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I just got back from a vacation at the beach and had a few sightings/encounters with the suck.
First there was my Mom, running around our four story beachfront townhouse writing a detailed list of every silly thing wrong with the place just so she could complain and ask for money to be refunded at the end. And over the dumbest things, like there being no kitchen towels, the mother in law suite smelling like shrimp, there being some wear in the paint on the washer, etc, etc. world without end.. (Good luck with Mom, Dave!) I kept trying to talk her out of complaining because the place was beautifully maintained and decorated and supplied. It was a beach house built in the 70s and certainly the cheapest beachfront dwelling surrounded by a million McMansion fake Italianate faux palaces ugly as hell. It was adorable and so comfortable.
The first afternoon it rained the hubby and I went to many different tourist trap places to pick up a few souvenirs/gifts for the neighbor feeding our pets, etc and noticed that at every shop there were surly mannered foreign girls manning the registers. Which led to a very sucky sighting. I'm still puzzling over why she acted like I was a SC because I was actually trying to be nice to the girl.
Me: Clutching an armload of crap like salt water taffy and beach towels
SRG: Surly Russian girl
SRG: Shouting into the telephone in Russian - translation as to what she said "I hate it here. I want to go home and get away from all these hateful tourists!!"
Me:
(Background: Husband fluent Russian speaker, I understand it pretty well from being subjected to it for the 20 plus years. I knew exactly what she said.)
She puts down the phone and without a word to me starts roughly dragging my crap over the scanner.
Me: You know you might want to be careful complaining about your job and your customers so loudly even if you were speaking Russian. You never know who around you might understand what you're saying, even here in America.
SRG: No reply, just a Russian death glare
More scanning
SRG: (snapping it out like she's telling me to get fucked) $xx.xx
Me: (handing over my credit card) Do you mind if I ask you something? Why is it that every shop I've been in today the ladies working there are all from Russia or Thailand or Romania? Is there a large Russian population in this part of Florida?
SRG: (big sigh) Student foreign exchange program
Me: (smiling) Well, I hope you get enough time off to relax and enjoy the area. This is one of the prettiest beach areas around.
SRG: More death glares
Me:
First there was my Mom, running around our four story beachfront townhouse writing a detailed list of every silly thing wrong with the place just so she could complain and ask for money to be refunded at the end. And over the dumbest things, like there being no kitchen towels, the mother in law suite smelling like shrimp, there being some wear in the paint on the washer, etc, etc. world without end.. (Good luck with Mom, Dave!) I kept trying to talk her out of complaining because the place was beautifully maintained and decorated and supplied. It was a beach house built in the 70s and certainly the cheapest beachfront dwelling surrounded by a million McMansion fake Italianate faux palaces ugly as hell. It was adorable and so comfortable.
The first afternoon it rained the hubby and I went to many different tourist trap places to pick up a few souvenirs/gifts for the neighbor feeding our pets, etc and noticed that at every shop there were surly mannered foreign girls manning the registers. Which led to a very sucky sighting. I'm still puzzling over why she acted like I was a SC because I was actually trying to be nice to the girl.
Me: Clutching an armload of crap like salt water taffy and beach towels
SRG: Surly Russian girl
SRG: Shouting into the telephone in Russian - translation as to what she said "I hate it here. I want to go home and get away from all these hateful tourists!!"
Me:
(Background: Husband fluent Russian speaker, I understand it pretty well from being subjected to it for the 20 plus years. I knew exactly what she said.)She puts down the phone and without a word to me starts roughly dragging my crap over the scanner.
Me: You know you might want to be careful complaining about your job and your customers so loudly even if you were speaking Russian. You never know who around you might understand what you're saying, even here in America.
SRG: No reply, just a Russian death glare
More scanning
SRG: (snapping it out like she's telling me to get fucked) $xx.xx
Me: (handing over my credit card) Do you mind if I ask you something? Why is it that every shop I've been in today the ladies working there are all from Russia or Thailand or Romania? Is there a large Russian population in this part of Florida?
SRG: (big sigh) Student foreign exchange program
Me: (smiling) Well, I hope you get enough time off to relax and enjoy the area. This is one of the prettiest beach areas around.
SRG: More death glares
Me:
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