Hold it!

There is a girl (we'll call her Beth) who works in another department in our office that my department works with frequently. Beth is nice enough to work with. But Beth has a bad habit.

This morning I rode the elevator up to the 3rd floor with another girl (dang, picking names is hard! Umm... she can be Cindy), Beth took the stairs right before Cindy and I got on the elevator. A wise choice, if you're even a little quick you can beat the elevator every time.

So Cindy and I were chatting as we exited the elevator and walked down the hall to the door to our offices, and Beth was walking about 5 paces in front of us, the first to get to the door. The kind of door you have to use an electronic FOB to open. Cindy detoured through a different door and I followed Beth. Beth opened the door, didn't look back, and walked through, letting the door close behind her JUST as I reached it. There is no way she didn't know I was behind her. I am a loud walker, I jingle my keys, and two seconds before Beth opened the door I had called after Cindy to "have a good day."

Beth is not deaf.

That's the second time she's done that to me! What is so hard about holding the door for a few seconds??

UGH.

-Kitty

Everyone must wait their turn.

Why is it that old people, seniors, the AARP crowd, grandma's and general geriatrics think they are above waiting in line? Why do these people think that cramming their carts into the back of my heels might make the line go faster? Do they really think that hacking up a lung in my ear will actually make the cashier move a little faster? NO! Everyone must wait their turn.

I wonder, is it all seniors? Or is it the seniors that seek me out?

One more thing. Do all senior citizens need to go for their "joy rides" while I am on my lunch hour? I only have a small window of opportunity to enjoy my lunch, and really driving behind you and Myrtle, going 25 miles per hour does not help the experience.

* I would like to apologize to any LOVELY SENIORS that read this blog, this was not directed towards YOU personally, just the ones that go below the speed limit, get all huffy in lines, and that enjoy hacking a lung in my general direction, thank you*

-Katherine

The Shining Moment in my Day

I'm feeling much better since yesterday. Well, about traffic anyway. Vindication will do that to you.

I drive 25 miles to and from work every day. Today's traffic was particularly horrendous, and it took me over an hour to get home. That was because this weekend is the Strawberry Festival one town away from where I live (in the town that Katherine lives in actually). I myself have never gone. I guess I would rather eat strawberries in the comfort of my own home, and without the pleasure of paying twelve bucks just to get entrance to them.

But I digress.

Apparently the Strawberry Festival is a big draw to people from L.A. and the Inland Empire because there were a LOT of out of towners on the freeway. Whatever, I expected this as I can see the freeway from my office.

So here's what ticked me off: While everyone else is pretty much patiently cruising along at a leisurely 15 mph for several miles, some Angelenos (a.k.a. douchebags from L.A.) in a black Porsche Cayenne decide they're more important than everyone else and start passing people on the left shoulder every time traffic stops. Then when it picks up again they cut off some poor sap. Traffic stops - they pass, goes - cut someone off. I guess it was REALLY important they get to those strawberries ASAP. So I got peeved, but what could I do?

A minute or two after they pass me, I hear blaring sirens, and a cop speeds past, also in the shoulder. I prayed to sweet, sweet Jesus, "Please don't let him be racing to an accident, please say he saw that Cayenne..." And guess what? That's right - the good Lord answered my prayer. A couple minutes later I see the Cayenne pulled over on the right shoulder with the cop car behind it. YES!! I may have laughed and pointed. They probably didn't see me, but it made me feel better.

Apparently a lot of other people felt the same way. One or two cars beeped their horns as they drove past, and the cop gave a friendly wave. I imagine he was saying, "Just doin' my job, folks. Happy to be of service."

Ahhh... That was totally worth some exhaust in the face.

-Kitty

Dis.gus.ting.

So I was driving home from work last night, in the home stretch right before my exit, feeling pretty good. It was a beautiful day, my window was open, the wind was tousling my hair, and I had NO plans for the evening. Ahhh...

I was just about to pass this obnoxious, armored transport-type truck who was getting on the freeway (slooowly), and move over into the exit lane, when I saw the driver look at me in his side mirror. The front of my car was next to his back bumper and I was going probably 10-15 mph faster than him (and he still had tons of time to get over had he let me pass), but he started moving over into me anyway! I slammed on the brakes to avoid him, but then I got hit anyway - by a CLOUD OF BLACK EXHAUST coming from the truck. There was so much smoke! It smelled like filthy burning oil, and it filled up my car since I'd been cruising happily with my window open. Blech!

