Thursday, May 13, 2010

Even stranger--and more disturbed--people

I encountered a seriously disturbed individual in a NYC Subway. Now, you may have heard this a lot, or even encountered such people in the city subways, but this was a Subway restaurant. It's not in such a place that you normally expect to see such an individual. But there she was. The man behind the counter was finishing preparing her sandwich and she wanted it cut and wrapped in a specific way, so she was explaining that to him but I guess he was having trouble understanding exactly what she wanted because she started yelling "let me wrap my own sandwich!" So I'm ordering my sandwich and this seriously rude woman keeps interrupting me and the guy making mine, which is making the guy take longer, thus extending the amount of time I have to wait before enjoying my sandwich, and that's just not okay. So things start to escalate between her and the barely English-speaking Hispanic man trying to help her (so he can get the hell rid of her). I must have missed something, because the next thing I know, they're arguing over payment. The man is explaining to her that she still owes a dollar for the sandwich, but she does not agree. I don't think math--or English--or people skills--was her strong point. it seems her strong point was being a crazy obnoxious bitch. So she goes about counting pennies out of her purse. Evidently, she wanted to pay a dollar in pennies. This created another problem, because the man helping her understandably was not totally loving the idea of waiting for her to deposit a hundred copper circles on the counter and then have to try and fit them all into the cash register. Don't know why, but somehow he wasn't crazy about that idea, I guess. Here's the thing, though--did she even have close to a hundred pennies in that purse? I mean, who carries around that kind of change? Someone selling individual sticks of gum? Anyway, after a couple more tense exchanges between them, she grabs the dollar bill he's holding out of his hand and throws it at him. She starts swearing at the man, and throwing napkins on the floor, telling him to come clean them up. She's yelling "F^$k you!" and he's yelling "F^$k you!" and she yells back "How dare you talk to your customers like that!" She continues to make a mess, yelling 'take it outta your paycheck, f@&&*t!" I think she was referring to the balance owed on her sandwich. Maybe she should have just paid by credit card and paid the balance when she had the money. Well, the gritty-looking woman continues yelling and starts doing some weird and incredibly unattractive dance I hope never to see again from someone with that kind of posterior. I was expecting all the sewer rats in the city to be summoned and start circling her and following her into her lair, wherever it may be. Finally, she leaves after the men behind the counter threaten to call the cops. "I'mma come back here tomorrow with my boss, f@&&*t! I'mma tell 'im what you did!" What did he do? More to the point--you have a boss? What do YOU do?

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