Sunday, April 13, 2014

The day I fought in public (again)

I am not a person who seeks confrontation. No. I hide from it. Especially if it's in public. I find arguing in public embarrassing - but sometimes, people are acting like royal assholes and I can't control my feelings. Let me tell you about it in a little bit.

First: happy things!

I don't even know why I haven't talked about this on here yet, because it's not even a real secret. In fact, a few months ago, we distributed a good number of letters to announce it:
Nick and I are getting married in Germany! We've been married for 4.5 years, but back then, my parents were unable to come. (Maybe because we gave them 3 weeks notice and we got married thousands of miles away?!)
Anyways, we had a beautiful wedding at Nick's parents' house and in my mind it couldn't have been more perfect. My parents and brothers attended via Skype and my brothers even played a song for us. (They even dressed up in fancy clothes and had a celebratory dinner!)

Still, we've been planning on having a bigger church wedding in Germany ever since - one where everyone from this side of the pond will be there, too. This is going to happen in just six weeks. And guess what!? There are a number of people from the U.S. coming to be there with us - including my parents in law! It is going to be so great to have them here!

While I love to plan, I have been so busy with school, the beginning-of-the-year-chaos, my trip to Baltimore, etc that this even just snuck up on us without warning.

That's exactly how I feel about it.
Source.
Now the serious matter:

We received a wedding related package from the U.S. the other day and were notified that there was something waiting at customs for us. 

While I want to spare you the details: picking it up was much less enjoyable as expected. The lady was just plain rude - not just because the things in the package were handled with the least possible care, but also because the value of the gifts were picked at random by the officer. The receipt I was sent via email didn't even count and the office just accused me of making it up. - The value that she found online was 4 times higher than the actual cost. 

Source.

I'm happy to pay what I owe. Even if my receipts don't count and you want to go with your higher prices, it's all fine. You say what I have to pay and I'll do it. But don't treat me like that in public, don't throw around my property this carelessly and make snarky comments about them, don't call me or the sender a liar after I made them jump through hoops to send me receipts, don't act like I broke a law - it's not illegal to have things sent to you, and most of all: don't be that disrespectful just because you are on the other side of the counter and are wearing a uniform. That's not right. 

Source.

I have been truly thrown off by the way people think it's okay to talk to others. What is wrong with you?! Why can't you at least try to treat everyone with the same respect that you'd expect from others? Don't be an asshole. It's not that hard.

I don't know if I told you, but just a few days ago, I went to the pharmacy across the street. I needed cough syrup and asked the lady, why the one she wanted to sell me was better than the one I had been taking. I was then lectured that I wouldn't understand the names on the box anyways so there was no point in answering my question. (What?!) How do you still have a business?

Almost every day, I come home and greet Nick with something like "You wouldn't believe what someone just said to me". Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm too easily irritated. (Of course, we all know this is purely rhetorical.)

On the bright side, it really sticks out if someone is nice to you. Maybe that's what this is all about. That you appreciate nice (non-rude) people even more now. 

2 comments:

  1. I LIKE the lesson learned from it! YES. Appreciate the people who behave well and try to forget those assholes! As everyone seems to be singing these days "let it go....let it go...." (Frozen) ....Margie m

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  2. Haha you can't escape "Frozen". But it's true, focusing on the bad encounters just makes me angry, so it's much healthier to look at the brighter side. Yet, I can't help but wonder what is motivating people to act like that. Rude!

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