, "Yep."
He said, "We shoulda already taken this promo menu down."
I said, "Perhaps, but your failure to take it down isn't my fault. Again, I don't want a refund, but if I come in again, I'll ask to pay the $1.49 price and expect you guys to honor it, if both menus are still up."
He said, "Oh, we will get this down tonight, cause we can't have both of these up..."
Vivian just smiled, somewhat fake, and waited for me to leave. Yes, I had a valid point.
And I did go back in a few days later. And here's what happened...
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
And No Sauce: A Dinner Out Lament
Why is it that I can't get a great experience while eating out? I mean, I can't complain too much--I'm eating out. I'm eating food, good food, and I've got the money to do so. I'm sure those kids in Darfur would love to have some Full Moon BBQ chicken, sauce or not, for dinner.
But if I'm paying hard earned money, can I not just get what I want, especially if I speak clearly, friendly enough and with concise ordering perfection?
Case 1... Taco Bell
I've discussed this at length in previous posts, but I just don't understand how hard it is to leave something off. I mean, I'm not asking for a precise amount of lettuce on my taco, I'm actually asking you to do LESS work. Not putting lettuce on my taco is a step you don't have to take. Just don't do it.
But IF you do, then you need to be nice enough about it to say, "Oh, hey, my bad dawg... let me fix you another one real quick like..." because while I've never worked at a Taco Bell, I've watched from my perch on the other side of the counter, and let me tell ya, it ain't hard. It ain't rocket science.
But the worse thing is not only when they screw it up, they actually leave it out of the bag. Twice. TWICE have I gotten home without my entire order. And TWICE have I gotten back in my car to go back and get my paid for but not received food... the first was a soft shell taco, only meat and cheese, and the second was a cheesy roll up. Both times did I say, "Hey, I got home and realized I didn't have my (insert which one at that time), so I came back up here to get it", and both times I was greeted with a simple sigh, a fake smile, and a piece of food tossed at me with a "sorryboutthat". And I don't think they meant it.
When I left, I'm fairly certain that they were probably telling each other how dumb I was for, "coming all the way back up here for a taco? man, is it that important? it ain't but 89 cents..."
Yes, its that important. Its the principle.
But, with the couldn't-care-less resolution, I didn't leave a satisfied customer.
Case 2... Full Moon BBQ
Out of the three main BBQ places here in town, I think Full Moon is my favorite. Jim-n-Nicks is good, and their cheddar biscuits are the bomb diggity dot org, but Jim-n-Nicks has two things against it--its pricey and its usually overly crowded. Sunday lunch for two is a commitment, usually taking well over an hour and resulting in a bill of about $25 to $30--and that's two sweet teas, and two plates, and maybe sharing a piece of pie, maybe not. The other known place in town is Johnny Ray's, and I tend to find their chicken to be a bit dry. Its good, just not great.
Our dear Aunt Becky is here this weekend, and Thursday night, I was given the task of going to get dinner at Full Moon. I like this place because its right down Hwy 280 from The Cabana, its reasonably priced and... well, the food is excellent.
But I don't like BBQ sauce. Sorry, I just don't. I don't like sweet sauce, I don't dig on tangy sauce, or hot sauce or honey sauce or anything else... hence, I don't eat ribs often. That's just the way I'm built.
So when I order my BBQ chicken, I use the words "and no sauce" about four or five times in the conversation. I use it often enough to hear the cashier repeat the words back to me, letting me know that she understands "and no sauce".
A few minutes later, my order comes up, and stupid me, I don't check it. I get home, give Aunt Becky her pulled pork plate, I give The Lovely Steph Leann her veggie plate, and am ready to open up my own plate and chow down...
...again, not that I'm complaining, but this is an evening that followed a day that had me up at 3am (i must be lonely), picking up Hot Manager Melanie at 350a, picking up a few other managers and going to Atlanta to tour stores. So, I've driven 350+ miles and I'm just flat out tired, not to mention that I have to be back up at 4am on Friday morning to work all day.
I open the plate, and there's a big heaping helping of thick, what I can presume to be tasty but I wouldn't know, dark BBQ sauce all over the chicken. This is actually the third time this has happened, though the other two times I wasn't doing the picking up and was far enough away from Full Moon to not make a return trip viable. However, this night, I'm at The Cabana. I just frown, close the lid, put it back in the bag and walk right back out to the garage.
Its right at 9p, and they are closing. However, I make it in the door before she locks it (I think she was headed that way) and the chick who rang me up recognized me. "Is everything okay?" she asks, already knowing the answer. "Well... I asked for no sauce, and there is BBQ sauce all over my chicken. I need to get a new plate."
She responds friendly enough, and I follow her to the counter. The manager comes up, I politely explain the situation, and he apologizes about four times. One of the Full Moon'ers offers me some tea, and I gladly accept. Meanwhile, I hear the manager in the back saying loudly, "And NO SAUCE on that chicken! NO SAUCE!!" He offers me an extra side, then a piece of pie... both of which I politely refuse. Yes, extra fries would have been good, and a piece of chocolate pie would have been good, but I didn't need either, and I really just wanted my chicken, to go home and have dinner, then go to bed.
Perhaps next time I should lead with "And no sauce on the chicken I'm ordering right now."
