I’m pretty much a play-by-the-rules person. I follow the rules of the road except for speeding on expressways, where I generally keep up with traffic. I follow all the rules of my condo association, even some of the dumb-ass ones. I follow the rules of this message board, even the dumb-ass ones.
But there are a few rules I do break, and I like to think I have a decent reason/rationalization for them. Here’s my first confession:
I sometimes take outside drinks into movie theaters.
It’s not because I won’t pay exhorbitant prices for a Diet Coke, though. It’s because none of my local theaters have a diet pop that has no caffeine, and caffeine keeps me up at night. On a Saturday it’s not so bad, because I don’t have to get up for work the next day. I’m not going to drink water with my tasty overpriced movie popcorn cause it tastes like crap, and I don’t like 7-UP. So I order my popcorn. “Would you like something to drink with that, M’am?” “No,” I say innocently, “I’ll just be thirsty the entire two hours.”
Of course, I could go without popcorn and pop, but I so seldom go out to movies these days (thank you, Netflix), that when I do, I want my junk food.
So, fellow dopers, confess. Tell me the little rules you break, and give me your rationalizion for why it’s ok for you to break them.
First of all, we don’t have dumb-ass rules here, missie.
For me, I guess it’s speeding. Very law-obiding otherwise (although I guess it’s harder to actually break laws here in some respects!), but definitely equiped with a heavy foot, or eager wrist, as the case may be.
The first person to make a nasty joke about my “eager wrist” gets banned, by the way.
The “no food in the movie theater” thing. Because it’s one of those rules that is applied with no common sense attached to it.
I understand that they want to sell their overpriced crap and I don’t try to bring food in with me to eat while I’m watching the movie. But sometimes I like to go out to lunch and then see a movie. Just two days ago, I did this. I had spaghetti at a nice restaurant and there was some left over, so it was boxed up for me and put in a bag with the restaurant’s name on it.
I got to the theater, and the ticket goon said I couldn’t bring the food in with me (dumb me for not ditching the imprinted bag first). I explained that it was spaghetti and therefore impossible to eat in the theater, and it was too hot out to leave it in the car, but I was told I needed to either eat it before entering or leave it in the car.
Well, screw that. I went back to the car, threw the bag inside and put the box with the spag in it in my purse (yay for big purses) and went back in. Movies are expensive enough. I wasn’t going to throw out some perfectly good food to make them happy.
I open packages at the store and eat some of the stuff while I’m shopping. Vanilla wafers. Chips. Riesen’s. Chocolate milk, right from the carton.
My rationalization–I always pay for it.
I only do this at my little local grocery store that’s two blocks from my house. I’ve shopped there for 20 years and know all the clerks by name, so it’s pretty safe.
At fast food places I’ll grab plastic spoons and forks even I’m just getting a sandwich. I sort of rationalize it by thinking that I may need them for a yogurt or something someday, but I just end up tossing them. I also take way more ketchup, mustard, salt and pepper packets than I know I’ll need, 'cause the world owes me condiments, man!
So THAT"S why my sandwiches are so damn expensive!
I break speeding rules and turn signal rules. If no one is in a position to rely on my turn signal, then I don’t signal.
Sometimes, I run red lights when turning left. I don’t need a left arrow to tell me when it’s safe to turn left when there is obviuosly no oncoming traffic.
I take food into the theater. The only rationale I can see for them is that they want to sell their overpriced crap. Well, I wouldn’t buy that crap anyway, even if I was starving, so there’s no harm to them in bringing my own food.
I drove with expired registration for 6 months, but it’s up-to-date now. No ticket, BTW…I was lucky. Rationalization? No money.
I don’t use my art supplies correctly - my best example? A series of glossy pictures that look like oil paintings, but they were done with chalk-style pastels… It’s the only way to get results I like sometimes…
There’s a one-way alley near my workplace. I always go down it the wrong way (when I’m pulling out of the bank or the Burger King), because going the right way makes me go WAAYYYYYYYYY out of the way to get back where I need to be.
Sometimes I take my own coffee (from a coffee shop) into breakfast chains like Perkin’s or IHOP, because their coffee tastes like hot water with a pinch of dirt in it.
I volunteer in the nursery at church. Some time ago this lady from the state came in to check out our program…I guess the state monitors this, as well as any other child-care facility. Which is a GOOD thing. Except that this lady…well, she said we cannot hug the children. No physical contact unless the situation is “medically necessary”. Blah blah blah, long explanation as to why. I don’t know if this is actually a state law, or just her interpretation of it.
Heh…like I am not going to HUG :my: kids? Excuse me…I have the 4-5 year olds and I have 12 boys and 1…that’s right, ONE girl. The ratio of minor injury to boy is, as you might guess, about four times the normal level. If a kid bonks another kid and the bonked kid is crying, you can bet your next paycheck he lands in my lap…being hugged. And this may be immodest of me, but the kids love me…just like I love them.
Of course the lone girl spends a lot of time in my lap being read to…poor thing just isn’t into wrestling and pummelling and I think it is the only place she feels safe. I keep telling her…just wait ten years or so and THEN tell me how you like the odds.
Right on, Scotticher. When I was a teacher at a summer program (high school kids, most with learning and/or behavior issues), I did similar rule-bending. As far as I know there was no rule against physical contact, but there were some that I just couldn’t bring myself to enforce, such as the one which dictated that during study time the kids MUST HAVE BOTH FEET ON THE FLOOR.
I’m sorry, but if a kid with ADD is toiling away diligently at her homework, I’m not going to interrupt her to make her uncross her legs and put both feet on the floor.
