Yesterday, at a local diner, I recieved the shock of my life. As the middle aged waitress (not to be confused with the Bitchy Waiter, btw) brought out our food, I lightly touched her arm and asked, "Could you bring us a new bottle of ketchup?" The 6 yr. old, Crazy Man, was already eyeing the, for all intesive purposes, "empty" bottle on the table very dubiously. I thought I would ask, in an effort to head off the volley of questions that would spew from Crazy Man's mouth.
She turned on me with angry glazed-over eyes and announced, "Do I look like ya' mutha? Do I look like I have the time to go all the way back to the kitchen, then come all the way back here with a new bottle of ketchup, FOR YOU? Look, look around.....does it look like I'm not busy today?"
I did look around, and was embarrassed to see the majority of the restaurant staring at me. "No...it's okay, don't worry about it," I mumbled. But she had already turned hard on here heels, loudly saying, "But here I go, getting you another mutha-fuckin' ketchup, like I'm the f-ing Heinz 57- St. Paulie girl...."
"Quick, before she comes back.....grab the bottle from the table over there....AND HIDE IT." I told my 9 yr. old, fearing that if she saw, we'd be pelted with small packages of orange marmalade or even worse, the germ-laced mints at the register. Then it hit me, in one angry, curse-laden mouthful, I had been Steven Slater-ed.
Like the pissed-off JetBlue flight attendant, who according to Jimmy Fallon, "grabbed two beers and jumped." I believe I was the victim of a walk by, table side "Slater-ing" - one, in what I fear might be a rash of copy cat acts from employees in the service industry, most of whom are fed up with the general douche-yness of their customers and the lull of modern life.
Now granted the flight was coming in from Pittsburgh....need I say more, but I feel that Steven Slater could've behaved in a more professional manner. Let's face it Steve, if you can't handle the luggage, then get off the plane.....which you did, after you smartly threw down your very large carry-on bag, which I'm told looked like it would NOT fit in any of the overhead bins.
Let's not canonize the guy for re-gurgitating the "take this job and shove it" mantra and turning it into a glittering broadway revue.....soon to star Hugh Jackman as a down-on-his-luck singing, dancing,disgruntled sequin-clad air steward. Because we all know that the fanny-ing about with the drink cart has its perks, including making thinly veiled passes at married men, trying to secretly seduce them by coyly slipping them an extra Dr. Pepper, or two.
And while air travel has become increasingly no frills - no pillows, blankets, food or leg room - the flight attendants are there to set a friendly tone and to gently remind passengers that we're all in this together, so let's make the best of it. Having recently flown from coast to coast in my "fragile" state, it was not only an uncomfortable experience, but an extremely eye-opening one.....NO ONE....I repeat NO ONE helped the very visibly pregnant woman hoist her bag into the overhead bin, then once again, hoist it back down at the end of the flight. Of the 4 flights, (I connected each way), NOT ONE of my smelly, agitated fellow passengers, or any of the "friendly" flight attendants so much as lifted a finger to help, or ask if any assistance was needed. I realize that pregnancy is not a handicap, and women were long ago giving birth on the job in rice paddies and farm fields, but I thought modern manners would have garnered me a little help, and not comments like, "Oh my, you have to pee AGAIN, dear?"
I could have put any number of people in my pregnancy-fueled hormonal-cross hairs, but I didn't. Propriety brought me back to my seat to do numerous sharp reps of kegel exercises. As I counted and clentched, my anger subsided, though, sadly, the urge to pee did not. Now with every new news item about Steve Slater (or the now inevitable View appearance), working class hero, or t-shirt with Steve Slater in the likeness of Che Guevara, or Facebook tribute page, I just want to scream! Because if he had only "Queen-ed" up, done his own version of a kegel exercise and turned the other cheek, he could've been trolling for a sugar daddy on the next flight to Boca....like tomorrow!
13 comments:
Thanks for the link to the Jimmy Fallon song....I cannot get it out of my head...take two beers and jump!
Wow, Ms. Minivan, I am truly sorry that Mr. Slater seems to have peed all over your corn flakes, but come ON! For those of us in the service industry (not in the soccer mom, served 'on' industry) that deal with customers increasingly vitriolic attitudes every day, Mr. Slater has given us something to actually a non-fake smile at. While I agree that the waitress story you told sounds shitty (if indeed it's even a true story), I think it would still do you a bit of good to utilize a little bit of empathy here. Some of us on the other side of the counter actually care about our customers, even if they treat us like amoeba.
This guy blows his stack on the job and behaves in a way that is akin to road rage. Suddenly he's a big hero with already over 120,000 fans on Facebook? Speaks volumes about our society. Can't we find better heroes than this? If the emergency slide that he let loose had hurt or killed someone, what then? Would he still be a considered a hero or perhaps a nutcase?