However, I did leave a satisfied customer.
CASE 3... PABLO'S
Don't get me wrong, I love Pablos. I love the atmosphere, I love the band that plays, I love the fun servers that are there, I love the deck, and the food is exceptional.
But for whatever reason, sour cream eludes my order. See, I don't like lettuce. And I don't like spicy things. But I do like tacos and quesadillas, and what makes it all better is sour cream. Enough sour cream on any Mexican dish, and its a tasty meal. But when I order my meal, and always order it with sour cream on the side, one of two things happen... either the plop a little dollop of sour cream atop a bed of shredded lettuce, which makes it hard to separate what I love and what I hate, or they just forget it altogether, and by the time I remind them and they bring it, everyone is half done with their food, and mine is only lukewarm. Having said that, understand that Pablos is my favorite authentic Americanized Mexican cuisine--but this is the only area where they are grouped with others... all Mexican places forget my sour cream. If fact, we visited the genuine Mexican place at Epcot... no, not the pyramid, the other one. And guess what? They forgot my sour cream.
By the way, Pablo's was still better. Just sayin'.
Last time at Pablo's, they got the sour cream part right. A bowl of the white heavenly condiment topping came out with my meal, my fish tacos ordered with "NO LETTUCE", and it was great. However, in my tacos--Lettuce. Tons of it. And its mixed with the shredded cheese. So removing the lettuce removes 94% of any cheese on the tacos.
I didn't ask for another taco, I just went with it. Sigh.
The company was more than satisfactory. The dinner was satisfactory. The lettuce was not.
CASE 4... THE PIZZA PLACE
There's a new pizza place in town, but I'm afraid to mention it, because I don't want the following anecdote to dissuade you from going--its excellent pizza, and I will go back because it is such a good meal at a good price...so rather than call it Marco's, I'll just call it The Pizza Place.
...but never again on a Friday night. Once again, I was sent out to retrieve dinner for The Lovely Steph Leann and Aunt Becky, and once again, it wasn't as easy as I wanted it to be. I arrived at The Pizza Place at 739p, and made my order at 746p. Its busy, so I'm thinking that it might be a good 20 or 30 minutes before my pizza, sub and cheezybread would be ready.
Time ticks slowly by, as I hear a woman come in who has "three starving children, so can I go ahead and order cheezybread? Please get that in, and then I'll order the pizza..." and another guy who came in and said, "Yep, I just want some cheezybread and a large pepperoni..."
I can tell, however, that things aren't going as swimmingly as it should be, as the people behind the counter seem a bit frantic. There is a nearby restaurant that I also frequent for lunch, and the couple who run that establishment apparently are the aunt and uncle of the owner of The Pizza Place, and the uncle was there telling me how they never expected to be as busy as they are. Their cafe is rather small, but it wasn't meant to hold a ton of people--the expectations were they would have pretty good delivery/carry out, and a cafe to hold a few patrons.
And when they started doing gangbusters, the whole staff was caught off guard.
The aunt of the owner saw me and said hello, and asked me how long I had been waiting. I looked at the receipt, did the quick math and replied, "about 45 minutes." Then, still politely, I added, "you know, you probably should tell people it's going to be awhile for food--I probably wouldn't have ordered if I had known it would take this long."
Now, I must mention to you Brenda, across the counter. I'm sure she is a very nice lady, and I'm going to give her doubt's benefit in saying she was probably stressed, but she had the bedside manner of a wet mop. At the moment I was talking to Auntie, and giving my "truth about the wait" suggestion, I heard Brenda finish up an order on the phone by saying, "oh, it will be about 20 minutes." When Brenda hung up, Auntie said, "he's right. Don't tell people 20. You need to be saying 45 or 50."
The wait continued. A few minutes later, the lady with the three kids who were starving came back up... "Um... we've been here for 45 minutes, and we don't even have cheezybread. You didn't say it would take so long... my kids are still starving..." and at the same time, the dude who just wanted some cheezybread and pepperoni came up, saying, "Yeah, so we never got our bread. Our pizza is half eaten already, so can we just cancel the bread?"
At the same time, I observed a couple who came in, and told Brenda, "We ordered our pizza an hour and 10 minutes ago for delivery... well, we only live 5 minutes away, so we figured we would just come get it." Brenda gave a big sigh, and said, "What's your name and house number?"
Over in the corner, Major League Baseball player Wes Helms sat with a buddy. He saw me and we both waved. "Waiting for your pizza?" I asked. "Yeah, man, been here for about an hour."
The one common denominator for all of these stories is simply this: We LOVE the pizza, but didn't want to wait this long. And its true--The Pizza Place has great pizza, so much so that we chose this on Friday over just ordering Papa John's across the street from The Cabana.
Finally, 56 minutes after I placed my order, I was given a pizza, a sub and a box of cheezybread. For my troubles, I was also given a good coupon for next time, a cup to get myself a refreshing beverage, and a two-liter to take home.
In short, I waited forever, and was starving by the time I got home. But the steak-n-cheese sub was excellent, and the pizza for Aunt Becky and The Lovely Steph Leann was great, according to them, so we were satisfied customers.
So there ya go. Four cases of food service travails. White people problems? Sure. First world problems? Absolutely. Blessed life troubles? Yup.
