Monday, May 08, 2006

Simply the best

When you are married, you end up enduring a lot of things for the sake of your spouse's pleasure. Now, before you cover the childrens' eyes and close this post because you don't want to know THAT much about the fat lady's private life, that's NOT what I'm talking about here. My goodness.

No, it's music. For the last ten years J has been blasting the oldies like a senior citizen whose hearing aid needs turning up. And I have suffered through many a concert where I am the youngest in the auditorium by multiple decades.

Well, Saturday, I began evening the score. I dragged him to Wynonna in Atlantic City, and I was so overwhelmed, joyful, and in love with her every throaty note that my lip quivered and tears ran down my cheeks.

It was a very good day. We had a decent drive, an excellent dinner that was more than a bit unexpected, and the best service ever from a waiter (Susan at East Bay Crab & Grill, you ROCK). The hotel room was free, enormous, and comfy, we had candy for the car and J seemed amused by my "pop a jelly bunny in his mouth and ask him to identify the flavor" game. I kept most of my gambling money (a whole $100) in my pocket and played on $20 for two hours and still came home with $57.50 over the $100.

He was happy because he got to see whores with tattoos. And because, on Sunday, we drove to Philly to taste-test cheesesteaks. Pat's and Geno's are on the same corner. Geno's wins by a mile--better meat, although less of it. Softer, fresher, bread. Comfier plastic tables that are not particularly friendly to those who eat a lot of cheesesteaks.

I sang Wynonna songs in my head the whole way home.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Krystal blue frustration

I really don't want this blog to drown in a sea of whining about abysmal customer service. But sometimes a girl needs to snap:

On Saturday I was foolish enough to stop by the Waldbaums in Levittown to do a bit of grocery shopping. Why foolish? Because this particular store offers rotten service--consistently.

Also foolish because I usually shop at the new Waldbaums in Jericho, where the service (and products) are outstanding. The staff members at Jericho are cheerful, know their products, and treat customers like valued human beings.

But Levittown is another story entirely--and my experience Saturday convinced me to never return. According to the receipt, my cashier's name was Krystal; she was, without embellishment, the epitome of awful. She treated me with absolute disdain: no greeting, no smile, just a look of scorn as she pulled my items across the scanner. When she scanned my jumbo delicious apples, I noticed they rang at $1.29/pound rather than the advertised $1.00/pound, and I mentioned this to her. Nicely. Rather than checking, she argued with me, finally sending a pleasant man off to produce to check the price. As we waited for him to return, she huffed, puffed, snorted, and finally turned her back on me.

When he returned and showed her the mistake was hers--she'd refused to look at the apple tags and instead input the wrong code, she glared at me as this was corrected. She completed the transaction in silence, just sighing enough to let me know that my choosing her line had ruined her day, or perhaps her entire life.

Gosh, so sorry to have chosen her line. Maybe her little nose stud was poking her.