People These Days...

Today, I drove for the first time. By myself.  With no one else in the car.  I needed to run a few errands and between my brother's birthday party in front of the Wii and her fatigue from the gym, my mom was not willing to drive me.  Of course, the thought of my driving across town terrified her, especially after watching a ten minute video on the dangers of texting while driving.  She insisted that I call her at every stop, working out to five calls in one and a half hours.  

The most urgent errand was a stop at Fedex Kinko's- now know as Fedex Office- to print a single 4x6 picture, that my printer had decided it simply didn't like.  I parallel parked (again, for the first time by myself) and put a quarter in the meter, figuring it wouldn't take that long.  

The moment I had passed the store's threshold, an employee came up to me.  When I pointed towards the photo machine, he replied, "Another customer is using is right now; it will just be a minute or-"

"No, actually it's going to take a long time," an older woman with her daughter chimed in.  "I still have 9 prints to make and this machine's really slow".

"OK, would I be able to just print one really quickly? My meter's running," I asked, figuring she couldn't say "no". 

"You know," she said as she lifted her credit card out of her pocket.  "I've been around for 53 years and I've just learned how to say 'no'.  I used to always let someone cut in front of me because they had less. 'Sure, go ahead it's fine,' I would say.  But it's not.  I was here first."

I honestly don't remember how I responded, but after a moment of shock, I turned around and walked out of the store.  It was a great way to start my first solo drive.