The Lost Art[ifact] of Courteousness

Three separate instances tonight have caused me to become disillusioned with the idea that considerateness and civility are still appreciated arts. Yeah, more like artifacts.

1. On my break from the most hellish kids on earth, I stopped by a quickie-mart to grab a Mountain Dew. I got my drink, headed out the door, and suddenly noticed an older lady coming. So, being the model gentlemen my Mother would want me to be, I stopped to hold the door for her. She walked in and did not say thank you. I know I'm bickering here, but it really pisses me off when you go out of your way to do something nice and someone isn't appreciative. If that lady had been mildly paying attention, she would have seen the haste in my walk and noticed that I stopped (fast in my tracks) to hold the door for her while I was putting the change in my wallet. She walked by (very slowly) and walked into the convenient store. I guess my ability to be nice was way too convenient for her ability to explore communicative thankfulness. I said, "You're welcome" anyway.

2. While leaving the parking lot, heading back to the dismaying dreaded daycare of doom, I stopped to let a lady out, as I pulled onto the street to stop at the red light. She had just been pumping gas at this same station and I stopped hard to let her go ahead and cross the other 3 lanes of traffic. She pulled out, looked at me, and went on her marry way. I thought, what kind of store is this? Self-minded Mart. I said, "You're welcome" to her too. I chuckled afterward because she didn't seem to notice my gesture of niceness and courtesy either. I don?t do nice things to get a thank you. But jeez, somebody say something!

3. The end of my eight hours was just moments away. I was taking our unit's trashcan, soiled linen bag, and bag of dirty diapers out to the back where it collects dust until the custodial services removes it (hey, it's not my job). I'm the only male on the child unit during 2nd shift, so I always take out the garbage. Tonight, there was a bunch though--more than usual. As I walked by the nurse's station, one the ladies got my attention and asked me to take theirs out. Actually, she said, "Do you wanna get ours too?" Now, I'm one for chivalry and all and I have even offered to take the nurse's trash out before, but couldn't she see the massive amount of waste I was currently dealing with? To top it all of, it was just two bags of empty medicine cups and water cups. Very light stuff. But her need to see my gallantry was in order. Really, the annoying part was that the amount of light garbage was so big, that it made my effort a little harder, seeing as I was already dealing with a heavy trash can, a heavy bag of wet towels, and a bag of stinky diapers. Nope, she didn't mind. She just piled it on. But, at least she had the courtesy to say THANK YOU! One out of three ain't so bad...