But problems and troubles nonetheless. I would imagine much of life's problems would be fixed, though, if they'd just include the cheesy roll-up, leave off the lettuce and warn me that my food might take almost an hour to prepare.
Oh, and leave off the sauce.
But if I'm paying hard earned money, can I not just get what I want, especially if I speak clearly, friendly enough and with concise ordering perfection?
Case 1... Taco Bell
I've discussed this at length in previous posts, but I just don't understand how hard it is to leave something off. I mean, I'm not asking for a precise amount of lettuce on my taco, I'm actually asking you to do LESS work. Not putting lettuce on my taco is a step you don't have to take. Just don't do it.
But IF you do, then you need to be nice enough about it to say, "Oh, hey, my bad dawg... let me fix you another one real quick like..." because while I've never worked at a Taco Bell, I've watched from my perch on the other side of the counter, and let me tell ya, it ain't hard. It ain't rocket science.
But the worse thing is not only when they screw it up, they actually leave it out of the bag. Twice. TWICE have I gotten home without my entire order. And TWICE have I gotten back in my car to go back and get my paid for but not received food... the first was a soft shell taco, only meat and cheese, and the second was a cheesy roll up. Both times did I say, "Hey, I got home and realized I didn't have my (insert which one at that time), so I came back up here to get it", and both times I was greeted with a simple sigh, a fake smile, and a piece of food tossed at me with a "sorryboutthat". And I don't think they meant it.
When I left, I'm fairly certain that they were probably telling each other how dumb I was for, "coming all the way back up here for a taco? man, is it that important? it ain't but 89 cents..."
Yes, its that important. Its the principle.
But, with the couldn't-care-less resolution, I didn't leave a satisfied customer.
Case 2... Full Moon BBQ
Out of the three main BBQ places here in town, I think Full Moon is my favorite. Jim-n-Nicks is good, and their cheddar biscuits are the bomb diggity dot org, but Jim-n-Nicks has two things against it--its pricey and its usually overly crowded. Sunday lunch for two is a commitment, usually taking well over an hour and resulting in a bill of about $25 to $30--and that's two sweet teas, and two plates, and maybe sharing a piece of pie, maybe not. The other known place in town is Johnny Ray's, and I tend to find their chicken to be a bit dry. Its good, just not great.
But I don't like BBQ sauce. Sorry, I just don't. I don't like sweet sauce, I don't dig on tangy sauce, or hot sauce or honey sauce or anything else... hence, I don't eat ribs often. That's just the way I'm built.
So when I order my BBQ chicken, I use the words "and no sauce" about four or five times in the conversation. I use it often enough to hear the cashier repeat the words back to me, letting me know that she understands "and no sauce".
A few minutes later, my order comes up, and stupid me, I don't check it. I get home, give Aunt Becky her pulled pork plate, I give The Lovely Steph Leann her veggie plate, and am ready to open up my own plate and chow down...
...again, not that I'm complaining, but this is an evening that followed a day that had me up at 3am (i must be lonely), picking up Hot Manager Melanie at 350a, picking up a few other managers and going to Atlanta to tour stores. So, I've driven 350+ miles and I'm just flat out tired, not to mention that I have to be back up at 4am on Friday morning to work all day.
I open the plate, and there's a big heaping helping of thick, what I can presume to be tasty but I wouldn't know, dark BBQ sauce all over the chicken. This is actually the third time this has happened, though the other two times I wasn't doing the picking up and was far enough away from Full Moon to not make a return trip viable. However, this night, I'm at The Cabana. I just frown, close the lid, put it back in the bag and walk right back out to the garage.
Its right at 9p, and they are closing. However, I make it in the door before she locks it (I think she was headed that way) and the chick who rang me up recognized me. "Is everything okay?" she asks, already knowing the answer. "Well... I asked for no sauce, and there is BBQ sauce all over my chicken. I need to get a new plate."
She responds friendly enough, and I follow her to the counter. The manager comes up, I politely explain the situation, and he apologizes about four times. One of the Full Moon'ers offers me some tea, and I gladly accept. Meanwhile, I hear the manager in the back saying loudly, "And NO SAUCE on that chicken! NO SAUCE!!" He offers me an extra side, then a piece of pie... both of which I politely refuse. Yes, extra fries would have been good, and a piece of chocolate pie would have been good, but I didn't need either, and I really just wanted my chicken, to go home and have dinner, then go to bed.
Perhaps next time I should lead with "And no sauce on the chicken I'm ordering right now."
However, I did leave a satisfied customer.
CASE 3... PABLO'S
Don't get me wrong, I love Pablos. I love the atmosphere, I love the band that plays, I love the fun servers that are there, I love the deck, and the food is exceptional.
But for whatever reason, sour cream eludes my order. See, I don't like lettuce. And I don't like spicy things. But I do like tacos and quesadillas, and what makes it all better is sour cream. Enough sour cream on any Mexican dish, and its a tasty meal. But when I order my meal, and always order it with sour cream on the side, one of two things happen... either the plop a little dollop of sour cream atop a bed of shredded lettuce, which makes it hard to separate what I love and what I hate, or they just forget it altogether, and by the time I remind them and they bring it, everyone is half done with their food, and mine is only lukewarm. Having said that, understand that Pablos is my favorite authentic Americanized Mexican cuisine--but this is the only area where they are grouped with others... all Mexican places forget my sour cream. If fact, we visited the genuine Mexican place at Epcot... no, not the pyramid, the other one. And guess what? They forgot my sour cream.
