I'm off...

work, that is. I'm taking a couple of vacation days because of an event I'll talk more about next week.

So, I had an appointment at the university to plan for next year and then I called up my mother to see if she wanted to go to my favorite restaurant, Taste of Thai. I found her and I got to snarf down my favorite dish of all time, "Drunken Noodle, Spicy 3, coconut soup"...that's how the order goes, and they have it memorized.

ANYWAY, the whole reason I'm writing this post is because we went to Dick's Sports next door after scorching our innards. And apparently I am not the only one who thinks Dick's are a bunch of dicks. I caught an excerpt of this post at Nashville's Talking and I just had to say a little sumpin' having been there today.

I, having been to Dick's before, know that when I enter, I am surrounded by good stuff and no service. AT ALL. EVER. It's as if they are trained to ignore you and they get commission on every person they ignore. Seriously.

My mom and I were tooling around the store and another lady walked up to me and said, "Do you work here?"

"No, I'm sorry I don't," I said with a sympathetic look.

"What do you need to do to get a person to help you?" she asked, only half-jokingly.

I replied, "Well, you need to pray."

With that, she burst out laughing and I did, too. It's THAT bad. She went ahead and asked me about a certain brand of clothing and I was happy to direct her to it. She expressed her thanks and we went our separate ways.

I helped her more than I've ever seen anyone helped in that store. REALLY. Other than the cashiers, I don't know what the employees are doing. I've seen them. I know they are there, but it's like a social experiment. How pissed off DO people get when they are utterly, completely ignored?

I disgrace them with one caveat--the cashier was exceptionally friendly today, which has NEVER happened before. I had to wonder if it was her last day.