I work for Wendy’s, a fast food chain. We had to call the police to have a moron thrown out this week.

The guy saw a picture of Wendy and… decided that this was a trans Ronald McDonald. He spent nearly an hour ranting in our lobby to any customer who came in about how “woke-ism” was out of control.

Customer: “Ronald is trans now! RONALD MCDONALD! THIS IS TRANS RONALD!”

Finally, the police arrived — forty-five minutes after we called them — and escorted the man off of the property. I’m just so exhausted.

I completed my student teaching in 2018. I was assigned a ninth-grade geography class at a school in a rough area. The students were not super motivated to do their school work, and many of them were several assignments behind in all of their classes.

They were mostly fourteen and fifteen years old, old enough to be aware of the state of the world and tensions between our country and others. Occasionally, I would ask a student why they had not completed an assignment, and the student would respond with something like, “Nuclear war is inevitable. We’ll all be dead by 2020. There’s no point in doing school work since we won’t live long enough to go to college.”

At the time, I was showing a student news segment each day. Usually, the kids ignored the news, but one day, the host was talking about the President of the United States meeting with the leader of a certain Asian country in person. This was interesting to the kids, and after the news ended, one of them raised their hand.

Student: “Miss, does this mean we won’t be going to war in the immediate future?”

Me: “It doesn’t look like it.”

Student: “Dang it! I guess I should ask my English teacher for an extension on that essay I was supposed to turn in today. If I’m going to be alive for graduation, I should probably make sure I actually graduate.”

I am writing this in 2022, so clearly, we haven’t all perished. I hope he and my other students were able to raise their grades in all their classes. Things may still not be great as far as our relationships with other countries, but refusing to prepare for any sort of future isn’t the way to live. If anyone reading this is still in school, please keep your grades up, just in case.

I work in a men’s clothing store known for huge discounts and sales. Our business took a huge hit with the work-from-home movement, so the savings now are tremendous to push through the extra inventory we are stuck with.

A guy and his wife come in on a Saturday evening to get a couple of suits as he put on some weight recently. He wants to know the price of the suits he selected.

Me: “The suits you have here are each $199.”

Customer: “No, no, no. How much are they on sale for?”

Me: “That’s the sale price. $199.”

Customer: “Well, how much can I get them for?”

Me: “Still $199.”

Customer: *Deep sigh* “Okay… When you look up my account and see how much I’ve spent here, how much will they be?”

Me: “Still $199. As the store manager, I cannot do better than that price as it has never been that low in the past year.”

Customer: “Okay… Whatever, I need them, so I guess let’s get them.”

We got up to the register and I asked for his phone number to look up his account. We tried his home, cell, and work number, and even his wife’s cell, but no account came up. Turns out it’s been about five years since he last shopped with us, so his account was automatically removed from the system. People frustrate me with throwing around how much they spend somewhere as a means of getting a better deal.

I work at an indoor go-karting facility. We have a special deal on our two-race packages on Easter Sunday where they are discounted lower than the already-discounted package price. Our packages cannot be split between racers, which is why most of our packages are sold with an odd number of races, with a few exceptions, including the two-race package.

A couple walks in, and I tell them to create a profile so we can assign them their races and have them pay from there. The woman picks up the pricing sheet and gets a confused look on her face.

Woman: “Aren’t you guys running a special promo deal on your two-race packages today?”

Me: “Yes, we are, two races today for [discounted price] rather than [original price].”

Woman: “Then why doesn’t it say the discount?”

Me: “Because it says it on the computer where you log in.”

The computer the customers log into says our promo for the day in big bold letters.

Woman: “But… I still don’t understand.”

She’s still staring at the pricing sheet. I print out some receipt paper with a piece of tape, write down the promo for the day and slowly tape it over the original two-race deal on the pricing sheet she’s holding.

A look of realization comes over her face and, thankfully, she now understands. But this isn’t the end. The man comes over.

Man: “So, the two-race packages can be split for each person, right?” 

Me: “Unfortunately, no, as they are packages they can only be sold per person, and races cannot be split or transferred between people.”

Man: “But… hmm… I don’t know why you guys wouldn’t split the packages.”

Me: “I really don’t know, either, but I don’t question it.”

Man: “Can you pleeeeease make an exception for us?”

He’s talking in the most childish voice I can imagine a mid-thirty-year-old adult male can make.

Me: “I’m sorry, it’s corporate rules. Even if I wanted to, there’s no way in the system it will allow me to do it.”

Man: “Well, that’s just plain stupid.” 

They both left without buying any races.

I work at a hotel downtown; we get our fair share of drunks. A drunk guy is sleeping on one of our lobby couches. I wake him up.

Me: “What room are you in?”

Guest: “1305.”

Me: “We don’t have one of those.”

We have no thirteenth floor.

Guest: “1805.”

Me: “We don’t have one of those.”

We have no 05 rooms.

Guest: “Oh, 2805!”

Me: “We don’t have one of those.”

We only have nineteen floors, and still no 05 rooms.

Me: “Are you in the right hotel?”

Guest: “Yeah! Just take me to 28!”

Me: “We still don’t have one of those. Can I see your room key?”

We spent twenty minutes explaining to him why he couldn’t go to his room in our hotel and then I had to physically escort him to his correct hotel a block down.