While you wonder why no one helped the visibly pregnant woman with her luggage, think of the possible reasons why others might choose NOT to offer assistance. I had a situation on a flight where a woman, barely 5 feet tall and struggling to place her suitcase, screamed at me for trying to steal her luggage while I tried to move her carry-on to make space for my briefcase in the overhead compartment! She had placed her luggage in the middle and longways so that it took more space than necessary. I have also been cursed out in a manner that would make a sailor blush by a pregnant woman for holding a door open as she followed me into a store. Apparently, she felt I was displaying a chauvinistic attitude of her "helplessness" as a woman. The point is, after being berated for trying to assist more times than being thanked, why stick your neck out? Civility has died in this world. Everyone thinks they are a smart, good-looking, fresh-breathed, go-getter golden child turned demi-god to be worshiped for gracing the earth. I think it comes down to this: too many people see hard work returning little reward, so why bother?
Dear Slide it!,
Look, I get it. Any type of service industry pretty much blows, whether it's waitstaff in a restaurant or PR lackeys at their corporate clients beck and call. But that's life...so let's poke a little fun at it. No one ever gets a HS summer job at The Gap because they want to meet all the "friendly shoppers."
There is an upside and a downside to every situation. What bothers me the most about the media coverage of Mr. Slater is that he is famous for all the wrong reasons - not because of his 20+ years of stellar service, or being a model employee, but because he got angry.
Regardless of the how or why he was angry will over time become irrelevant...because as he makes the rounds of the requisite reality/celebrity cycle: talk shows, hosts Saturday Night Live, gets a book deal, shows up as new American Idol judge, writes a book, is caught on tape screaming racist rants and ultimately ending up on Celebrity Rehab...we will all remember three things: he got mad, grabbed 2 beers and jumped.
You are completely correct, Ms. Minivan. Better him getting his 15 minutes than some other guy who goes and shoots his coworkers. I also think the reason it struck the nerve it did has to be due to the state of minds of the workers (and unemployed) in the states these days. Either you're out of work, you're getting fired or your getting famous for something like this. With the economy being as it is nowadays, it was just a matter of time before something like this popped up.
And I also apologize for my previous comments to you over an hour ago, they were unwarranted and pretty rude. I should have thought before I jumped down the slide of Internet anger... :) My apologies. :)
To the commenter that said "Why bother?" -- CUZ YOU ARE GETTING PAID. Plenty of people out of a job right now. Plenty of people frustrated. Plenty of people deal with crap from one person or another daily in their jobs (and everyone's customers are demanding more while wanting to pay less). You don't like the job you have, then simply quit and let someone else do it. Otherwise, you need to deal. I'm not saying being a flight attendant is easy. The airlines changing rules and nickel and diming are just pissing people off. But let's be clear: while entertaining, Slater's display is not heroic -- it is idiotic.
Keep it up MinivanGal! Good to have you back!
Did you remember to say please? My boyfriend forgets to add please to his requests in restaurants all the time. It always comes across as being a bit rude and demanding (at least in my opinion anyway). Sounds like she was just having a bad day though, or her feet were hurting, happens to us all!
Minivan Gal, you are wrong when you say Steven Slater is only garnering sympathy for getting angry, and not for his exemplary work for JetBlue. People respond to him because of the COMBINATION of the two.
If he'd been a crappy or even middling/average employee who flipped his lid, he would have been unanimously ripped to shreds across all forms of media. But because he was a stellar employee who justifiably felt he was being abused, that resonated with many people who support him.
And I suspect your waitress was no Steven Slater. I doubt she was a stellar employee who felt unfairly pushed to the edge. She sounds like she would have behaved exactly the same way whether Steven Slater had been plastered all over the media or not.
Ms Minivan: Pregnancy is not only NOT a handicap, it IS a choice. You choose to be pregnant, travel while pregnant, and bring along a bag you can't lift, WHY should someone else help you? And once you have the brat, you'll be expecting others to carry your stroller up the stairs. You're right, women were having babies in rice paddies centuries ago--the difference between them & you is they didn't have the sense of entitlement you have. Grow up, or quit breeding!
Dude, I don't think wanting people to be civil and courteous is entitlement. For example, being old isn't a handicap -- would you sit there with your head phones on and watch an elderly person struggle to put their bag up? Why does everyone have to be so angry all the time? Do something unexpectedly nice for someone else for once!
All you haters out there....
You need to GRAB TWO BEERS and GET LAID!
I never said pregnancy was a handicap or suggested that is was...but I am starting to think that a lack of civility is!
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