1-19-13 Saturday (Excuses)

Several months ago we had a contest at work.  Not to brag, well, OK, I’ll brag, I nearly single-handedly won the contest.  It wasn’t a difficult contest either.  We were to send electronic Thank You cards to people we partner with in other departments.  Easy Peezy.  The prize was free lunch for our 2 teams.  I had pretty much forgotten about it until the other team’s supervisor said, “well, I guess before we leave we should have that free lunch since you pretty much won it for us.”  She suggested Salsarita’s and I agreed.  Friday was the big lunch day.  On Thursday someone brought up lunch and I replied mentioning Salsarita’s.  My supervisor said “no, we changed it to Chick-Fil-A.”  Apparently he asked some of the team in the evening when I was off for their preference.  Huh?  I told him if it was to be Chick-Fil-A, it would be without me.  He didn’t seem to remember their marriage stance and the contributions they make to anti-gay causes.  I politely reminded him and then said, “it’s OK, it’s no big deal, I’ll just eat downstairs (cafeteria).”  I went to my desk and overheard 2 of my coworkers tell my boss that the venue needed changed.  So nice of them two but I popped back up after overhearing and made a sincere statement that it was OK.  I mean, it was my last day there so I wasn’t gonna make a fuss.  I had been making many a fuss in the last couple of weeks anyway.  My cubicle neighbor is also gay but was off on the day of the drama.

Friday came and it was changed back to Salsarita’s.  I was thankful. 

I did manage to stay off the phones Thursday and Friday.  I really didn’t do very much; I was even somewhat bored. 

I’ll miss so many of my coworkers but onto a new endeavor!

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Friday night was dinner at Ruth’s Chris for Restaurant Week with Doug and Dave.  Unfortunately this was the first time we’ve socialized with them in several months.  We had an awesome time.  The food was out of this world, as usual.  They really know how to prepare a filet.  Delish. 

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Saturday was my driving class.  8 hours at the Safety and Health Council of North Carolina. There were 26 people in the class.  The most common reason was for a speeding ticket.  I was absolutely amazed by some of the characters in this class.  We were to explain what happened, how much it has all cost (missed work, court costs, etc) and how many traffic violations we’ve had in the past.  Here’s some of the characters:

The woman was from Libya.  She was disappointed that she couldn’t get out of this speeding ticket.  In the past she was able to babble in African and the officer would just let her go.  This time it didn’t work.  She was speeding because it was a new car.  The instructor asked her what model and she didn’t know.  He asked if the car was in the parking lot.  She said she was out at the club last night and it was towed so she had to take a bus here and after the class she was going to get it back.  She also mentioned something about child endangerment but it wasn’t her child so it shouldn’t have been an issue.

A man said he was caught speeding and was driving without a license which has been taken from him for so many other priors.  He was driving 80 in a 50.  He was driving shelled.  What?  The rest of the class explained “shelled” was when you drive stoned from marijuana.  He was a burnt out mess, I assure you.  This man doesn’t think it’s a big deal to drive while being stoned.  Mr. Instructor asked if he would have done that with family in the car.    He said his brother was in the car and he was shelled too but he had a license.  His mom wasn’t in the car and she’d be upset if she knew he was driving shelled.

A woman was angry that she was pulled over for speeding although she was following the person in front of her.  Because the person was in front of her “naturally they were going faster”.  Yeah, naturally that logic doesn’t make sense but OK.  She was so mad that she was the only person who got pulled over that she gave the cop the license plate number of the person in front of her.  It didn’t help and they didn’t want it.

Another was an older man who was a fireman in the NY 9/11 incident.  He was only going 6 miles over the speed limit and knows so because his cruise was set.  2 people going 25 mph faster than him blew by but the cop said it was him.  Now, I believe the guy about his story but still don’t understand how you can say “only going 6 miles over the speed limit”.  “I only stabbed the guy once”.  “I only pushed them down a flight of 2 steps.”  I have a problem with people who can’t just admit that they broke the law.  Perhaps argue the severity of the punishment but never argue that you only broke the law a little.  Anyway, he said that he showed the cop his fireman badge but the cop said he didn’t care.  He pleaded his case but the cop was an ass and didn’t extended a professional courtesy to him.  Uhhhhh, they both save lives so that should give him a free pass.  Whatever dude.  He said that he hopes he will never run into that cop when his house is on fire.  The rest of the class seemed to egg him on and applaud him.  What a fine outstanding citizen we have.  911, fire, saving life, professional courtesy, blah blah.

Our last character was a man who said he was pulled over for reckless driving.  He hit a curb at the McDonald’s drive through.  He was treated badly and really had to pee.  He was asked to blow but he said he’d want to go to a hospital.  There was a 2 hour stand off and they took him to the police station.  He was there for hours. He ended his story with just that info.  Mr. Instructor pressed for details.  Each time he uncovered new details.  The offender had just left a bar and only had 3 beers.  He went through the drive through and saw that cops were watching him to he tried to drive away but they followed.  He parked in the lot near the McDonalds and the cop came up behind him and asked him about hitting the curb.  Mr. Offender said he wasn’t driving.  Really, he said that.  Naturally because he lied this set the tone for the rest of the incident. He had an DWI when he was 18 so maybe that’s why the cops picked on him.

Other stories were pretty mild but many seemed to have this self entitlement issue.  I was only going 15 over.  I asked for a break but he wouldn’t do anything, he was an ass.  I was embarrassed to listen to some of these people talk.  It made me mad and sad. 

We were able to leave the class 1.5 hours early.  Most of the day was spent going one person at a time and answering questions, watching videos and having discussions.  Other than just being there, it wasn’t so bad.