On days when I go into the office, I\u2019m usually pressed for time at lunch to get home, feed the dogs, feed myself, and get back to the office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A stop at McDonald\u2019s on the way can either make this much easier or – if they are having an off day – make me hopelessly late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week, I stopped on my way and decided to go in instead of going through the drive through. I ordered at the kiosk like a boss, then waited patiently, quietly, and alertly for my order – with the order number on the receipt extended out of my shirt pocket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re going to be just a number, at least be clear about it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The crew was harried, as usual – even though this was just the start of the lunch rush. When my order was up, the woman behind the counter handed me the bag and then reached back to get me my drink cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHere\u2019s your cup, beautiful,\u201d she said and I thanked her – then she hurried off to help the next customer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was dressed for work with my head neatly shaved and my beard neatly trimmed and while she might say that to everyone, I felt pretty special. And maybe a little beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later that week, I was in the checkout line at a store – being quiet, polite, and alert as I usually am – and again dressed professionally for work since I\u2019d just come from the office. As I finished the transaction, the casher said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHave a good day, darling,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And maybe she says that to everyone, but it was still nice to hear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On days when I go into the office, I\u2019m usually pressed for time at lunch to get home, feed the dogs, feed myself, and get back to the office. A stop at McDonald\u2019s on the way can either make this much easier or – if they are having an off day – make me hopelessly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2749,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions\/2749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}