non-fast food

03/01/2006: “”

before i go any further, i have a bit of a disclaimer…

this is based on a real event. this is not meant to be some metaphorical reference to my relationship, or any other person close to me’s relationship, or the relationship that you, the reader, might be in. any similarities between any relationship and the following accounts and questions, no matter how literal or symbolic, are purely coincidence. i promise.

there – i just saved half the comments i would have gotten on this that aren’t ads for online casinos or bootleg viagra.

so, when do you cut your losses and just walk away?

that’s what i was asking myself today, before i came home and swigged a diet sunfist (diet sunkist and tequila) to dull the pain of the day. when does the time you have invested not warrant investing any more time and just saying, “fuck all this – enough time wasted!!!”

of course, i’m talking about chicken. fried chicken. ’cause it’s two dollar tuesday. but, you all knew that…

(and for those who were taking it where it didn’t need to go, refer back to the disclaimer at the top)

i wanted to be productive today, so i decided to pass on the gym (and the hour plus lunch time it involves) and instead just walk across the street (note: said street is now an eight lane toll highway – or at least is in the process of becoming as such) to kfc for a $2 two piece and a biscuit…typically, this means i only need a half hour. but today was an atypical day, i suppose, thanks to lester, the chicken guy.

i call lester “the chicken guy” for three reasons –

1. he works and kfc (hence the chicken part)
2. he looks like a guy (although this close to downtown austin, one can never be sure)
3. he was THE guy at kfc today. as in the lone employee, minus the mask.

it was that last part that made this painful – because lester would take your order, go wash his hands, put your meal together, actually walk it down to the OTHER END OF THE COUNTER (and lester was, pardon the pun, no spring chicken) so it was sitting under the “pickup your food here” sign, then come back and take your money and make your change.

then repeat.

the bitch came three people before me when some guy was there from his office and wanted three tuesday specials (which is a two piece dark, biscuit, mashed potatoes and gravy, all for $2.00 in case you’re curious) but i guess was mathematically challenged because he wanted all three rung up separately since they were for himself and two coworkers that weren’t there.

lester actually went through the routine THREE SEPARATE times for this schmuck, including walking all the way down to the end of the counter three times to deposit three different boxes.

at this point i wanted lester really dead.

when i got there it was 12:32 and i was number five in line. it took over twenty minutes before i even got to order, add two to that before i got my food. at that point, i was in for the whole lunch hour. it kinda sucked. set a bad tone for the rest of the day/

but never mind all that.

when should i have walked? of course, it means starting over at a new location, and getting to said location on foot…but when does the principle of the thing kick in? i think i was just too beaten down by the workday already to care – secretly i probably wanted to NOT be at work…or anywhere, for that matter.

but i can’t figure out why i stayed.

one time i went to a nice restaurant craving a desert i had down in s.a. – we walked in, and JUST ordered dessert. in the time after we ordered, we watched a large party place their orders and get not only drinks and appetizer, but entrees before we had our dessert. five minutes later, STILL nothing, so we left.

what made me hang for the $2.00 cholesterol load? oh yeah – i was SOBER this time.

i’ll try not to let that happen again.

but seriously, when should i have said when? or should i have just hopped the counter and taken care of myself? it’s not like i couldn’t take lester if i had to, right?