It’s raining very heavily outside, which is unusual for my part of the world. A customer runs in, looking wet and p***ed.

Customer: “Do you sell raincoats?!”

Me: “We do!”

I show him our small selection. He grabs one, pays, and heads outside.

About half an hour later, the rain begins to lighten, and after an hour, it’s stopped completely, and the sun is now shining. The original customer comes back into the store with the raincoat under his arm.

Customer: “I want to return this.”

Me: “Why? Did it not keep the rain out?”

Customer: “Oh, it did, but it’s stopped raining now.”

Because it was (well) within the thirty-day return window, I had to take the return.

I have the last appointment of the day with my optometrist. After the exam, I let her know I would like to get new glasses since it’s been a few years (I wear contacts most of the time).

Doctor: “Go ahead and start looking at frames. I just need to finish putting this information into the computer, and I’ll be out in a minute to help you pick some out. I know how much trouble you have finding frames you like.”

I leave the exam room and go to the reception room to start browsing frames. A couple, a man and a woman, are in front of the display cases, trying on various frames. I assume they were the previous patients, and they’re just taking a really long time to find frames (I can relate). The area is really small, so I just hang back, waiting for them to finish up, since there isn’t room for me to shove my way in there. The doctor comes out of the exam room and looks surprised to see me just standing there.

Doctor: “Did you already find frames? That was fast!”

Me: “Oh, no, I was just waiting.” *Gestures to couple.*

Doctor: *Does a double-take and walks over to them.* “Can I help you?”

Man: “Oh, no, we’re just browsing, thank you.”

Doctor: “You’ll need to make an appointment to get glasses. Would you like my receptionist to help you with checking your insurance and booking a time?”

Woman: “We already have prescriptions; we just wanted to see what kind of frames you offer.”

The doctor looks at me a bit helplessly, and I just half-shrug. I’m more amused than anything else. I’ve worn glasses for almost forty years at this point, and it never occurred to me that I could just wander into random optometry offices to browse frames.

Doctor: “You’ll still need an appointment for me to fit your frames.”

Woman: “I know. We just don’t even know if we want to buy our frames from you yet. That’s why we’re looking.”

My doctor unceremoniously shoves her way in between them and starts pulling out frames and handing them to me.

Doctor: “Here, try these on [My Name].”

I did find a pair I liked, and she was able to get everything she needed from me. When I left about half an hour later, the couple was still browsing. I have no idea why it was taking them so long, since she only stocks a few dozen frames. I really hope she was able to get them out so she could close on time!

I tried to place a take-out order on a local restaurant’s website, but it would only let me if I signed up for a third-party service that I’d never heard of. I decided to call instead.

Worker: “Hello?”

Me: “Hi, is this [Restaurant]?”

Worker: “Yes.”

Me: “Great. Can I place a take-out order over the phone?”

Worker: “What do you want?”

Me: “I’d like to place a take-out order for fish and chips, please.”

Worker: “Anything else?”

Me: “Nope, that’ll do it.”

Worker: “It’ll be ready in [garbled] minutes.”

Me: “Sorry, was that 15 or 50? One-five or five-zero?”

Worker: *Same garbled number.*

Me: “Fifteen, one-five; or fifty, five-zero?”

Worker: *Same garbled number.*

Me: “It’s hard to hear the difference. Fifteen, one-five?”

Worker: “Yeah.”

Me: “Thanks, see you soon.”

Worker: *click*

Guess I should look into that third-party service to see if it’s trustworthy if I want to order from that restaurant again.

Some gay friends invite us over to watch a movie, and we end up picking a film called ‘The Big Gay Musical.’ One of the husbands is Chinese-American and is trying to find a version with Mandarin subtitles.

Husband #1: “What’s taking you so long?”

Husband #2: “I just Googled ‘gay musical.’ Do you have any idea how many hits there are for that?”

Customer: *Flagging me down in the self-checkout area.* “I’m trying to find a coupon for this beef, but it’s not showing up.”

Me: “Huh. Yeah, I don’t see it. Did you already use it earlier this week?”

Customer: “Oh, I came in this morning, but I only got one.”

Me: “Yeah, it’s a one-use coupon, sorry about that.”

Customer: “Oh…. well, can you help me get the price anyway?”

Me: “…I can’t give you the coupon price if you’ve already used the coupon. It’s a ONE-use coupon.”

Customer: “Oh… well, I’ll go back and look again…”

A few minutes later, she comes back with a completely different kind of beef.

Customer: “So THIS is about the same weight, and it has a coupon, so it’s the same price; can I just pay for this, but take the other ones?”

Me: “…?”

At that point, I just escalated her to my manager because I didn’t think she’d stop trying to get around it without someone with authority shutting her down. She was polite the whole time, but c’mon.