Misery Loves Company

There is nothing that can snap me out of a bad mood quicker than someone ELSE in a worse mood. I don't know why this is, maybe it gives me an arcane glimpse of what I look like when I am in a pissy mood. Maybe I am evil and other people's anger amuses me, who knows. The fact is sometimes a great pick-me-up exists in someone else's bad day.

This morning, though it was a Monday morning, I woke up in a pretty good mood. It was gorgeous out. The sun was shining. The traffic was light. It was almost enough to make me feel better about the fact that I got about 4 hours of sleep last night. So I pulled into the Dunks parking lot for my Morning Mood Stabilizer and went inside. I walked towards the (ridiculously) long line and just as I was about to get there, a couple of construction workers darted in through the front door and basically rushed to get in line in front of me.

As I mentally plotted their deaths (Hello have you been behind most construction workers in line? For every one man there are usually eight orders they are placing for their buddies back at the site), I could feel my mood shift from On The Cusp Of Good to GRRRRRRR. Then about a minute later a woman plowed into me on her way out and spilled some iced coffee on my cardigan (which luckily is black!) and didn't even apologize but seemed pissed that I had chosen to stand in her path!!

The day was quickly going downhill.

Then something interesting happened. I heard a small commotion at the front of the line and when I looked up I saw that there had been a mix up. Apparently when the cashier yelled out "Next in line!" a guy started placing his order when this other woman had really been next and instead of her acting like an adult and saying "Excuse me, I was next" she started raining curses upon him under her breath and he heard her and was not amused. But he stilll went ahead with his order. Which turned out to be five specifically made coffees long and she was SO NOT HAVING IT. Words were exchanged. Eyes were rolled. People were made uncomfortable.

But at least one person was instantly in a better mood.

Hey I may have gotten four hours of sleep. And some mean men may have cut me in line. And some lady may have sloshed her latte on me, but at least my day didn't start off with a stranger yelling something rude about me involving a fist and a sexual act.

Right?

Happy Monday!