Monday morning, I was only half awake as I entered the elevator lobby in my building. As I was standing there waiting for the elevator, a young girl walked up and we exchanged the usual small Monday morning smiles. When we got on the elevator, the girl made a little small talk and I responded with even smaller talk and exited the elevator. As I was leaving the elevator, the Awfully-Perky-for-a-Monday girl said, "Have a good day." I replied with an obligatory, "You too."
As a little background, I'm not a morning person. When my son was growing up, we could make it from "It's time to get up" to "Have a good day" with less than five words spoken between us. It's not that I'm cranky, I'm just quiet, especially in the morning. As soon as I turn off my radio alarm, that's it for morning noise. I don't turn on the television or radio and sometimes I don't even turn on the car radio for the drive to work.
As you might imagine, I find *morning people* to be extremely irritating. There's nothing they have to say that can't wait until at least 9:00 a.m. That being said, Awfully-Perky-for-a-Monday girl had a nice quality about her that actually didn't bother me too much. This brings me to the title of this post.
Tuesday morning as I was again waiting for an elevator, lo and behold, the same Perky Girl walked up. That morning, however, there were about four other people waiting also. Friendly Tuesday morning smiles were exchanged all around. As we were getting on the elevator, I noticed that Perky Girl's skirt was halfway unzipped in the back revealing something aqua underneath. I don't know what the aqua thing was but I was pretty sure it wasn't meant to be seen by the general public.
So, I whispered to Perky Girl that her underwear was showing. No, I didn't. I whispered to her that her skirt was unzipped in the back. She was embarrassed but I think she was glad I said something. If she hadn't been so friendly the morning before, it would have never in a million years occurred to me to mention to a total stranger that her skirt was unzipped.
The moral of this story is that you should be nice to people (even if they're in cranky Monday morning mode) or you might end up showing your ass.
11 comments:
Great advice, which I'll follow... as long as I have my pot of coffee first...
Back in my college days, I was walking to class one morning when a young chinese fellow stopped me and said something that I had no idea what it meant. I shook my head to indicate such and he repeated it. I gave him a blank look and he grabbed my hand and pressed it to my zipper which was not even close to being in an upright position. I zipped up much to his relief and my embarrassment. However, I was extremely glad that in this case, a complete stranger had taken it upon himself to say something and not a friend.
Nice of you let her know. I would have done the same thing.
I am sooooooooooooo not a morning person, until I get to work. Don't talk to me, don't ask me anything, don't get in my way, and don't be in the bathroom when I need to be in there!!! When Hubby & I were dating 10 years ago, I fell and broke my leg. He had to drive me to work for 12 weeks, and he wanted to chit chat the 20 mile commute. Ah, no, don't talk to me. I need quiet time, and this is it.
Dang... but women do want to talk-talk-talk about 10 thousand useless things in the evening don't they? LG
Great story, with a great moral to boot! LOL She's lucky for you. What embarassment you saved her from encountering!
I am the same way, though working on it, and it's getting somewhat better. Wish we could all wake up feeling "perky" and sunshiney! LOL
You're pretty funny.
You're also a class singer. If you don't believe it, go visit www.outsidein.typepad.com, who is Vicki Bennett. See the entry "Tagged Again" about music, where it says Laurie Anderson is a great singer. You been hiding light under a bushel?
Somehow, the perky morning gene skipped every single one of us children. However, that did NOT restrain my father from bellowing at ungodly hours of the morning, singing and generally cementing our hate of the wee morning hours.
By wee morning, I mean 10:00 a.m.
Donna - I don't drink any coffee until around 9:00 a.m. I don't want to be that alert that early.
Ed - That's hilarious! I wonder if anyone else saw that exchange.
Indigo - That's so sweet! You've been married 10 years to a morning person? Good for you.
LG - I have to admit that I am pretty chatty in the evenings. I even talk to myself if no one is here. (Did I say that out loud?)
Jlybn - I think that's my problem...the whole waking up thing.
Old Horsetail - I sure wish some of the other Laurie Anderson's royalty checks would find their way to my mailbox.
Pork Chop - my dad's method for waking us was to get a cold washrag and had it to us in bed. We were supposed to use it to wake ourselves up but we would just throw it at the other siblings we shared the room with. Until I was 14, I shared a very small bedroom with 2 sisters and a brother (2 sets of bunk beds). If you threw anything, you hit somebody. :)
When I was growing up I always thought dads got up early and made breakfast while moms slept until 9, 10 or whenever they woke up.
I had some other strange notions too, like all parents took baths together, just because mine did, and still do.
I don't like radio or tv in the morning, or I don't mind people talking to me as long as they don't wake me up unless it is for something interesting ;-) , and don't mind my gravel voice and minimal speech. I don't really like alarm clocks, in fact I have only had to use an alarm for the past year or so. I use my phone now if I have to have an alarm. Before I had parents,siblings, roommates, guinea pigs, phone calls, and other things that woke me up when I needed to be up.
During college, I lived with about 20 other people and posted on the kitchen frig was Oscar Wilde's "only dull people are brilliant at breakfast" so if anyone attempted to talk to you while you were eating you just pointed to the sign. It worked!
Being nice to people is a good thing because you never know how things will turn out, and it really doesn't cost anything to be pleasant vs unpleasant.
Yeah, I'm really not a morning person either. After all, my first career, music, kept me up until two or three in the morning. In college, I prided myself scheduling no class that would start before noon. Even now, as a member of the 8:30 - 5:00 world, morning people are just a different breed.
Still, as you said, it's always a good idea to be nice to people.
Susan - I'm going to put a sign like that on my refrigerator!
Comfort Addict - I always try to be nice. Let's just say, it's a good thing people can't read my mind before 9:00 a.m. because in my head, I'm being one sarcastic bitch.
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