Awkward List

Awkward moments and more weird stuff

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Special Weekend Post #1: Wrong order!

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Now, recently a topic that has come up in an awesome (or “ahhsome”) blog I’ve been following, Ahhsome Blog has been food! Or at least, that’s what stands out the most because I’m always hungry.

Why is this relevant? Well, I just left a very awkward situation at Carl’s Jr. For those of you who are wondering

“Who is Carl Jr.?”

You need a short explanation: Here in California, we have several awesome places that are pretty common around here. I lived in Colorado for a summer, and I was surprised that nobody knew what Jack in the Box was. All of these are burger places, one of the most famous ones around here is In-N-Out. One of my Texas friends decided to live in California for two reasons: the beach and In-N-Out. Carl’s Jr. is just another one of those places.

I was driving back home with my mom and dad from a nearby bookstore, and decided to stop for a late dinner at Carl’s Jr. From the window, my mom decided to order some enchiladas from the “Green Burrito” part of Carl’s Jr (yeah, there’s hybrid fast-food places here). I wanted to try the new turkey burgers, and my dad ordered a spicy chicken sandwich and a salad. Not a big order.

We paid for our food and we saw two number sign things waiting for us on the counter. Numbers 64 and 80. We took them and sat down. After about a minute, a woman brings two trays of food toward us and we began to reach for the fries when I realized that the salad wasn’t there. I looked for my burger and it was absent. But one thing I completely overlooked was that..

The order was huge.

We had:

  • Two orders of chicken tenders
  • Criss-cut fries
  • Onion rings
  • Big hamburger
  • A six dollar burger
  • Large fries
  • Small fries
  • Chili cheese fries
Of course, we were like ‘huh?’ And as we looked around, we spotted a family looking at us. One table away from us. They were sitting there quietly, glaring. Their food was in front of us. And we couldn’t eat it. It was torture. I tried looking away from the food. A ton of questions ran through my mind at that moment. Eventually I just got up and told the woman at the counter that they got our order wrong. The other family had asked for another order of the same thing.
We got what we actually ordered and set aside the other ones as we felt the stares from the other table. They were still waiting for their food. And in the meantime it was sitting in front of other people. Their food in front of us. While we were eating other things. They must have been angry.
The whole time were just sitting there, finishing our smaller order and soon it was time to face the fact. We had their food in front of us and they still hadn’t gotten their food.
Uh.. thats a lot of food for the three of us.
Many solutions were suggested:
“Let’s tell them that we haven’t touched it and take it to them.”
“No, let’s  just ask for a bag and take it to go.”
“Are you crazy? Let’s just dig in!”
“Let’s do the right thing and give it back to the restaurant. Even if they’re gonna –oh wait, they’re going to throw it away.”
We thought of all these things while the other people just sat there. Waiting. In the end, we asked the employees what we should do, and they gave us a bag and apologized for messing up. We walked away with the hungry family’s food in a bag. As they stared at us.
What would have done?

#7 Saying "no" to surveys or petitions

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Let’s face it. If we’re in a hurry, we simply cannot stop to listen to someone with a clipboard and a pen. Or maybe we are just not interested in taking a “short, two-minute survey”.

Have you ever seen that portion of your receipts that says “Chance to win $10,000! Just answer this question.” Just one question. Sometimes you get a free burger just by answering ONE question. Maybe we’re afraid of sharing our opinions?

Not me.

 Say no can just be an uncomfortable situation for any person. I mean, if we have no loose change when a hobo asks us for money, or if a little girl tries to sell us chocolate and we just happen to be allergic to chocolate (that would suck, by the way), we find it hard to say no.

How do you say no?

1) You can pull out your cell phone and pretend to be on the phone.

2) Pretend you don’t speak English and look straight down at the floor (it makes it look more realistic).

3) Wave at a stranger from far, and pretend that he’s an old co-worker and you have a lot of things to catch up on. Then walk away from the person with the clipboard and go to your car and speed away.

Or you could try my technique and look angry. Nobody wants to talk to an angry person.

Remember, few of us feel comfortable saying no to others. We might feel a little guilt. I always make sure to stop, and apologize that I cannot take the survey or sign the petition because I am not interested. I wish them luck in getting other people to sign their forms, and walk away with a smile. They’re used to getting rejected, but they’re still people with feelings, and that is something you might want to remember next time.