nOt A TyPiCaL dAy...

So who says a typical day in Houston cannot be as thrilling as a day in New York City. When you leave your house in the morning in New York City, you’re bound to run into some Italian Restaurateur yelling at his bus boy, or some homeless person poppin out from the corner scaring the bejesus out of you, or some American Idol wannabe serenading you on his guitar throughout the subway ride to work. In Houston, you can experience the same excitement at a Burger King drive-thru during your lunch break. So I’m one of those not-so-skinny girls who doesn’t shy away from a good, juicy Whopper with cheese every once in a while. So earlier this week as a token of our nation’s newest celebration, I decided to treat my hungry-self to a Burger King Whopper meal. So I’m in the drive-thru lane about to place the order for my meal simultaneously on the phone with my sister when amidst my conversation I thought I heard the girl over the speaker say “your total is $6.27, please drive up to the first window”. So I, an avid Whopper eater, ignore the words entirely, of course, I heard that wrong! So I drive over to the first window, still on the phone, the dude with the thickest accent pokes his head out, and says something which resembles the words “your total is $6.27, ma’am”…now I know I wasn’t in the drive-thru Saltgrass lane so I’m of course staring at this man, smiling, dorki-ly, waiting desperately for him to say “Aha you’re on candid camera”…but that never happens…he keeps looking at me with the I-don’t-have-all-day-for-you-bitch-get-out-of-the-way-ma’am stare. So I say give the most logical response “are you kidding me?!? You’re telling me the Whopper meal is $6.27 sir?!? I mean is the recession hitting you guys that hard???!” I’m sorry, on any other given day, I’m a pretty sane, patient, reasonable, and humble person, rather approachable, but I don’t remember the last time I paid this much for a Whopper meal. I remember paying nothing over $5.00 back in the day…is “back in the day” really that back??? So helpless to the domino effect of the recession, the victim – ME - quietly drives up to the second window to claim her diamonds…I mean her Whopper meal…the girl at the window hands me my brown bag, I peek inside to take a look at my sushi-priced Whopper meal, I think I see a sandwich, or is it half of a sandwich, no wait…I think she gave me the kids meal instead…so I look at her and go, “ma’am is this the kids meal?”…she repeats my order like whatever, it's right...then my gaze shifts to the – please let me swallow hard here – FIFTEEN PIECES OF KIDS-SIZED FRIES in my fry holder!!! I couldn’t handle the disaster anymore…I just had to say something smart-ass-y “ma’am there are like FIFTEEN fries in my meal”…I get ignored…of course…annoyed and perplexed by the blatant rip-off, I just wanted to drive away and indulge my mouth to some hot, soft fries…which btw disappeared in like FIFTEEN SECONDS… so lemme ask y'all “does a damn Burger King meal really cost this much these days???” I’m no frugal, $6.27 is not the end of the world but still…have prices risen by such a ghastly proportion??!! I was enthralled for hours!!!

Then this morning, while I was entrenched in my Crude Oil Rigs research, this gentleman walks up to me and introduces himself. It’s pretty typical for people at my workplace to walk over to me to introduce themselves. I’ve only been there for a little over 6 weeks and we have 300 employees just in this office alone, then occasionally we get people from our HQ which is home to another 200-something people. Every day, first thing in the morning, I get hello and hi emails from several of our executives around the world so it’s always a wise idea to keep abreast of who’s who in the company. Anyhow, back to the story, so yeah this pleasant gentleman walks up to me, introduces himself and the name sounding remarkably familiar quickly gives me a common ground and a level of ease to start a conversation with him. He asks me who I’m working for and I tell him who and then what I do for him. Then I ask him “So Jeff, your name sounds familiar, what do you do?”…he goes “oh I’m the President of the Company!” [pause]…HUH? OMG I was sooooooooooooooooooo embarrassed…I’m thinking well hell yeah his name sounded familiar…I’ve only seen it like a 100x in our press releases!!! At that moment, I so badly wanted to pause time like Hiko Nakamura and run and hide under the table…but to my surprise, Jeff was a lot more sympathetic and hospitable than I took him to be…he totally covered up my embarrassment and cracked a joke at his expense…how nice of him… just another reason why I lurve working for my new company…every day holds a pleasant surprise…

So between my BK Rendezvous and an Official Jackass Moment, I think I’m ready for that light at the end of my tunnel…and that light just happens to be none other than Madonna’s concert a week from today…YES my MADGE is finally coming to Texas…and I CANNOT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WAIT TO SEE HER IN CONCERT…

Peace

signed: Thinker-Bell