Thursday, March 12, 2009

Read this post....please????

Last week I finally got my shit together and went in for that oh so dreaded yearly physical that we all hate. Um....and when I say yearly...I may mean every-other-two-and-a-half-yearly. Yeah. Hasn't been done since the kid came out. Oops.

So we do all that jazz, and then I'm told I have to come back next week, which would now be yesterday, for blood tests.

Blood tests that involve fasting.

I got to the clinic, shortly after it opened at 9am, and took my place in line behind the THREE other people that were already waiting. So it was nearly 10am before it was my turn. Goody.

Now, just in case you've never had the pleasure of hanging out with me, you should know that I'm the kind of person who when my blood sugar drops below a certain level, I become useless. I get dizzy, I can't think straight, I NEED to eat. Dipping below this critical level also makes me a mite bit cranky.

My husband is thinking to himself "A MITE bit cranky??"

OK....maybe a LOT bit cranky.

All this is a preamble to say that the experience that I'm about to tell you about next may have been slightly coloured by my hunger. But it STILL wasn't pretty.

So it's my turn.

"Next person come in please" the tech bellows from inside.

That was the END of the pleases. She must have given me 10 or 12 different instructions, which I obeyed like a good little patient, and not a single please escaped her lips.

"Take off your coat."

"Put your coat down on the bench."

"Sit down here."

"I need your right arm."

After she capped off the 5th or 6th vial, I lightheartedly turned to her and asked how many she was taking. "Just one more" she replied, while giving me a Class-A stink-eye. I know at that moment she seriously considered draining me of an extra litre or 2, just for daring to ask.

"Hold this here" as she pushes a wiry cotton ball to my arm.

Once I was appropriately band-aided and had my coat in my arms and was told "that's all, you can go," I smiled and said thanks.

"Grunt."

Yeah, you have a nice day too!

So what IS IT with people? Where have the pleases and the thank-yous gone in our lives? Is it really that hard to throw in a "please" here and there? Conversely to Cruella DeLabtech, the other day I went through the Timmy drive through and got a "Thank You, have a great day!" from a young girl working at the window, and I think she REALLY meant it. I thought to myself at the time how nice it was, and how rare! Manners, and customer service is something that's seriously lacking these days, if y'all ask me!

It's something we're trying very hard to teach Griffin - a little bit of manners go a LONG way!

So, thanks for reading! And y'all come back now, please!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you and please come again!

Anonymous said...

Hi Jenn. Yeah, manners are HUGE for children. We grilled manners into Liam at a very young age. He gets Nothing unless we hear a please and a thank you. Teachers at his school tell as all the time that he's very polite. He even won the Respect Award last month.

Lisa @ Boondock Ramblings said...

People really are rude sometimes. I am out of my head when my blood sugar drops so I can relate to that part of it. More and more people are detached from dealing with people because of computers. I'm not saying computers and blogging are bad, but when you don't deal with people directly you sometimes forget .... "oh...hey, I should say, 'thank you.'"

Did you see Wall-E? Yeah, that reminds me of how life could be if we're not careful in this society.

Ginger said...

I answer the phone sometimes at the family business. I read somewhere that you should always smile when you answer the phone. It makes you sound happy and pleasant. One day I observed my voice when I didn't smile and then again when I did. It made a huge difference. So whenever I grab the phone I smile (even when I don't feel like it). I think I might be more apt to forgive a lapse of please and thank you if the person was at least pleasant!

Regina said...

Oh wow - good thing the needle was not in YOUR hand?!? I am always amazed at how rude people can be to cashiers -and how approaching them with a cheerful "please, thanks, or how are you doing" can really brighten everyone's day. People just need to learn to "play nice!" Oh -my vent is over...

Coal Miner's Granddaughter said...

You wanna bet she had to watch about five people before you pee into a cup for drug testing? Seriously. They can't close the door and have to be witnessed as actually peeing in the cup with no possibility of substituting someone else's pee.

Ish.

Maybe that was the reason for her terseness?

Anonymous said...

Dear March Break,
Please piss right off, so that Jenn will have time and energy to write a new blog entry.

kisses,
Gretel

DawgDyke said...

I admit I'm a rude inconsiderate bitch when I'm stressed from work; please/thankyou/yourwelcome suddenly are deleted out of my vocabulary.

It happens, we all have bad days. Some have way more than most, and those people should cheer up with a damn happy meal!