Monday, April 23, 2007
Happy Earth Day!
Yesterday, Sunday April 22, was Earth Day. I didn't even realize that though, until after I told Jen this story about what happened to me.
Yesterday (Sunday) I got back from Tony's bachelor party. Jen and I hung out during the day and then we went out to run a few errands around dinnertime. One errand was that Jen had to pick up a prescription at CVS, so while she went in to do that, I waited in the car in the parking lot.
At one point on Saturday, the day before, when Bendt and I were driving home from the golf course, we saw some guy blatantly littering and we started talking about how stupid people look when they litter. I told him that if I ever saw someone littering, and if could ever get the nerve up, I would pick up the trash, hand it back to them and say, "Excuse me, you just dropped this."
So while I'm sitting in the parking lot of the CVS, this older guy comes out of the CVS and climbs into his convertible. He had bought cigarettes and his wife had just come out of Starbucks with two drinks. They climb into their car and the guy unwraps his cigarettes and drops the plastic wrapping and the bit of foil/paper from inside the cigarettes out his window. As soon as I saw that, I knew that this was my chance. I jumped out of the car and I picked up the bit of paper and said, "Excuse me sir, you just dropped this." I held out the paper to him. He turns and looks at the paper, then looks me right in the eye and says, "No I didn't."
I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT! Make no mistake: he didn't misunderstand what I was getting at or accusing him of. He was blatantly defiant and had immediately switched into a-hole mode.
I said, "Yes you did" and I put the paper into his hand. He takes the paper and says, "Oh OK" and throws the paper on the ground again, right at my feet. I was livid at that point.
I pick up the paper again and said, "That's a pretty nice car you've got there - you should get a trashbag for it." His response to this is, "Yeah, well, you should go to hell." At that, he puts his car into gear and drives away. Of course I couldn't leave it at that, so I yelled after him, "F you, a**hole!"
Can you believe that?
What I should have done differently (i.e., "Jerk Store" moments):
Yesterday, Sunday April 22, was Earth Day. I didn't even realize that though, until after I told Jen this story about what happened to me.
Yesterday (Sunday) I got back from Tony's bachelor party. Jen and I hung out during the day and then we went out to run a few errands around dinnertime. One errand was that Jen had to pick up a prescription at CVS, so while she went in to do that, I waited in the car in the parking lot.
At one point on Saturday, the day before, when Bendt and I were driving home from the golf course, we saw some guy blatantly littering and we started talking about how stupid people look when they litter. I told him that if I ever saw someone littering, and if could ever get the nerve up, I would pick up the trash, hand it back to them and say, "Excuse me, you just dropped this."
So while I'm sitting in the parking lot of the CVS, this older guy comes out of the CVS and climbs into his convertible. He had bought cigarettes and his wife had just come out of Starbucks with two drinks. They climb into their car and the guy unwraps his cigarettes and drops the plastic wrapping and the bit of foil/paper from inside the cigarettes out his window. As soon as I saw that, I knew that this was my chance. I jumped out of the car and I picked up the bit of paper and said, "Excuse me sir, you just dropped this." I held out the paper to him. He turns and looks at the paper, then looks me right in the eye and says, "No I didn't."
I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT! Make no mistake: he didn't misunderstand what I was getting at or accusing him of. He was blatantly defiant and had immediately switched into a-hole mode.
I said, "Yes you did" and I put the paper into his hand. He takes the paper and says, "Oh OK" and throws the paper on the ground again, right at my feet. I was livid at that point.
I pick up the paper again and said, "That's a pretty nice car you've got there - you should get a trashbag for it." His response to this is, "Yeah, well, you should go to hell." At that, he puts his car into gear and drives away. Of course I couldn't leave it at that, so I yelled after him, "F you, a**hole!"
Can you believe that?
What I should have done differently (i.e., "Jerk Store" moments):
- I ended up still having that bit of paper in my hand after he drove away. I don't know why I didn't just toss into his backseat as he drove away.
- This was Jen's point. In a situation like that, I didn't address his wife and she certainly didn't pipe up either in his defense or mine. In retrospect, I should have engaged her. I should have asked her if she thought her husband was acting reasonably and if she knew what a huge jerk he was. I may have gotten farther that way.
- Before anyone asks, let me just say that, yes, I know you have to be careful about who you confront these days. But it was daylight, and there were plenty of people around. I actually took a split second to think about this as I was jumping out of the car.
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