My friend and I went to a twenty-four-hour restaurant down the street and each just ordered one item. After we got our food delivered, we never saw our waitress again — not for drink refills, nor to pick up the plates, nor to give us our check.

After a while, we decided to just go up to the front register to pay. When we did, not only did we see our waitress getting tipped out and leaving, but then this happened.

Me: “We never got our check, but can we go ahead and pay?”

Manager: “Yeah, let me just pull up the ticket for you!”

Me: “We need it split so that we each pay for what we got. I got the hash browns, and she got tater tots.”

Manager: “Okay, done. So, on the first bill, we have the tater tots and hash browns — whose was that?” 

Me: “What? We needed the items split away from each other so we each pay for one.”

Manager: “Oh, well, I don’t know if I can split the check again.”

I ended up just paying for both items, but I’m still trying to figure out what in the world she even split on the bill.

My family isn’t religious, but my mom was raised in a setting where everyone went to church regardless of how faithful they were because it was “social.”

As such, she proceeded to drag my sister and me there every Sunday even though we both strongly disliked it. Having then-undiagnosed autism did not help matters for me.

One Sunday, we were listening to the minister talk about the power of faith. He proceeded to tell a story about a Chinese girl who came to the USA and then broke her arm somehow, so she was taken to the hospital and given an X-ray. Because she was Chinese, she didn’t know what an X-ray was, so after the doctor took the X-ray, she proceeded to say, “All better,” because she believed that the machine had fixed her arm. And this, according to the minister, was a good demonstration of the power of faith and something, something, God.

Being an undiagnosed autistic kid with poor filters, I immediately said:

Me: *Loudly* “But the X-ray didn’t fix her arm. No matter what she believed, it was still broken.”

Shortly after that, Mom decided that taking me to church really wasn’t that important anymore.

This is one of those “don’t make a rash judgment” type of stories.

I’m working in a store. It is the middle of winter, around 10:00 pm, an hour before we close. My register is right next to the doors and it is freezing. I am bundled up and have a little heater going on my legs.

The door opens and in comes a man with his wife and their toddler. The husband and wife are bundled up in scarves, gloves — the works. The toddler, however, is in a diaper… and that’s it. During the summer, if a toddler comes in like that, no big deal. But it’s so cold!

I don’t say anything, but apparently, my face does. I am judging them. They look at me a bit sheepishly.

Father: “We’re on our way home, and our son has a stomach bug. It just keeps shooting out the back end, out the diaper, and up the clothes.”

Me: “Oh, my gosh!”

Mother: “We still have two hours to go to get home, but we need to get more clothes and diapers or we’re not going to make it.” 

I felt so bad for them — and so bad about my snap judgment on them — that when they came back through my line, I gave them a discount on everything. It wasn’t much since I’m only a cashier and have a limit on how much I’m allowed to do.

I live in Oregon in the valley, where we hardly ever get any snow. Last year, though, we got lots of it. It even snowed in April, which I had never seen before. A couple of days after the April snowfall, it had already melted, and I had a man come through my line. As we neared the end of the transaction, I asked the normal follow-up question before completing it.

Me: “Do you have a rewards card you want to use today?”

Customer: “No, I’m not from Oregon, actually.”

Me: “Oh! Where are you from?”

Customer: “Florida.”

Me: “Wow! You’re a ways from home! Were you here a couple of days ago? We actually had some snow.”

Instantly, this man, who was either my age or a little older, turned into an excited kid.

Customer: “Yes! It was my first time seeing snow! I stayed up all night! I had my first snowball fight, made a snowman, and made snow angels! It was amazing!” 

It was such a heartwarming thing!

I work in the electronics department of my store, which is one of the smallest departments in the whole store. I am also not allowed to leave the department as I am usually the only person there.

A customer comes up to me.

Customer: “Do you have any of these [Brand] pillows?”

Me: “I’m not too sure; that’s on the other side of the store. But let me ca—”

Customer: “What do you mean, you don’t know?!”

Me: “I work in this department, not bedding. But I can call and check for you.”

Customer: “You mean you work here, and you don’t know if you have them?! Fine! If you do have them, how much are they?!

I try to move to the desk to call, but the customer keeps stepping in front of me.

Me: “Again, I’m not sure, but if you wait for just a moment, I can—”

Customer: “YOU WORK HERE! YOU SHOULD KNOW THESE THINGS!”

Me: “…Ma’am, there are over ten thousand items of various sizes and prices in the entire store. I can’t be expected to know every single one.”

Customer: “I DIDN’T ASK YOU THE PRICES OF EVERY SINGLE THING! I JUST WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THIS ONE! IF YOU WORK HERE, YOU SHOULD KNOW IT!”

Me: “…Whatever you say, ma’am. Have a good day.”

I turned around and walked away while she stood there fuming and cursing me for being lazy and incompetent since I didn’t know the prices for whatever she would randomly bring up.