By the way, Pablo's was still better. Just sayin'.
Last time at Pablo's, they got the sour cream part right. A bowl of the white heavenly condiment topping came out with my meal, my fish tacos ordered with "NO LETTUCE", and it was great. However, in my tacos--Lettuce. Tons of it. And its mixed with the shredded cheese. So removing the lettuce removes 94% of any cheese on the tacos.
I didn't ask for another taco, I just went with it. Sigh.
The company was more than satisfactory. The dinner was satisfactory. The lettuce was not.
CASE 4... THE PIZZA PLACE
There's a new pizza place in town, but I'm afraid to mention it, because I don't want the following anecdote to dissuade you from going--its excellent pizza, and I will go back because it is such a good meal at a good price...
...but never again on a Friday night. Once again, I was sent out to retrieve dinner for The Lovely Steph Leann and Aunt Becky, and once again, it wasn't as easy as I wanted it to be. I arrived at The Pizza Place at 739p, and made my order at 746p. Its busy, so I'm thinking that it might be a good 20 or 30 minutes before my pizza, sub and cheezybread would be ready.
Time ticks slowly by, as I hear a woman come in who has "three starving children, so can I go ahead and order cheezybread? Please get that in, and then I'll order the pizza..." and another guy who came in and said, "Yep, I just want some cheezybread and a large pepperoni..."
I can tell, however, that things aren't going as swimmingly as it should be, as the people behind the counter seem a bit frantic. There is a nearby restaurant that I also frequent for lunch, and the couple who run that establishment apparently are the aunt and uncle of the owner of The Pizza Place, and the uncle was there telling me how they never expected to be as busy as they are. Their cafe is rather small, but it wasn't meant to hold a ton of people--the expectations were they would have pretty good delivery/carry out, and a cafe to hold a few patrons.
And when they started doing gangbusters, the whole staff was caught off guard.
The aunt of the owner saw me and said hello, and asked me how long I had been waiting. I looked at the receipt, did the quick math and replied, "about 45 minutes." Then, still politely, I added, "you know, you probably should tell people it's going to be awhile for food--I probably wouldn't have ordered if I had known it would take this long."
Now, I must mention to you Brenda, across the counter. I'm sure she is a very nice lady, and I'm going to give her doubt's benefit in saying she was probably stressed, but she had the bedside manner of a wet mop. At the moment I was talking to Auntie, and giving my "truth about the wait" suggestion, I heard Brenda finish up an order on the phone by saying, "oh, it will be about 20 minutes." When Brenda hung up, Auntie said, "he's right. Don't tell people 20. You need to be saying 45 or 50."
The wait continued. A few minutes later, the lady with the three kids who were starving came back up... "Um... we've been here for 45 minutes, and we don't even have cheezybread. You didn't say it would take so long... my kids are still starving..." and at the same time, the dude who just wanted some cheezybread and pepperoni came up, saying, "Yeah, so we never got our bread. Our pizza is half eaten already, so can we just cancel the bread?"
At the same time, I observed a couple who came in, and told Brenda, "We ordered our pizza an hour and 10 minutes ago for delivery... well, we only live 5 minutes away, so we figured we would just come get it." Brenda gave a big sigh, and said, "What's your name and house number?"
 |
| Baseball players like Wes gotta eat too |
The one common denominator for all of these stories is simply this: We LOVE the pizza, but didn't want to wait this long. And its true--The Pizza Place has great pizza, so much so that we chose this on Friday over just ordering Papa John's across the street from The Cabana.
Finally, 56 minutes after I placed my order, I was given a pizza, a sub and a box of cheezybread. For my troubles, I was also given a good coupon for next time, a cup to get myself a refreshing beverage, and a two-liter to take home.
In short, I waited forever, and was starving by the time I got home. But the steak-n-cheese sub was excellent, and the pizza for Aunt Becky and The Lovely Steph Leann was great, according to them, so we were satisfied customers.
So there ya go. Four cases of food service travails. White people problems? Sure. First world problems? Absolutely. Blessed life troubles? Yup.
But problems and troubles nonetheless. I would imagine much of life's problems would be fixed, though, if they'd just include the cheesy roll-up, leave off the lettuce and warn me that my food might take almost an hour to prepare.
Oh, and leave off the sauce.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Picture Imperfect
We've already established that I'm a complete, foolish nostalgic person... As anyone who has talked to me in the last few weeks has discovered, I've had a blast going through all my college--and high school--pictures, sorting through the ones that I can scan, tossing some that I just don't need anymore (I'm not sure anyone needs a picture of me and fill-in-chick-I-went-out-with being cute) and pausing to stare at pictures of friends that I haven't seen in a very, very long time. Friends I miss.
And something happened that I didn't expect... I think I got caught up in all of it. The memories flood back, kinda reminding me of the Trisha Yearwood song I was singing earlier, while making perfect mochas and delicious grande lattes... "it was like a lighted match had been tossed into my soul, it was like a dam had broken in my heart... after taking every detour, getting lost and losing track, so that even if I wanted I could not find my way back, after driving out the memories of the way things had been, after I had forgotten all about it, this pic remembers when..."
