Kassie and I love the
Great Minnesota Get-Together. We decided to take the bus there this afternoon. Bad idea...
We took the 18 downtown, then boarded the 960 at 11th Street on the Nicollet Mall. Supposedly, the 960 gets to the fair from downtown in 15 minutes. We weren't sure when it was going to pick us up downtown, as there is no posted schedule. But we knew it wouldn't be more than fifteen minutes. So when we were on the 18 on our way downtown and Kassie realized that she had to use the restroom, she wasn't too concerned.
A group of young people boarded with us. They announced to the driver that they weren't from here and that they wanted to check out our state fair. Fine.
Then they yelled to each other for the entire trip. And the conversation was incredibly banal. We heard numerous times that CC DeVille was one guy's favorite guitarist. (the '80s are back... yawn...) Their yelling included profanity, even when a young girl got on with her father. One or two of the young women in the loud group attempted to get the guys to quit swearing, and it sort of worked, but they still had no idea how to act in public.
Anyway.
Other than the noise, the bus ride was uneventful until we approached Como Avenue on the U of M's Transitway. There were about twenty buses in front of us and none of them were moving. So we sat on an overpass waiting to make the right turn onto Como. We found out later that the cows were going home. Farmers were loading up their livestock and leaving for the week, I guess. So it took us 25 minutes to get to Como. When we finally got there, we had to stop and wait at the light.
Kassie still needed to use the restroom, and it was getting bad.
When we got to Como Avenue and realized that we'd be sitting there for a while before turning, then sitting in the extremely slow-moving traffic, we asked the driver to let us out so she could get to a bathroom. We were next to a curb. It would have been a perfectly safe place to let us out.
The driver refused to open the door.
So we sat in traffic for what would eventually be another 20 minutes to go five or six blocks. Kassie had to pee so bad (and was so angry that he wouldn't let us out) that she started to cry. I asked again nicely if he would please let us out so that she could use a restroom, and when he refused again, I lost my temper.
I confess that it was not necessarily one of my finer moments. I mean, Kassie was sitting across from him, trying to keep from wetting herself and trying unsuccessfully not to cry and the jackass wouldn't let her out. I lit into him. And by that, I mean I scolded him. ha. He's got a lot more seniority than I do, but I told him he was being a dick and that I didn't appreciate his sh*tty-a** customer service. But I did call him sir, and at one point apologized for being a jerk.
He encouraged me to call the company and I assured him that I would, in fact, be speaking to a union rep because, as I had mentioned,
I worked for the company. But he probably didn't hear that earlier because he had an earplug in his ear.
In fact, I'll most likely let Kassie call and make the complaint and we'll see what comes of it. Sadly, I don't think much will happen. Drivers like that give all of us a bad name. Fortunately, Kassie made it to a Satellite when we reached the terminal.
I guess I'll just continue to teach good customer service to my students and remind them that a black-and-white mentality is going to cause a lot more grief than it's worth.
Jeez, that guy was a dick!
Labels: MT, state fair