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[wombat]

He's moving to New Jersey, actually, and I am looking forward to seeing if he hates the people. In fact - Inev, you should do a better controlled experiment: I want you to get a part time job in a coffee bar and see if you post the same stories about customers.

[theinevitable]

I'm sure I'll hate the people in New Jersey a lot. I do wonder how customer interactions would work out, maybe in New Jersey people would have different expectations.

Actually, the type of problem I am thinking of wouldn't go away, because the problem is that I have still not learned how to say "no" to unreasonable requests. No, you can't leave your food sitting here while you go grab "one more thing" before you pay. There are people in line. No, you can't just grab a cup-- there are people in line. No, I can't put this frozen chicken in my cooler so you can buy it later. Buy it now or put it back on the shelf. No, I can't "spot you" 25 cents. You aren't going to bring it back later. You do this every day. Bring enough money or go get money. I am not a bank.

One that I've never figured out the appropriate way to handle is people who walk up and want ice cream samples while there is a line of coffee customers. Do the sample people have to wait in line? Do the people trying to get coffee have to wait for some asshole to try 5 different flavors of ice cream and tell me their reactions to each flavor in real time?

My coworker has a theory about St Louis's problem-- "everyone in this city is trash and acts like trash." I think that line to myself a lot when dealing with this shit.

Part of the reason St Louis has shrunk is because of building too many roads. The city got drained out to the suburbs by the highways.
Part of the reason Boston is nice and so many people want to live there (and do) is because they took out a big highway that went through the middle of the city.

[wombat]

Speaking as a New Yorker, I doubt that people in New Jersey - who as much as we like to rag on them, are basically our people - would be shy with unreasonable requests. But I am also sure they'd help you out by yelling at guy asking for ice cream samples if they perceived that as cutting into the coffee line.

I'm sure Boston is nicer with the highway gone, but are there really more people who want to live there now? I don't recall it being particularly depopulated when I lived in the area a couple of decades ago. If it's even more crowded I am not sure that would make it nicer at all.

[pmcd9]

They didn't take out the highway through the city, they converted it to a tunnel. the road is still there, it's just underground now. And that is awesome!

[jaydub]

San Francisco was markedly improved by the destruction of the Embarcadero freeway in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.  Perhaps not the destruction so much as the removal of the debris.  It was an elevated freeway that essentially walled off the view of the bay from 1/4 of the perimeter of the City.  My mom (who was working at 1 Market Plaza for Southern Pacific RR at the time) said one of the unanticipated effects was the sudden relocation of Bigwig offices from the "view of the Financial District" side of the building to the "view of the Bay" side, which was much less desirable as the "view of the soundwalls of the freeway".

[theinevitable]

Bicyclist was hit and killed (by speeding cars that the cops think were drag-racing) along the route I take home from work when I had a frustrating day, at the same hour when I bike home from work. I got in the habit of going a longer way when I'm mad to try to work out some more tension. Guess that won't be happening anymore.

[theinevitable]

In the summer, a month before leaving town forever, is the exact time when you realize you love every girl.

[wombat]

Never mind that Inev, look to the future. Did you know there is a musical on Broadway right this minute that is about a city planner?

[theinevitable]

that sounds awful! I can see it in my head and almost even hear the songs.

I am worried that 1 month without work or school in NJ is definitely enough time to do all the stuff Wombat doesn't want me to do-- find a D&D group, meet women, learn where all the cool restaurants are, etc. I think I'm going home to NC for a week or so of that time, luckily.

Today I am trying to plan which classes to take to fulfill all the requirements, and my problem is that I want to take everything, and am not sure how to find out when classes will be offered in the future. They want me to send my advisor a list of what classes I will take each semester. Hmm. Also lots of questions about overlap between classes with slightly different titles.

[wombat]

You have that wrong - I definitely think you should find out where the cool restaurants are. Even in grad school people have to eat. I must never have told this story: In Amherst while I was in grad school, a really good new Chinese place opened. They had at least one great dish I've never seen elsewhere and made a couple other things better than I've had them anywhere else. About ten years after I graduated, I was visiting, and went to pick up takeout to take back to where we were staying. I was waiting around at the register and the cashier was looking at me funny and finally said something along the lines of, "Did you used to live around here?"

So, ten years later they remembered me - I guess I ate out a lot in grad school.

[theinevitable]

There is no good way to say "I'm not being a creep," but sometimes that is what needs to be communicated. I know that it is pretty clear that I am into your cute haircut or whatever, but actually I really do want to make sure you don't want me to bike with you back to your place, because I know you got mugged outside your place like a month ago. I'm not trying to invite myself over, really.

I think I have matured enough to not try to explain myself, at least.

[pmcd9]

I say make the offer. If she would rather take her chances with the muggers then that is her decision.

[theinevitable]

ugh, today I interacted with a customer and realized exactly where my line is for cussing at someone. But I didn't do it.

There are a lot of people I interact with who are rude, demanding, clueless, whatever. It's nothing personal, maybe they're kind of jerky. But this guy (and, I now realize, certain other customers who made me get this same feeling) are well aware of what they are doing-- trying to humiliate me. Either to punish me for not doing what they wanted, or just because they like the feeling of power.

Ugh and I hesitated and did what he wanted, too. And still got cussed at! Fuck you, old man!

[pmcd9]

Fuck You Old Man

Sorry, it  has nothing to do with what you wrote, but I thought it might make you smile.

[theinevitable]

I really hope I can grow up to be chill and wise instead of mean and angry like that famous guy.