Okay, it wasn't quite that dramatic. But I do love that song, and consider it to the be the saddest song ever written, though thats a complete other post... anyway, some of the memories that rushed back...
Like, there's a picture of me and Mike Brunson blowing on Allyson Guy's head, to cool her down after rock climbing. I was about as tired as I have ever been after that day, but it was awesome because I got about 40 feet up before I reached a point where I just had to leap for it. And I missed, but luckily there was a rope and beaner tying me to a safety point. Later, I screwed up my friendship with Mike, but through God's grace and Mike's forgiveness, things were settled. I dunno that Mike and I will be BFF, but at least the air is clear.
There's a picture of me and Adrianne Benton and Labett White on the beach, a trip I vaguely even remember. We were freshman, the three of us, and we were pretty tight for a little while. We even called ourselves "Threenkies", a silly nickname that only a silly 18 year old guy and two 18 year old girls could come up with. We giggled alot. Adrianne emailed me a few weeks ago with the line "I tried this once and you didn't respond, so I'll try it again"... I emailed her last night. Hope to hear from her.
There's another shot from my senior year (yes, yes, my first one) during the Farmhouse Big Barn Party. I had invited my friend Chrissy to go with me, she said sure, and in the picture, its us with Kevin Spivey and Whitley Porter, four good friends who had a great time. Actually, Spivey was in love with Chrissy's soft felt jacket, but that's another story altogether. That night was a hoot, as it was kinda cold, and for whatever reason, on the trail, my horse decided to go walking in the lake. Mind you, this was like, 9pm at night. Had my first conversation with Spivey in almost 10 years a few days ago. It was awesome.
Oh, what about this one, from my senior year in high school, when my best buddy Chris McCall and I were with my cousin April and our friend Michael down in Orlando, standing under the Hard Rock Cafe car that juts out of the front of the building... good times, all. That's Chris, wearing a shirt that says "Pump This", which at this late (early?) hour I find extreeeeeemely funny. Yeah, and I'm totally wearing the same shirt that I later wore on the beach with Labett and Adrianne. Chris also emailed me a few days back, and I need to email him. On my to-do list on Wednesday.
But the harder pictures are the ones that indicate those friendships that either no longer exist or can't. I'll be very vague here, because I'm not going to try to embarass anyone or call anyone out. One is my fault. I did something stupid ten years ago, and am still paying for it. Maybe I'm not, maybe all is forgiven, but at the same time, it pains me nonetheless. I'm a closure person, for better or for worse, and when there is none, then to me... well, there is none. That whole closure thing has bitten me a few times--I wish I didn't care, but I do.
Another is not my fault, but that doesn't matter, because through no fault of my own, we're done being friends. And that hurts to no end.
I cherish my friendships. See, I kinda have these circles that go around me... there's an outer circle, people I know, people I consider friends, but have to follow it up with an "I guess" because really, they are more like acquaintances. There's another circle, maybe a little tighter, where most of my friends fall. These are the friends that I enjoy seeing when I can, but perhaps haven't taken the time to follow up, or email enough, or haven't been on the receiving end of such an attempt. Then you get a little closer, where most of my "closer friends" lie. Maybe I consider them closer than they actually think they are, friends that I would do anything for, would probably do anything for me, and such.
You've probably heard this entire analogy before, the "outer" and "inner" circles, but its the same with me, really, cause I'm not that much different. Then maybe there are one or two people that I'm pretty tight with, that know lots and lots about me. And the funny part is, no one stays the same really. People drift in and out over the years, some people I would see every day or two for years suddenly aren't there anymore, and we lose touch. People like Sybil Johnson, McQ, The Valdmanis or Big Eddy, people that I would love to see much more of, but just aren't able to.
Others who were never a factor in my life at all, people I barely said a word-one to most times suddenly become someone I talk to on a regular basis... Erin the Marine Wife and Mindy D'A (though she never spoke to me, being the popular ADPi that she was) come to mind (mostly via online chatting), as does The Official Clouds in My Coffee Ombudsman Brad Latta.
I've mentioned before the dangers of Facebook... try it when people you are excited about talking to again decide that it would be best not too. Then again, its a joy when people you didn't think wanted to be closer decide they do. Works both ways. Or as Gloria Estefan might say, "It cuts both ways..."
Though, honestly, if I'm going with Gloria Estefan, and I'm in "I want to hear some make-me-feel-like-crap" kind of music, you can't go wrong with "Here We Are". Wow. Her voice is incredible, her emotion is strong and I can't think of many other songs that make use of the word "sublime". Late 80s/early 90s Gloria = awesomeness. Where was I?
I'm not sure why I have this need to "catch up" with people anyway... its how I've always been. Maybe I'm a friend for life or something, but when I have the opportunity, I like to know whats going on with people I know and care about. Maybe its a few weeks between "catch ups", like with my buddy KT, or maybe its a few months, like with my best mate Wookiee, or maybe even a few years... had a great conversation with Shelby last week. She pretty much called me out and told me I was kind of a terrible friend, that we had been such good friends back in the day and we never talked. She was right. So, I did my best to make it right... and I hope Shelby will be around for a long time.