So I let the guy know how that made me feel (read: I flipped him the bird), and he had the nerve to watch me in his side mirror, and then start laughing! Grrr...

I got off the freeway, and turned onto the frontage road that leads to my house, still going the same direction as the truck. Since traffic slows right after my exit, I was still driving next to it except they were up higher. Well, I looked up, and the guy in the passenger seat WAVED TO ME, laughing!! Unfortunately, there was a cop in front of me so I chose not to give him another gesture, not that it would have made me feel any better.

I think this goes beyond rude and straight into the ASSH*LE category. I really wish I had gotten the name of the company off the truck so I could call and complain. Oh well. With any luck their crappy driving will lead them to hit a police car some day and vengeance shall be mine.

I only hope I'm lucky enough to witness it, so I can just laugh and wave...

-Kitty

Thank you & Come again!

Have you noticed that customer service is really lacking in the retail market? At Target, they are so frazzled to rush you through the line, that they hardly look up and practically throw your items at you to get you out the door faster. At McDonald's, Lord knows what will end up in your bag because the employees are so programed to get a person out the door that THEY don't even know what they are putting in the bags.

Just yesterday, I went to Kohl's. I purchased one item. I was in a short line, one person was ahead of me. I thought to myself, great! I will get out of here, PRONTO! Well, the checker picked up the phone during the transaction ahead of me, and it looked like she was going to take care of us then get back to the phone. Or so I thought. She did take care of the person in front of me, proceeded to pick up the phone, tells the person on the other end of her call, "I have one more". ( I assume, that was code for "customer") Keeps the phone at her ear, finished my transaction, puts the bag down, the receipt on top of the bag, hangs up the phone and WALKS AWAY! I hadn't even put my wallet away, when she was GONE! Nothing! Crickets! No, Thank you! No, Have a nice day! No, Thank you for shopping at Kohl's! Just the dust she kicked up from run/walking away!

So I say to those few who read this rant, Thank you & Come Again!

-Katherine

I swear I am not the Thank You card police!

I am a big fan of sending cards. Thank you cards, birthday cards, miss you cards, and just because cards. But as of lately I have been slacking on my card sending duties. I am sure nobody has noticed, but I have. I think it is because my Aunite Margret who was 85 and who lived alone in NYC passed away last year. I used to send her cards every chance I got. Now I don't have a special card person to send a card too any more. Maybe I will start sending them to my mom, who by the way lives in the same town as myself and who I talk to everyday, so I think the card sending might seem silly, but I will give it at shot.

BUT! To help my blogging friends send a card for free to their special someone (maybe to Nana? Kitty!) I found a promo code for Hallmark.com. You just need to select and personalize your card ( make sure it's $3.49 or less), then use the promo code ICTCARD, and Hallmark will print and MAIL your card for you. I have done this a couple if times, it's very easy to do!

Have fun, and make someones day!

-Katherine

A Random Act of Kindness Gone Wrong

Today is Sunday, and Mother's day. I took my usual trip to Target for the weekly odds and ends that I needed. The store was unusually empty, and I was in a great Mother's Day spirit.

I go to checkout, and was behind a little girl. She was very sweet, she kept moving her two items up the belt so I can get more stuff on it, and she was very worried about my things. When she went to pay, Ms. Smarty Pants /Target employee ( she deserves her own paragraph to herself) informs the little girl she was short some change. I chime in and let her know I had a dollar she could have. Proceeded to give the little girl the extra money she needed. The little girl said thank you and off she went.

I felt good, it was nice to do something for someone. Not that Ms. Smarty Pants/Target employee gave a flying rats ass about it. I proceeded to have MSP/TE ring up my items, and she noticed I had a ton of coupons. She was not happy with me, or the long line behind me that was forming. I happen to look back in the line and I see the little girl telling her mom that I had given her some money for her purchase. What do I see? The little girls extra LARGE mother, yelling at her about taking money from me! My hands were shaking. I was trying to pay attention to MSP/TE who kept giving me crap about every freakin' coupon, while trying very hard not to look at this poor girl, getting verbally assaulted by her Hostess Twinkie Lovin' Mother!

The mother marched past me, clearly angry. I tried to not look in her direction and focus my attention on this Target employee who felt it was her mission to dispute every coupon that I had handed to her. I was so flustered I wanted to run away.

