sorry, people behind me.
October 8, 2007Setting: Wearing my “Vote for Pedro” t-shirt, I walk into Rite Aid to buy laundry detergent, and stand in line. There is no one behind me.
Cashier: “Vote for Pedro.” Pedro is Peter in Spanish. Why are you voting for Peter? Who is Peter?
Me: Heh-heh. It’s from Napoleon Dynamite.
Cashier: Napoleon. He was French.
Me: Yep.
Cashier: I would really like to learn more about his life.
Me: Yes, he was very interesting.
Cashier: But I don’t have time right now, because I’m studying Egyptology.
Me: Another interesting subject.
At this point, he still has not rung up my laundry detergent, and there are 2 people behind me in line.
Cashier: Yeah, I met this girl last night while I was playing Magic who is a linguist. She’s studying Greek. I would like to study French, Spanish, and Egyptian hieroglyphs. I’m not in college or anything, but I’m going to get some books and learn.
Me: Well, you don’t necessarily have to go to college to get an education.
Cashier: Tell me about it! “Bonjour!” That’s French. It sounds like Italian, but it’s not.
Me: Mm-hmm.
I finally get to swipe my credit card, as somewhere along the line he did in fact ring up the laundry detergent.
Cashier: Credit or debit?
Me: Debit.
Person in line behind me (the first of 4): Huge sigh of relief
At first I just thought the cashier was strange. But then he mentioned playing Magic, and I suddenly realized that, no, he’s just incredibly socially awkward. Were it not for two things, I might never visit this Rite Aid again as a result of this conversation. (1) It is within walking distance of my house. (2) If you swipe a debit card, rather than the machine telling you to “please enter your PIN,” the machine says, “Enter Secret Code Now.” This makes me feel unbelievably cool. Even after an exchange such as this one.
Last night at the Taco Bell the cashier AND the guy at the window who hands you your food asked your dad if he was a crocodile hunter…
I have 2 theories for this odd behavior:
1) Perhaps there is some alignment of the stars that has induced bizarre questions in the minds of cashiers across the country.
2) After watching “Chuck” last night, perhaps these guys are with the CIA and they were giving some kind of coded message. After all, the machine did ask for your secret code. Maybe not everyone that slides their debit card gets that message. Sadly we paid cash so we may never know…
OK, so now I’m freaked out by both the blog AND the comment (by mom)…..REALLY strange….however, I don’t get out much, so maybe this has become “normal” behavior for cashiers in y’all’s neck of the woods!
In partial defense of the Taco Bell guys, I was wearing a khaki vest, which MIGHT have been mistaken for the short-sleeved khaki shirts that Steve Irwin used to wear. Of course, he’s no longer alive and I appeared to be (at least I was successfully driving through the drive-through).
I believe the actual question was, “Are you some kind of Crocodile Hunter?” To which I wanted to respond, “Yes, but I’m the really ineffective kind that has never actually caught one. Thanks for rubbing salt into THAT wound!”
I should mention that the cashier adventure continued tonight when I managed to COMPLETELY fluster the Popeye’s cashier by ordering two combo meals by number, both with the same kind of drink. I’m not sure what caused the difficulty, but she seemed to need to check this out with upper management (and perhaps poll a majority of the stockholders) several times during the order. I was really curious as to what sort of order would have been EASIER than this one, but maybe I just don’t understand the intricacies of the fast-food industry.