The Lovely Steph Leann must be bored to tears by now, as I've been regaling her with tales of college profundaty, names like McConnell and Claire and Shelby and Melanie and Ally Song and Hinson and BCM and Yo Adrianne and Bobby Black and Spivey and AmyAlex just tossed out there, each with a hilarious or emotional moment attached to it.
Of course, at some point, I have to ask, where does it end? I mean, I've got almost 800 people on my Facebook Friend list, and I'll be real honest with you... I don't care about most of them. Somehow, if you are from a small town, and that same small town happens to be the same small town I'm from, then somehow we know each other, which means somehow we must be friends. Right? I've actually developed a system now... when I pull up Facebook chat, and it takes me longer than 10 seconds to figure out who you are and why you are on my chat list, then you're gone. Sorry. Its best for both of us, really.
I've considered doing a Top 250... pick out the 250 people that I legitimately talk to (and if you are worried about whether you'd be in that list, then that means you are reading this, and if you are reading this, that means you have enough care to be my friend, which means you'll probably be safe...) and that's my friend list. Oh, its okay to add someone, but someone has to get punted.
Found out that Chris Barrow is living here. Barrow is a buddy of mine from waaaay back in the day, when Wookiee and I lived in the Thomas Circle Apartment complex in Troy. He's the cousin of Courtney Then Shaw Now McGough, and when I wondered where Barrow was in a picture I posted, Court's hubby Michael emailed me his email address. So Barrow and I are having lunch on Wednesday to... well, catch-up.
Where am I going with any of this? Heck if I know. Its late. Its after midnight, and my best friend in the whole entire world is laying in a bed sleeping, not more than fifty feet from where I sit. Funny thing, that Stephanie Campbell. We became really close right off the bat, and she was my best friend, one I could tell anything to, and someone I wanted to tell stuff too first... and I was that for her. She wasn't the first girl that was that way with me, there have been others that have been that close... The Lovely Steph Leann was just the first one that stayed there long enough for me to not just like her, but like her like her. Love her even.
Yours Truly and The Lovely Steph Leann, lookin' all good and stuff.... kinda reminds me of when Mater is talking to Lightnin' McQueen, saying, "I knew I made the right decision... for my best friend..."
Saturday night we were driving home after the glorious wedding of Joey Thornell and Alissa Kelley, had to make a few stops here and there to do some errands, and we decided we were hungry. It was getting late, and neither of us wanted a ton of food, so we figured Taco Bell would be enough for right then... five bucks gets us a drink to share and a couple of Tacos to split.
When we lived in that area, we used to go to the one over on Highway 31, close to The Galleria Mall, but we knew what to expect. It was terrible, and you could figure on waiting about 20 minutes for anything, which means you had to really, really have a hankerin' for a nacho bell grande. The one on Highway 280, where we live now, has never been bad, until this night. When we get inside, there are people standing everywhere. The Lovely Steph Leann asks me if we should go anywhere else, but I just say, "Nah, we'll just wait it out". The last time something like this happened, over at the other Taco Bell, I stood in line for only 10 minutes, as the people in front of me left one by one.
Not this night. We actually ordered pretty quickly, though that was the mistake... once they have your money, your locked in, you can't leave. Its obvious that they were short handed, so we just went and sat down... for about 20 minutes. Some lady started talking loudly that she wanted her money back, another guy came in and told another guy that he had ordered, left, gone across Hwy 280 to fill up his car with gas and come back, and his order still wasn't ready. The Lovely Steph Leann and I just sat there, kinda giggling.
The register guy, Maurice, was complaining loudly about lack of help-- "We ain't got nobody shown up here!" and apparently said something to his manager, who said something back. Maurice left the register and came out into the cafe to stock the condiment bar (and not back to the kitchen to help do something--dress a taco, dump some cinnamon sticks into the grease, top off a quesadilla--SOMETHING) and I heard him say, "I's a man too! I is! I's a man too!"
I looked over at The Lovely Steph Leann and whispered, "This is why I blog." She laughed. I looked at my best friend in the whole world, knowing with all of my heart that she'd never drop me from Facebook, she'd never block her page from my sight and she'll always be in that very, very inner inner inner circle of people that I care about the most, and that care about me. And that's a picture worth a thousand words.
(that last line really made no sense whatsoever, but again, its late, and I thought that would be just romantic enough to end this blog post with... Idol tomorrow! Maybe another real, non-Idol post on Wednesday!)
And something happened that I didn't expect... I think I got caught up in all of it. The memories flood back, kinda reminding me of the Trisha Yearwood song I was singing earlier, while making perfect mochas and delicious grande lattes... "it was like a lighted match had been tossed into my soul, it was like a dam had broken in my heart... after taking every detour, getting lost and losing track, so that even if I wanted I could not find my way back, after driving out the memories of the way things had been, after I had forgotten all about it, this pic remembers when..."
Okay, it wasn't quite that dramatic. But I do love that song, and consider it to the be the saddest song ever written, though thats a complete other post... anyway, some of the memories that rushed back...
