So just now I was in the Burger King drive-thru (been curious about those new Veggie Burgers). Well, not IN it, exactly…
You see, you can only get to the drive-thru off of a narrow, one-way alley. If the drive-thru is full, the cars forced to wait in the alley usually pull all the way over to the right (the drive-thru is on the left), thus avoiding Alley Blockage for those drivers who wish to drive past Burger King and further down the alley. When enough space has cleared in the drive-thru for a car to fit at the end without blocking the alley, the first car in the alley-line hangs a left and takes his/her rightful place among the Whopper-worthy.
Courtesy. It’s a groovy thing.
Every once in awhile, someone unfamiliar with The System will see the line of cars waiting over on the right side of the alley, but just figure it’s a miniature tailgate party or something, and proceed to “butt” into the drive thru line (blocking the alley for passers-thru in the process).
Depending on the nature and mood of the first alley-waiter (the one who’s just been essentially “cut off”), the Offender might either get off scot-free, or be informed of his/her transgression in a number of ways:
a) honking
b) yelling
c) cussing
d) gesturing
And, depending upon the nature and mood of the offender, he/she might respond in one of two ways:
a) pretending to be deaf AND blind (but still somehow qualified to drive a car), and staying put, or
b) politely moving to the end of the alley line.
So today I was the first person in the alley-line, awaiting my entrance into the kingdom, when an Offender showed up and attempted to usurp my place in line.
I chose to notify him of his mistake by humbly tapping my horn. When he turned to look, I smiled and waved. I saw his reverse lights go on and, since he’d chosen the polite option of moving his ass to the end of the line, and since my mood was buoyed by the new purse I just received in the mail (a gift from friends), I decided to make nice when he backed past me (I could see his windows were down).
So I make eye contact as his passenger window comes even with my driver’s side window, thinking to apologize for not having had my left-turn signal on, to indicate my intent to enter the drive-thru (never mind the THREE cars waiting behind me… sometimes it takes a little blinking light to give people a clue).
As I opened my mouth to say, “Sorry…” he gave me the finger–stuck that pasty, pudgy, beaver-ravaged little thing right up in my face like he was somebody. Also, he gave me the “wussy” finger, where you’re holding the other three down with your thumb. I HATE the wussy finger. Put some KNUCKLE into it, man, make a STATEMENT!
But I digress.
My point is, why do I get the finger, when
a) HE’S the idiot
b) he clearly KNEW he had tresspassed, otherwise he wouldn’t have bothered to move out of the way (he ended up changing his mind and driving away entirely, instead of waiting in line for his BK Broiler), and
c) I was SO much nicer about his transgression than others in my same position would have been.
I hate to say it, but I felt kinda sorry for the fella. “Touched in the head” like that and all. So I smiled and blew him a kiss as I pulled forward to place my order.
He looked confused.
Oh, and BTW… the Veggie Burger wasn’t very good.