While standing in line for food at the Mavericks game tonight, I ran into the kind of person that Brian Regan describes as “Captain Me Planet.” I was the next person in line to order at the cash register when a guy, who sounded like he was from either Europe or New Zealand, came marching in front of everyone. There are some situations in life that this would be anbr accepted practice, such as if you were at Chick-Fil-A or another one of your favorite fast food restaurants and you are only needing a quick refill of a drink. I’m not sure why it has become this way, but most people accept this as an acceptable reason to barge in front of everyone.
But that wasn’t why this guy was jumping in front of everyone else. He came marching up to the cash register to boldly announce that his buddy had just dropped all of their food on the ground. I’m serious. That’s what he was telling anyone who would listen (on a side note, I’m not sure why a guy was carrying food for another guy, but that’s another story). I don’t normally make it a practice to make fun of my friends to complete strangers (this might be common in British humor, which I just don’t get), so this struck me as odd. He didn’t say that his friend stepped on a slick spot on the floor that made him lose control of the tray of food. Nor did he say that an employee shoved the tray of food off the condiment counter laughing hysterically at him. Basically, his friend was a klutz and he wanted the food service at the American Airlines Center to pay the price. I don’t really blame him for this, seeing as it costs $3.75 for a bottle of water, but is seemed very presumptuous to assume that they would just give him free food.
It turned out that the AAC is in the business of paying for other people’s mistakes. They gave this guy complimentary replacements for everything they ordered. I guess this just goes to show you that it never hurts to ask. However, if you make the same mistake one day and devastatingly drop all of your precious gourmet AAC food on the ground, please wait in line to ask for replacements. There are other people in the world than just you.