Like, there's a picture of me and Mike Brunson blowing on Allyson Guy's head, to cool her down after rock climbing. I was about as tired as I have ever been after that day, but it was awesome because I got about 40 feet up before I reached a point where I just had to leap for it. And I missed, but luckily there was a rope and beaner tying me to a safety point. Later, I screwed up my friendship with Mike, but through God's grace and Mike's forgiveness, things were settled. I dunno that Mike and I will be BFF, but at least the air is clear.
There's a picture of me and Adrianne Benton and Labett White on the beach, a trip I vaguely even remember. We were freshman, the three of us, and we were pretty tight for a little while. We even called ourselves "Threenkies", a silly nickname that only a silly 18 year old guy and two 18 year old girls could come up with. We giggled alot. Adrianne emailed me a few weeks ago with the line "I tried this once and you didn't respond, so I'll try it again"... I emailed her last night. Hope to hear from her.
There's another shot from my senior year (yes, yes, my first one) during the Farmhouse Big Barn Party. I had invited my friend Chrissy to go with me, she said sure, and in the picture, its us with Kevin Spivey and Whitley Porter, four good friends who had a great time. Actually, Spivey was in love with Chrissy's soft felt jacket, but that's another story altogether. That night was a hoot, as it was kinda cold, and for whatever reason, on the trail, my horse decided to go walking in the lake. Mind you, this was like, 9pm at night. Had my first conversation with Spivey in almost 10 years a few days ago. It was awesome.
Oh, what about this one, from my senior year in high school, when my best buddy Chris McCall and I were with my cousin April and our friend Michael down in Orlando, standing under the Hard Rock Cafe car that juts out of the front of the building... good times, all. That's Chris, wearing a shirt that says "Pump This", which at this late (early?) hour I find extreeeeeemely funny. Yeah, and I'm totally wearing the same shirt that I later wore on the beach with Labett and Adrianne. Chris also emailed me a few days back, and I need to email him. On my to-do list on Wednesday.
But the harder pictures are the ones that indicate those friendships that either no longer exist or can't. I'll be very vague here, because I'm not going to try to embarass anyone or call anyone out. One is my fault. I did something stupid ten years ago, and am still paying for it. Maybe I'm not, maybe all is forgiven, but at the same time, it pains me nonetheless. I'm a closure person, for better or for worse, and when there is none, then to me... well, there is none. That whole closure thing has bitten me a few times--I wish I didn't care, but I do.
Another is not my fault, but that doesn't matter, because through no fault of my own, we're done being friends. And that hurts to no end.
I cherish my friendships. See, I kinda have these circles that go around me... there's an outer circle, people I know, people I consider friends, but have to follow it up with an "I guess" because really, they are more like acquaintances. There's another circle, maybe a little tighter, where most of my friends fall. These are the friends that I enjoy seeing when I can, but perhaps haven't taken the time to follow up, or email enough, or haven't been on the receiving end of such an attempt. Then you get a little closer, where most of my "closer friends" lie. Maybe I consider them closer than they actually think they are, friends that I would do anything for, would probably do anything for me, and such.
You've probably heard this entire analogy before, the "outer" and "inner" circles, but its the same with me, really, cause I'm not that much different. Then maybe there are one or two people that I'm pretty tight with, that know lots and lots about me. And the funny part is, no one stays the same really. People drift in and out over the years, some people I would see every day or two for years suddenly aren't there anymore, and we lose touch. People like Sybil Johnson, McQ, The Valdmanis or Big Eddy, people that I would love to see much more of, but just aren't able to.
Others who were never a factor in my life at all, people I barely said a word-one to most times suddenly become someone I talk to on a regular basis... Erin the Marine Wife and Mindy D'A (though she never spoke to me, being the popular ADPi that she was) come to mind (mostly via online chatting), as does The Official Clouds in My Coffee Ombudsman Brad Latta.
I've mentioned before the dangers of Facebook... try it when people you are excited about talking to again decide that it would be best not too. Then again, its a joy when people you didn't think wanted to be closer decide they do. Works both ways. Or as Gloria Estefan might say, "It cuts both ways..."
Though, honestly, if I'm going with Gloria Estefan, and I'm in "I want to hear some make-me-feel-like-crap" kind of music, you can't go wrong with "Here We Are". Wow. Her voice is incredible, her emotion is strong and I can't think of many other songs that make use of the word "sublime". Late 80s/early 90s Gloria = awesomeness. Where was I?
I'm not sure why I have this need to "catch up" with people anyway... its how I've always been. Maybe I'm a friend for life or something, but when I have the opportunity, I like to know whats going on with people I know and care about. Maybe its a few weeks between "catch ups", like with my buddy KT, or maybe its a few months, like with my best mate Wookiee, or maybe even a few years... had a great conversation with Shelby last week. She pretty much called me out and told me I was kind of a terrible friend, that we had been such good friends back in the day and we never talked. She was right. So, I did my best to make it right... and I hope Shelby will be around for a long time.
The Lovely Steph Leann must be bored to tears by now, as I've been regaling her with tales of college profundaty, names like McConnell and Claire and Shelby and Melanie and Ally Song and Hinson and BCM and Yo Adrianne and Bobby Black and Spivey and AmyAlex just tossed out there, each with a hilarious or emotional moment attached to it.
