That Person

I hate that person.

You know the one.... The one who inconveniences or annoys you, and those around you to the point where you are exchanging exacerbated looks with strangers. Perhaps that person is the one at the Secretary of State who waits until just after their number is called to realize it is in fact their turn. Or maybe the guy who talks really loudly during a movie. The guy at a restaurant who complains awkwardly and loudly about everything. The lady at the grocery store who pays her bill in change.

Everyone around them shares the same frustration, everyone wonders if the person even realizes their error.

Today I was that person.

How did I become that person?

It all started Super Bowl Sunday. The Colts lost, something I am still coming to grips with. I, luckily won that day. My numbers came up at the end of the fourth quarter in squares. My prize? Forty scratch off tickets. My luck was pretty good and I wound up winning $45. On many tickets.

I let them sit in my wallet for a while because I didn't feel like signing the back of all of them. Finally, I ran out of cash so I decided to sign them all and finally redeem them.

The gas station I chose was empty when I walked in. I decided to buy something to snack on because I felt awkward redeeming the tickets without purchasing anything from store.
Just as I settled on some Gardetto's a man walked in.

I headed to the check out and asked if I could redeem my scratch offs. I met no resistance from the employee, but could sense his annoyance as I handed him my thick pile of tickets. He then began to scratch them off tediously slow.

"I need the numbers on the bottom he said," as he continued to scratch, "I have to key them into the machine."

After he finished scratching off all of my tickets he walked over to the Lotto machine. Then, he had to feed each ticket through, type in the code, then wait for print out, then staple that print out to the ticket.

Before he had finished feeding one ticket through the store was packed. There was a mother and a crying child, a businessman clearly late for something, and two teenagers who looked like they were cutting class.

And they were all looking at me and they continued to stare at me for what seemed like hours.

I was that person and in that moment I hated myself.

However, I am $54.01 and a bag and Gardetto's richer than I was before I was that person.