We’re heading out for a family vacation, flying first class for the first time. Our group has seven of the eight seats adjacent to the cockpit, with one stranger seated amongst us. And boy, did we find a doozy.

Right from the get-go, [Stranger] makes her presence known. We board with my father-in-law, who is in a wheelchair, to find that, for some reason, this lady boards the plane along with the “passengers that need additional time to board,” but she seems to be moving around just fine. It seems her motivation to do so was to pack her overhead compartment with her multitude of carry-on items. She also needs to use all of my compartment and half of someone else’s, too.

Okay, fine. Whatever. We can deal with it.

Then, the flight gets delayed for being short crew, and [Stranger] immediately starts demanding wine before we even leave the ground. As soon as the stewardess tells her no and walks off, she starts complaining to us.

Stranger: “First class is so s***ty with this airline!”

I’m already thinking, “Can you shut up already?” Then comes the inevitable:

Stranger: “We can just leave without the crew member, right?”

Apparently, she wasn’t paying attention because the missing crew IS THE FREAKING PILOT.

We are released back out to the terminal for a bit to stretch because the delay is so long, and we return to our seats to find my daughter’s seat occupied by [Stranger]’s friend who is flying economy. After we stand around and clear our throats several times to try to get their attention, it is obvious they have no awareness of anyone outside their bubble. After my daughter, my mother-in-law, and I all ask them to clear out, they FINALLY acknowledge that they’re in someone else’s seat.

After all this, we eventually get up in the air. Cue [Stranger] slamming glasses of wine. After the third glass, she’s obviously already drunk, because she then dumps the entire fourth glass of wine on my teenage daughter. SHE DOESN’T EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SHE DID IT. No sorry, no “here’s a napkin”. She just immediately starts demanding another drink from the flight attendant.

All the while, she’s keeping her mask down while she is drinking, but the second I take mine off to drink some water, this lady grabs my arm.

Stranger: “Put your mask back on!”

Are you serious? You’ll complain about a mask but you’re totally okay touching strangers? Okay, lady.

At that point, I finally told the stewardess about everything, and they stopped serving her, but she still spent the rest of the trip complaining about how s***ty this airline is and trying to talk to my daughter, who was legitimately worried this moron was going to puke on her. Poor kid.

Unfortunately, both my father and his brother have fallen into the hardcore conspiracy theory side of the current health crisis. Meanwhile, both of my grandparents on that side got vaccinated as soon as it was available to them in March, and they are still incredibly upset at both of their sons for their decisions.

While they do allow my father to visit them, they force him to follow the recommended guidelines and don’t let him inside. My uncle, on the other hand, lives out of state, and eventually my Maw-Maw breaks “as he is still [her] son!” and they decide to visit him in July. This is part of the conversation I have with her over the phone after she comes back.

Maw-Maw: “The moment we got there, I swear [Uncle] was trying to piss me off! He spouted some bulls*** about the vaccines making people ‘magnetic’ and then he tried to stick a magnet on me. Thing is, that couillon (fool) pushed it on me so hard that, of course, it stuck! And it hurt, too! So, I grabbed it and pushed it right back into his arm so it stuck and made sure he knew exactly how stupid he was.”

She didn’t tell me much more about how their visit went, but I took this to mean that it didn’t go very well. Gotta love Cajun grandparents, though.

I am walking out of a large supermarket. I have a large crate of beer occupying both my hands due to my inability to plan ahead and bring a coin for a trolley. As I’m walking down the one-way system, a woman walks the wrong way pushing a trolley. She’s so busy staring at her phone that she doesn’t see me.

She gets closer and closer, and with no alternative, I put my foot on the front of the trolley, stopping it abruptly.

Customer: *Swears* “What the h***, man?!”

Me: “Watch where you’re going, will you?”

Customer: “You watch where you’re going!”

Me: “Idiot, you’re going the wrong way.”

Customer: “No, I’m not. You are!”

