Karma?

I have often heard of people speaking about bad karma , good karma, etc. I really haven’t experienced any sort of karma…at least not in yo face karma! Haha.

Okay, so this morning I had to go to Target and decided to drop into Chick-Fillet. (Our Target is in the mall). Anyhow, they were pretty busy, and they only had one cashier. The cashier was actually one of Chris’s recruits, and he is a really sweet young man. (His name is also Chris)

So, the person in front of me ordered and moved to the side. Chris was busy getting the persons order ready, and I was waiting patiently. An older man and his pre-teen looking daughter walked over and stood to the right of me. Immediately, I knew this man would break in front of me. I don’t know how I know these things, but I have a little radar about stuff like this. The guy looked at me (because I was staring at him), and said to his daughter, “Let’s move over here.” Then they moved to the left of me.

SO, Chris was still busy getting the other person’s order ready, and I was standing about 2 feet from the counter. Normally, at this point I would crowd the counter, thus preventing anyone from breaking in front of me. I usually do something like that in stores or banks, but at food places, I generally don’t step right up to the counter until the person is ready to take the order.
I’m not sure why I wait, but I worked in the food business and I always appreciated it when people gave the impression of patiently waiting.

So, just as Chris the cashier stepped up to the counter and just as I was about to take one step forward, the old guy broke in front of me!! And, as he did this, he pretended it was because he was looking at the menu on the counter!

So, even though I knew this would happen if I didn’t prevent it, I was still pretty pissed off. And, the normal Alicia would have tapped that guy on the shoulder and said, “excuse me, I was actually next in line. I don’t know if you didn’t see me, but I was waiting and I am next in line to order.”
I would have said that if I thought the guy unintentionally broke in front of me. But since I knew he did it purposefully, the normal Alicia would have said something like,” excuse me, I was actually next in line. I know that you saw me because you looked right at me. and I don’t appreciate you intentionally breaking in front of me. That is rude and and if you don’t appreciate me telling you this, maybe next time you should wait your turn!”

Yes, I am a nice person, shy even, but never timid. And that is what I would have normally done. Instead, I kept my big mouth shut! I couldn’t believe how well I was restraining myself. I really wanted to give the guy a piece of my mind, but something was telling me to see how this played out.

So, I finally order and make small talk with Chris. Him and his family lost everything in Hurricane Katrina and made the move to Iowa. They are such a hardworking and sweet family, from what Chris (my husband) says. Chris the cashier is a junior in high school, and has joined the Air Force. He is always very polite when I see him and has a very genuine smile. I love genuine smiles!

As I am waiting, I look at this man and his daughter. By now his wife has joined him. They are all standing there, not speaking to each other, and actually looking like they are all pretty unhappy. As I am analyzing them, I see Chris look at me, and see that he is walking over to give me my order! First!

Ha. HA HAHAHA!!

Very nicely, I tell him thanks and then glance over at that guy. He is looking at me with a mean expression at his face. I wanted to laugh in his face and say, “hahaha. that’s what you get for breaking in front of me!” Instead, I just keep smiling and walk away.

As I walk away, I think how funny it was that I got broken in front of and still got my order first. Then I started wondering why this guy broke in front of me. The guy was hugely overweight, so maybe he was just hungry? Maybe he was just rude, in general? Maybe he was in a hurry??
Maybe he was racist? (He was white, and I’ve had many racist occasions in Iowa City). Maybe it was a combination of all the above – who really knows.

All I know is that it was very funny to me – the fact he broke in front of me in a hurry to get his food, and I still got mine first. HA hah.