Category: rant

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customers funny Hot Dog Days My San Francisco Chronicles observation rant

Karma’s a bitch.

Yes, karma’s a bitch. And here’s a story to teach you about this statement:

Yesterday, I worked a full day from 9:30am-7pm. I think working seven days straight with no day off finally caught up to me in the afternoon because I felt a bit cranky with some customers then. So, this guy comes along, parks his car in the spot behind me, and then proceeds to bug me for dollar bills and quarters. At that point, I was low on dollar bills and was not in the mood to have someone bugging me for quarters. He was persistent (and rather rude), but I stood my ground. Finally, he “gave in” and bought a bottle of water from me so to “force” me to give him change (what a way to phrase the situation, huh?)

He bought his water, I gave him his change rather begrudgingly, and he filled up his meter. I guess he needed more quarters afterwards (more than $1.50 worth!) and asked for more quarters. I felt really annoyed with him at this point so I shoved the quarters into his hands with no smile. Come on, give me a break, seriously. This is a BUSINESS, not a change machine, dude. No thanks or anything from him.

The guy ended up leaving to go shopping after awhile; I was so tempted to do something to his car since it looked shiny and new. But I resisted the temptation since I felt I could never be so evil to do such a thing to someone’s car. So I forgot about the guy and went on to do my usual duties.

I don’t know how much longer afterwards, but there was a bit of commotion in the area due to some guy jumping off a building nearby (I was completely oblivious to this, fortunately?). Two parking officers came by and were trying to clear the lane behind me for traffic to get through; the female officer stopped and looked at the guy’s car parked behind me. She proceeded to punch in his license plate/make into her little machine; I thought at first she was going to give the guy a ticket. But after awhile, I noticed she was not leaving right away and was sticking around for quite some time.

I was already feeling some sort of victory over the guy with the thought that he was probably getting a ticket. Then, a tow truck stopped in front of the guy’s car and the tow truck guy came out and asked if the car was mine. Well, gee sir, yes it is my car, and I am going to let you tow it away right now…..(sarcasm). Anyway, so the tow truck guy proceeds to prepare the quarter-hoarding guy’s car for towing away; meanwhile, throughout this whole ordeal, I was laughing to myself inside. I could not believe this was happening; the guy was getting his car towed, and the tow truck incident pretty much made my day 10x better.

The car was towed away after awhile, and finally I felt relaxed. The quarter guy comes back much later and looks confused. “What happened to the car that was parked here?”

“Oh, it was towed away.”

“But…they didn’t see the parking meter!”

“Well…the parking officers said no parking in general in this area.”

The guy looked confused for a few minutes more, then he walked away to call someone. In some ways, I felt a little bad for him, but in other ways, I felt like my evil laughter inside was justified. That’s what you get for harassing someone for quarters. Yes, karma’s a bitch.

I will probably be struck down for laughing about this later on, but right now, I’m still feeling amused by the situation.

Categories
drink rant Starbucks

Thumbs down to Starbucks’ Green Tea Frapp in the US!

As a follow-up to my entry about Starbucks in Japan, today during my lunch break I went to the nearest Starbucks (not hard to find–there’s one on nearly every block here in San Francisco) and ordered the Green Tea Frappucino to take back with me to the hot dog stand.

Sigh, needless to say, I was sorely disappointed. I was expecting there to be a difference, yes, but I wasn’t expecting such a horrible misrepresentation of green tea.

The main complaint I have is that this “green tea” frappucino does not even taste like green tea. I took the first sip and thought that it tasted like a melon drink instead–did they perhaps mistake the name of the drink and mean to call it “Melon Tea Frappucino” instead?

I couldn’t stand to finish the drink and had to throw it out, despite the fact that I paid $3.30 for it. The small-size Japanese Green Tea Frappucino is smaller, costs more, yet tastes much better. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll take the Japanese Frappucino over the American one anyday.

Oh, but that’s only for the Green Tea Frappucinos. I still like the other drinks that Starbucks provides here in the US, i.e., Double Chocolate Chip Frappucino and the usual espresso drinks. But you can’t win ’em all, can you?

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Hot Dog Days jobs observation rant tourists

I’m pushing a heavy cart…yes, I am busy.

I am amazed at how oblivious people can be towards others. Not once, but twice (possibly three times!) I have had people ask me for information/directions to stores while I am pushing along the heavy hot dog cart. I just can’t believe people think I have the time to stop and tell them where they should go! My co-workers tell me that I should not feel obliged to give directions since the other people are just being plain rude for not noticing the obvious.

Oh yes, I can tell you information while I push this heavy cart. Oh no, obviously I am not busy at all! That’s why I am pushing this cart.

Next time I should just tell people to help push the cart if they want to ask me or my co-workers for information. We are not an information booth, and we are not so kind to give away so much information freely.

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#foodie American Culture customers funny health Hot Dog Days jobs My San Francisco Chronicles observation rant

Pretzels vs. Hot Dogs

Dear Female Customers,

I know you all probably look at the menu and think to yourselves “Gee, hot dogs, so fattening! I think I will be healthier and have a pretzel.”

I hate to break it to you, but a pretzel is probably unhealthier than a hot dog.

Think about it: all the pretzel is is salt (sodium, yikes!) and white bread. Simple carbs that aren’t easily broken down. No real nutrients. In addition, the salt will make you retain some water (i.e., you will feel bloated later).

Meanwhile, a hot dog at least will have some protein in it, and when you add some relish or onions or sauerkraut, you get some sort of vegetable servings.

So stop trying to kid yourself into thinking that the pretzel is healthier, because in reality, it really isn’t. I do believe a soft pretzel packs more calories than a jumbo hot dog (correct me if I’m wrong).

So anyway, what would you like to buy today? An unhealthy soft pretzel or a less-unhealthy hot dog?

Sincerely,

Your Favorite Hot Dog Vendor in San Francisco

Categories
Busride Observations My San Francisco Chronicles rant transportation

Riding the F Line.

There are a few things that annoy me about public transportation. Although I love the diverse groups of people who board the buses/trains here, some of them just plain smell.

I know I ranted about that woman who was being royally rude about the smell of a Chinese woman beside her. The thing that really angered me about that situation was just how blatantly obvious the woman was being. Seriously, she could have removed herself from the situation.

But I digress.

Today I was sitting on the F Line, on my way back to my apartment from checking my mail downtown. At first the other passengers and I were kind of spread out because there weren’t many people on the train, but as we got closer to Fisherman’s Wharf, we all had to crowd into the seats more. I felt like I was suffocating between these two rather smelly people. I couldn’t really remove myself from the situation though since there were a lot of other people on the train at that point. Plus, I tried to distract my senses by focusing on finishing my book. That didn’t work too well though; still ended up feeling sick from the smell.

I know some people can’t afford to be super clean here in the city, but it’s rather irritating to have to smell the people on a crowded train/bus. The least they could do is put on some deodorant or do something to cover up the stench! Maybe go find a flower and rub it upon themselves. Anything is better than smelling human B.O.