But in the end, the little girl got her toy and I felt like I had done something nice. The little girl has a new toy and I saved $16.00 bucks! HA! To you Ms. Smarty Pants/Target Employee, see you next Sunday!

-Katherine

Being the Etiquette Police is RUDE

I finally found some inspiration, so, sorry if this is long. Blame my director of HR, she is just too inspiring!

I live the corporate life, working in the bank's headquarters, and witnessing an array of people and personalities working together in beautiful symbiosis. Well, okay not quite.

There's one person who's irked me since the beginning of my employment here a little over a year ago. That person is the director of HR. We'll call her Minnie. Minnie is originally from England and fancies herself to be the supreme authority of all things related to etiquette. In reality, she's a sadly unprofessional, rude, pompous ass.

Every month or so since we moved all of our corporate offices into one brand-spankin'-new building, we receive reminders from Minnie in the form of emails and occasionally posted print-outs. Although these are meant to maintain a level of professionalism and courtesy in the office, instead they come across as her sounding at best like she has nothing better to do, and at worst flat-out rude and condescending. Often both.

The first one was a sign posted in our break room which appeared a few weeks after the move that read, "HOW DISAPPOINTING, people are slipping already..." and went on to remind everyone to clean up after themselves. Recently I've received other emails letting us know that she has witnessed people eating at their desks (against the rules, you know), and she goes on to actually describe what kinds of food are being consumed! Is that really necessary?? And, why not just ask the people doing it to stop rather than wasting time sending out mass emails?

Minnie also has a habit of going around staring at women's feet to ensure they are wearing proper hosiery. She is very obvious about this. She'll stare at your feet, and upon finding no hosiery, she will look at your face, then back at your feet. She won't say anything to you though, she'd rather send out a "reminder" to the entire office that rules are being broken and we MUST follow them as a matter of etiquette! She takes great personal satisfaction in these reminders, which in itself is not very polite, is it?

Without a doubt, however, the rudest thing I've witnessed her do was when I had to take an employee issue to her shortly after I started here. Granted, it wasn't a terribly serious matter, but it related to sexual harrassment, so not only did it legally have to be addressed, but my employee (I'll call her Stacy) was very upset about it and I wanted to see it resolved for her sake. (Plus the guy did say something extremely inappropriate for the workplace.) Minnie's response to me was, "One professional to another, Stacy is pretty uptight." I was seriously taken aback! I couldn't believe this was the director of HR I was talking to. I made sure she knew that I did NOT think Stacy was an uptight person at all, not that it should matter whether she was or wasn't. Ever since then, I've thought this woman was anything but "professional."

Maybe it's her job to be the etiquette police, but if she's going to do that, she could at least try to have some manners of her own.

Kitty

The power of a Thank You card.

As I sat at work today, trying to order the perfect thank you card, I wondered what happened to the Thank You card? Sure, I get one once a year from my dentist, and the Honda Dealership always sends me one after my routine oil change. But other than that, where did it go?

Are people too busy in their daily lives that a simple note of thanks is too much? I admit, I do send the occasional thank you e-mail, a quick note to thank someone. But for gifts or over the top gestures, I think a personalized note is important.

Trying to explain the power of the Thank You note to my 14 year old sometimes falls on deaf ears. Trust me, there have been many a late night where I have found myself yelling "just sign your name" or "it's for Grandma, JUST DO IT!" But for the most part she just does it, because I told her to. Do I think the Thank You note tradition will be handed down to her daughter some day? It's too early to tell, but I hope so.

For now, I will threaten her within the last inch of her cell phone's life to do her Thank You cards. And she will do them, and I will beam with pride when my mom calls to tell me I am doing a good job with my daughter.

-Katherine

No Really, Please Don't Call Us Kate.

My name is Katherine and I am blogging with my friend Kitty.

Everyday Kitty and I run across random acts of rudeness. Starting with our names. Our name is not Kate, Katie, Kathleen, Kay, or any other form of Kate.

Just the other day a co-worker, someone I have worked with closely, walks past me and says, "Hey, Kathleen!" Then proceeded to go, "Oh, Katherine, or whatever your name is." Jeez, I have a name! I was born with it, and several important documents state that my name is Katherine, not, "WHATEVER!"

So, Kitty and I have decided to dedicate our blog to all the random acts of rudeness we come across, and believe me there will be plenty to chat about.

We believe that the world has become a rude and sad place. Lacking of thank you cards and common courtesy.

Please join us in our journey to rid the world of its selfish ways.

Thank you,

Katherine