There are signs, no-entry signs, and floor arrows, not to mention a sea of people behind and in front of me going the right way. More people unable to pass her from a long queue behind me.

Me: “Just turn around, will you?”

Customer: “No, I’m not moving. You are!”

With that, she pushes the trolley at me. I nearly drop my beer as she does.

Me: “Can we get security or something, please?”

Customer: “Yeah, get security and throw this fool out.”

A security guard arrives and talks to the woman.

Security: “You need to turn around.”

Customer: “You tell him to turn around.”

Security: “Please, just turn around and go the right way around.”

Customer: *Screaming* “No!”

Security: “Please, I don’t want to have to call the police.”

She refuses to move. Security moves some of the barriers to allow me and all of the people to actually leave. It’s a massive upheaval; now people going the other way have to wait. I finally get out myself, and the woman goes to carry on — the wrong way — but the security guard stops her.

Security: “I’m sorry, but you can’t go that way. If you refuse to follow store policy, you will have to leave.”

Customer: “No, I’m here to shop. I can’t believe you won’t let me!”

Security: “The police are here now; they can explain it to you. But you have to leave.”

I had to leave, but I stayed long enough to watch her shout and swear at the two police officers who moved her toward the door. If you can’t follow rules in place to keep people safe, you’re not grown up enough to shop and be around people.

I work as a faculty assistant. In early 2020, one of my professors ordered a set of nesting tables for her office. When the tables arrived, we discovered that they were both the same height. The company asked only for a picture to prove this and said they’d send the correct (shorter) replacement out. About a week later, states began going into lockdown due to the health crisis, and the company reached out to say that the delivery would obviously be delayed.

Fast forward eighteen months. Since neither of us has been in the office all that time, my professor and I have both forgotten the incident entirely until I get an email from the company asking if I’ll be available on a specific day to accept delivery. As it happens, I won’t be — we’re on a hybrid schedule and it’s my remote day — but I make arrangements with a colleague to let them into the office. That evening, I get an email from her.

Colleague: “I left [Professor]’s key on your desk. I think you’ll have to contact [Company]; they brought the wrong table again, identical to the one she already has. The delivery guy and I walked into the room, he unwrapped the furniture, and we both just stared at it, dumbfounded. He went, ‘Umm… let me go make a phone call.’ He came back moments later, rolled his eyes, took the table, and said he would be back in touch, with apologies.”

I haven’t heard from them yet about rearranging the redelivery. Hopefully, it’s not another year and a half.

It’s the middle of the health crisis, and everyone is still on edge about infection control protocols. We assure everyone that we have hospital-level infection control and take it very seriously. I’m the owner dentist, and occasionally, I listen in on calls to ensure patients are being helped. This is a call I listened to.

Office Manager: “Thank you for calling [Dental Office]. How can we help you?”

Patient: “This is [Patient]. I want to know what you guys are doing for infection control. I don’t want to get the [disease].”

Office Manager: “We have eliminated our waiting room, and you wait in your car until your appointment. We also have a strict mask policy until in the dental, as well as a hydrogen peroxide rinse before we work on you.”

Patient: “What about barriers?”

Office Manager: “I’m sorry?”

Patient: “Do you have those plastic plexiglass barriers set up in between the patients?”

Office Manager: “Between each patient chair? No, we don’t—”

Patient: “What is wrong with you?! Haven’t you seen how even the grocery stores have those barriers to protect the customers? If I am getting my teeth cleaned, my mouth is completely open! You need to install plastic barriers between the chairs! What if another patient is next to me and has the [disease]? You need to have us separated!”

Office Manager: “[Patient], we have walls. Actual, real walls. All of the chairs are in separate rooms. With walls. And doors. Doors that close.”

Patient: “…”

Office Manager: “[Patient], you have been coming to us for ten years. The layout has never changed…”

Patient: “I still think you should put up the plastic barriers!” *Click*

I have no idea if the patient was just hotly embarrassed or genuinely thought we should replace our solid walls — and enclosed rooms — with plexiglass ones that are open on the tops and sides.