Ah "Fast" food

So last night I picked up my granddaughter from the sitter and decided to make a stop at a local burger joint drive through for a burger and some apple sticks for the little one. I had a limited amount of time as I need to be at my church in about 30 minutes for a drama rehearsal, a quick "order food from the car" seemed like the PERFECT solution. How wrong could I have been.

I ordered my meal, then immediately realized when the amount came up that I had picked the wrong number. I can't eat those gargantuan sized sandwiches they serve these days, I usually either order the kid's meal or the junior sized sandwiches. I'll give Helene partial credit for my snafu as she was expressing her displeasure of being strapped in the car seat and dinner was wasn't in her belly yet, but most of the blame lands on my own dyslexic shoulders.

I should have realized I was in trouble when I saw two cars asked to pull up for thier food, and the one right ahead of me sitting by the window for about five minutes. Sometimes I am really slow. I thought, rightfully so that they must be a little short staffed tonight, so be patient.

I pull up to the window, finally, and tell the girl that I had messed up and needed to alter my order slightly, only the burger was different, the rest was all the same. She then closed the window. I sat there for about 3 or 4 minutes, then she opened the window again. I told her that if it was going to be too much trouble to change at this point, I'd leave the order as it was, as it was very obvious that her frustration level was on extreme. (See how patient I'm being?) The next thing I know I am also being asked to pull forward. "But I haven't even paid for my food yet!" I reply. "THat's ok, we'll take care of that later." Incredulous I complied and pulled forward.

Seven minutes later, my patience has reached it to near of it's breaking point when my husband called. I guess he could tell, by my sharp "hello" that all was not right in his wife's world. I explained that I was waiting for my food. He was surprised that I hadn't just pulled away, I just knew that if I did, I'd make it worse for the people behind me, and besides I'd have to go sit in another line at another place, while a toddler got increasingly irritated.

FINALLY someone comes to my car, she asked what my order was, I told her and also that I had yet to pay. A couple of minutes later a guy comes and takes my money. I asked if they are short handed inside. He said yeah they had a total of four people working two at registers two manning all the food prep. I know it needs at least two more people then that especially when working a dinner rush. My sympathy meter rose a bit, but my patience still teetered on collapse. A few minutes later my food arrived, but minus my drink. At this point I didn't care, as I was now hungry, had a very irritated and hungry child in the back and I had to get to the church.

What should have taken 5 minutes took nearly 15! See how patient I was? Just ignore all the mental cursing that was going on in my head, you weren't supposed to hear that.