Of course, at some point, I have to ask, where does it end? I mean, I've got almost 800 people on my Facebook Friend list, and I'll be real honest with you... I don't care about most of them. Somehow, if you are from a small town, and that same small town happens to be the same small town I'm from, then somehow we know each other, which means somehow we must be friends. Right? I've actually developed a system now... when I pull up Facebook chat, and it takes me longer than 10 seconds to figure out who you are and why you are on my chat list, then you're gone. Sorry. Its best for both of us, really.
I've considered doing a Top 250... pick out the 250 people that I legitimately talk to (and if you are worried about whether you'd be in that list, then that means you are reading this, and if you are reading this, that means you have enough care to be my friend, which means you'll probably be safe...) and that's my friend list. Oh, its okay to add someone, but someone has to get punted.
Found out that Chris Barrow is living here. Barrow is a buddy of mine from waaaay back in the day, when Wookiee and I lived in the Thomas Circle Apartment complex in Troy. He's the cousin of Courtney Then Shaw Now McGough, and when I wondered where Barrow was in a picture I posted, Court's hubby Michael emailed me his email address. So Barrow and I are having lunch on Wednesday to... well, catch-up.
In a random sidenote, my book idea is beginning to take shape. I've been jotting down notes and ideas for three days now--names, descriptions, places, events, etc--and I'm going tomorrow to purchase a "audio diction recorder". I want to be able to get my ideas quickly before I lose them, and by a recorder, I can just turn it on, speak my thoughts, and listen to it later. Did you know these things cost, like, $30 or $40? I was thinking $20. I went to Best Buy, and of course, the $28.99 model is sold out. I almost picked up a $39.99 Sony, but put it back, thinking I'd go to Wal-Mart later. I went after working at The Most Caffeinated Place on Hwy 280, and they had similar prices... that is, after I found it. The old Indian guy who was there when I purchased the Wii Fit was there tonight.
"Can I heep you vit sum-ting?" he barked. I told him was I was looking for, he said, "Come, come". I felt like I was being led to see The Golden Child or something... he leads me to the aisle where they were, points at three different pegs and says, "All vee have is thees, thees, thees, that ees all." Then he walked away. I left without purchasing anything. I have to get something though--I had an entire dialogue conversation with myself today in the car, about four pages worth of material that I hope I can remember again.
Where am I going with any of this? Heck if I know. Its late. Its after midnight, and my best friend in the whole entire world is laying in a bed sleeping, not more than fifty feet from where I sit. Funny thing, that Stephanie Campbell. We became really close right off the bat, and she was my best friend, one I could tell anything to, and someone I wanted to tell stuff too first... and I was that for her. She wasn't the first girl that was that way with me, there have been others that have been that close... The Lovely Steph Leann was just the first one that stayed there long enough for me to not just like her, but like her like her. Love her even.
Yours Truly and The Lovely Steph Leann, lookin' all good and stuff.... kinda reminds me of when Mater is talking to Lightnin' McQueen, saying, "I knew I made the right decision... for my best friend..."
Saturday night we were driving home after the glorious wedding of Joey Thornell and Alissa Kelley, had to make a few stops here and there to do some errands, and we decided we were hungry. It was getting late, and neither of us wanted a ton of food, so we figured Taco Bell would be enough for right then... five bucks gets us a drink to share and a couple of Tacos to split.
When we lived in that area, we used to go to the one over on Highway 31, close to The Galleria Mall, but we knew what to expect. It was terrible, and you could figure on waiting about 20 minutes for anything, which means you had to really, really have a hankerin' for a nacho bell grande. The one on Highway 280, where we live now, has never been bad, until this night. When we get inside, there are people standing everywhere. The Lovely Steph Leann asks me if we should go anywhere else, but I just say, "Nah, we'll just wait it out". The last time something like this happened, over at the other Taco Bell, I stood in line for only 10 minutes, as the people in front of me left one by one.
Not this night. We actually ordered pretty quickly, though that was the mistake... once they have your money, your locked in, you can't leave. Its obvious that they were short handed, so we just went and sat down... for about 20 minutes. Some lady started talking loudly that she wanted her money back, another guy came in and told another guy that he had ordered, left, gone across Hwy 280 to fill up his car with gas and come back, and his order still wasn't ready. The Lovely Steph Leann and I just sat there, kinda giggling.
The register guy, Maurice, was complaining loudly about lack of help-- "We ain't got nobody shown up here!" and apparently said something to his manager, who said something back. Maurice left the register and came out into the cafe to stock the condiment bar (and not back to the kitchen to help do something--dress a taco, dump some cinnamon sticks into the grease, top off a quesadilla--SOMETHING) and I heard him say, "I's a man too! I is! I's a man too!"
I looked over at The Lovely Steph Leann and whispered, "This is why I blog." She laughed. I looked at my best friend in the whole world, knowing with all of my heart that she'd never drop me from Facebook, she'd never block her page from my sight and she'll always be in that very, very inner inner inner circle of people that I care about the most, and that care about me. And that's a picture worth a thousand words.
(that last line really made no sense whatsoever, but again, its late, and I thought that would be just romantic enough to end this blog post with... Idol tomorrow! Maybe another real, non-Idol post on Wednesday!)
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