Friday, February 11, 2005

inner-crumudgeon

belly boy
today i had a sucky day.

it started out with opening work at 7:30 am, which i have never done before. AND as anyone who knows me can attest that i am NOT a morning person! i was awake with dark & birds chirping. the 15 minute bike ride to work felt like 3 hours. i am a baby in this regard {and fear that if i ever have a baby i will be so doomed with the early mornings}.

SO, this mean old man next door to the restaurant who sells lightbulbs, and by the way is a regular, came in and YELLEd at me!

"IS THIS YOUR BIKE?"
"yes"
"YOU're JUST GOING TO LEAVE THE GLASS IN FRONT OF IT???!??!?!"
"um, sorry"

apparently in my early morning stupor i didn't notice that there was a broken glass bottle near the restaurant. hmmm. i guess i would have swept it up had i seen it, or probably not EVEn because i had 30 croissants to bake and an oven to figure out that looks like a nuclear power plant control board. AND a line of customers that were pissed b/c i wasn't the regular opener and didn't know if they wanted 1/2 cafs or double lattes or soy or vanilla or orange juice AND why aren't the croissants ready yet, etc.

i harnessed my superpower alter-ego and went next door to confront this mean cranky man, which is not my usual MO, but decided that i'm *trying* to be more assertive in life.

"i really don't appreciate you yelling at me. i didn't notice the glass and this was my first-"
"YOU DON'T NEED TO TELL ME THAT, THIS PLACE LOOKS LIKE TRASH AND YOU'RE GONNA KEEP IT THAT WAY! ...AND MORE CRAZY TALK"

meanwhile i'm shaking and about to cry b/c it is too early for me to comprehend this crazy anger. piss on you cranky man!!!

what to do with this?

for an assignment for school we are supposed to make a "book" of our "almost-selves". i think i will adopt a crumudgeon and base it on this nasty cranky man who sweeps up broken glass and goes off at the nice waitress. OR i'll be my inner-bitch. i think it would be great to use this material as a lever into my own life and figure out how to be less sensitive. ya think?

2 comments:

JR said...

boo! booooo! like the disdainful old lady in princess bride. i think u should channer yer 'don't-take-shit-from-no-one' double negative self for your project. just as 'andre' affected me, so would that self affect you.

u TOLD me to comment. is this too personal? haha

Jeanine Huebner said...

Oh, dear Mati, my regulars aren't too bad once you get to know them.... and the oven warms you up in the morning, and the smell of croissants makes you be happy all day... (okay, I think it was worth a try, but maybe you wanna look for another job... :-) )
You are the first person I get in touch from Sydney, I will let you know more about it when I know more about it - all I did so far was sleeping and having breakfast (shitty croissant, not pattisserie like...)!
I miss you!
Love, Jeanine