(I live in New England, it’s the end of October, and it’s snowing out. It’s not unheard of to be snowing this time of year, but it’s also not very common. This exchange happens at the front desk of the library.)
Patron: “It’s snowing out!”
Me: “I know! I hope it doesn’t last long.”
Patron: *disappointed* “Aw, I wanted to surprise you.”
Me: “Oh, sorry! Wait, say it again.”
Patron: *exaggerating* “IT’S SNOWING OUT!”
Me: *exaggerating back* “WHAT?! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!”
(Our state has recently been impacted by a hurricane. Our office headquarters is in the western part of the state, so we got some pretty bad rain but no flooding or power outages. Some of our eastern locations were hit pretty hard and many are still closed or recovering. For the last week I’ve gotten at least a dozen calls that went something like this:)
Me: “Thank you for calling [Office]. How may I direct your call?”
Caller: “Yes, I want to know why my [Office] location isn’t open.”
Me: “Which location would that be, ma’am?”
Caller: “In [City affected by the hurricane].”
Me: “Well, ma’am, that area was hit pretty hard by the hurricane, and many of our locations are still recovering.”
Caller: “But the storm is over! Why aren’t they open?”
Me: *quickly checking the map location online* “Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that location is still inaccessible.”
Caller: “What the h*** does that mean?”
Me: *pause* “It’s still underwater, ma’am.”
Caller: “Well… they… they should still find a way to be open!” *hangs up*
Me: *head-desk*
(Don’t get me wrong; I’m very concerned for the people still dealing with the effects of being hit by a storm that severe, but you would think that a building still being nearly submerged in flood water is a good reason for that business to not be back open yet.)
On September 19th, 2017, Mexico City and the surrounding states were hit by a powerful earthquake. Many buildings collapsed, and over 300 people died.
I belong to a Facebook group aimed at people trying to learn a foreign language, and its members come from all around the world. On the day of the earthquake, I posted on the group asking for prayers, no matter the religion, as well as support messages for those in need.
The next day, I woke up to see thousands of replies. There were prayers from many Christian denominations, from Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, etc., as well as messages from over a hundred countries. My friends and I organised to deliver food wherever it was needed, and I made sure that everything we gave out had one of the messages I received.
It taught me two very important lessons. The first one is that we can be brought together no matter what your religion or your nationality is. The second one is that you can always count on another language nerd for help.
(I am delivering a freshly-made, highly-perishable cut fruit arrangement to a residence. It is shortly after noon on a weekday in October that has nonetheless exceeded 80 degrees. I ring the bell and wait. No answer. I ring it again. Still no answer. I call the person who placed the order.)
Me: “Hello, this is [My Name] calling from [Store], in regards to the order for [Recipient]? I’m at the address right now, but there is no answer at the door.”
Customer: “Oh, yes, that’s probably because she’s at work.”
Me: “…”
Customer: “You can just leave it on the porch.”
Me: “I can try putting it in a cooler bag in a shady spot, but it should reall—”
Customer: “Great! Thanks.”
(I am still not sure why they didn’t just send it to the recipient’s workplace or ask us to deliver it later in the day, but enjoy the hot fruit for your anniversary.)
(I work in a chain retail store focusing on performing basic services on vehicles. It is store policy to close the shop down when lightning is seen within a certain radius of the store due to all the equipment we have in the shop.)
Manager: *comes into the shop, pulls me over* “Hey, we have a customer wanting their car put in for a tire change. Can you come talk to him?”
Me: *walks out with the manager to the customer* “Hello, sir. How may I help you?”
Customer: “I want a tire put in my car, but she won’t put me in!” *points to our service writer/greeter*
Me: “Well, I apologize, sir, but the store policy is to close the shop when lightning is seen within a certain radius of us, and our manager has given us the go ahead to close the shop—”
Customer: “NO, GIVE ME THE NUMBER FOR CORPORATE. I WANT TO CALL CORPORATE. I CALLED EARLIER AND WAS TOLD Y’ALL WOULD DO MY CAR IF I CAME IN BEFORE YOU CLOSED. YOU DON’T CLOSE FOR ANOTHER FOUR HOURS, SUPPOSEDLY, AND NOW YOU’RE TELLING ME YOU CAN’T DO MY CAR?!”
(I took his yelling and threatening to call corporate as my cue to leave and help finishing close the shop for the lightning. Later when we were officially closing at our normal closing time, I heard from our service writer that the other manager, who isn’t the manager for our department by the way, had tried to get her to put the customer in for a tire job WHILE THE LIGHTNING WAS STILL WITHIN RANGE just to get the customer to be quiet. Luckily our greeter and main manager stood their ground, and thankfully our greeter didn’t get in trouble for it, either.)
