I soooo miss nice polite men. They are few and far between out here in California and I think the ones that do fall into the polite, gentleman category are more than likely transplants. Here is my tale of woe....
I took my car into the dealership today for its regularly scheduled maintenance check-up, which I take care of at certified dealership even though I know it will be more expensive. I'm waiting for the shuttle to take me to my office and there are 5 men and 1 other woman also waiting. The shuttle shows up and we tell the driver our destinations (all within a 5 miles radius of the dealership) and then we head out to the shuttle van and start to load up. This is a 3 row van where 3 people sit in the back, 2 in the middle, and one up front with the driver. Guy number one jumps into the middle seat with nothing but his receipt for his car. Guy number two also jumps into the middle seat with his receipt and his cell phone (I will call him Idiot Boy). I climb in and struggle into the far corner of the 3rd row with my purse, laptop, and lunch box. Guy number three climbs into the 3rd row with his book on Economics or something and sprawls out. Guy number four offers the front seat next to the driver to the other lady in the shuttle with us, but she says "oh no, you take it you are taller and need more room." She then stands there waiting for the guy sprawled out next to me to realize that he has to share his space. Finally she climbs in and we are off.
First stop, drop off the other lady. Now, she has to lean forward and struggle to get the sliding door open on the van. I'm asking myself, "hey Idiot Boy, why can't you open the door for her?" She gets out and struggles to close it and doesn't get it quite tight enough so Idiot Boy asks, "should I close that?" Duh!!
Second stop, drop off the sprawler sitting next to me. Again, has to climb over Idiot Boy who doesn't offer to assist or move at all, but since sprawler is a little guy he springs out pretty quickly.
Third stop, drop off guy number one. He starts to climb out over Idiot Boy, but then realizes that A. he has a door on his side and B. Idiot Boy isn't going to move for him.
Fourth stop, drop me off. I shout from the back of the van the directions to my office and tell the driver to just pull up to the curb and all will be fine. I then shimmy across the seat, with my purse, laptop, and lunch bag. I speak firmly to Idiot Boy "could you open the door for me?" I swear he looked at me as if I had a second head and how dare I speak to him. Now I wouldn't have had an issue if I could tell that he was pre-occupied with reading something or speaking on the phone, but he wasn't... he was just staring off into space. Eventually, he did get the door open for me and I struggle to get past him with all my stuff. Did he even bother to get out of the way at all? NO! Did he leave his foot in the middle of the aisle so that I almost tripped on it? YES! Did he offer to assist at all while I jerked on my laptop bag to get it unwedged from between the seats? NO! Do you think he realized I was annoyed when I looked him in the eye and said "thanks for being such an ass?" Probably Not.
