So I inadvertently bought some patio furniture the other day. I went to Target for a water hose. One hour and one confrontation later, I walked out with a gorgeous patio set, but I had to fight to get it when it was mine to begin with.
I spotted the furniture from a mile away and the impulse shopper in me said ‘buy it’. I went over to it, looked it over, saw the great discounted price, realized it was the only one left and told the man I’ll take it. I sent my husband home to get the SUV, since it wouldn’t fit in the car we brought with us, and I went inside the store to look for some matching accessories.
When I returned to the patio section, there was a man sitting on MY outdoor, plush, cool-patterned love seat! His wife was eying it up and down and fluffing the pillows like she already owned it. I stood there and nudged my husband to look at our entertainment while we waited for the clerk to finish up with another customer before carrying it out to our car. I whispered to him, “they think they’re going to buy it, but little do they know, we’ve already staked our claim”.
The clerk heads in our direction to take the love seat away to be taken to it’s forever home, but there was one small problem, the man sitting on it. The woman jumped in front of the clerk and started asking questions about MY love seat. The clerk explained that it was already sold to us. That was when she turned around and looked us up and down, settling dead in on my eyes, with the coldest darkest stare I have ever seen and said, “I don’t believe you.”
What? You think I would lie about this? I was just here 20 mins ago and told the man we’d take it! I went inside and bought coordinating outdoor throw pillows to warm up my lanai! I was too speechless to spit out the words, “check out the security tape lady!” My husband jumped in and mentioned that the clerk had already taken the matching chairs up to the front and was coming back for the love seat. Good one honey! Score for the Gissaro’s! Again, she states, “I don’t believe you”. Now the 17 year old, innocent clerk is speechless and looks at me like, “hey lady, we’re closing soon and I don’t have time for this so you two need to duke it out.” So I quickly demanded him to tell her that we already said we were buying it. She didn’t care. She wanted to know why we weren’t sitting on it if we were taking it. I’m sorry, but do I need to mark my territory?
I couldn’t believe that she didn’t believe we already bought it! Like I have nothing better to do than to screw up her day by stealing this precious love seat out from underneath her? Come on lady!
Finally, she says, “let’s not fight” and motions her husband to follow her away from my prized possession. That pissed me off more since she was the one who became hostile by accusing me of lying. Then, she resurfaces 10 minutes later to walk by and shake her head in disappointment and again comment “I still don’t believe you”. It took everything in me to not unleash my Philly-upbringing -beast and knock her lights out, but I gained my composure and realized that I had really won.
Now this couple was probably twice or maybe even three times our age and the initial feeling I got was that they looked at us like, “what have they done in their lifetime to enjoy a beautiful, comfortable outdoor love seat that was for sale at a fraction of the price?” She looked at us with such disgust that it made me feel like I was disrespecting my elders, which was probably her intent to make me feel that way. Sorry lady, but this is a piece of furniture. Maybe if you were the last one on the bus and there were no seats left I would have given up my seat for you, but not in this situation. Don’t pull that ‘respect your elders’ crap on me.
Could this be generational profiling in the real world? Could this be why when I would tell people at the ripe age of 24 that I was a Director of something they looked at me like, “I wonder what she did to get that title”? Is it because I don’t look old enough for one reason or another, that I get spat on or laughed at simply because I haven’t paid my dues in life?
Should I be excited to get wrinkles or gray hair so that I am respected at first glance?
