A ‘Lil Rant

It’s been a while since I have had a blog rant.  Here it comes…what is so hard about putting your garbage in the garbage?  Especially when the garbage receptacle is within arms reach, really.

I teach several classes a week at the Maple Ridge Leisure Centre.  Parking is free for the first hour at the adjacent lot or in the underground parkade, but you need to get a parking ticket to do so.  Granted the line-ups can be long, but it takes less than 30 seconds per person to enter your stall number and have your ticket printed.  When the ticket prints it comes out of the bottom of the machine, the idea being that you take it with you as proof of payment or as proof of your free 60 minutes as it is date stamped.  I know that 15 seconds from the time one has entered in their stall number until the time that one’s ticket has been printed can be a long time to wait for some, I know you are very busy lazy.  What tends to happen is that the ticket comes out of the machine and with no one there to receive it, the ticket flutters from the machine and to the floor. Times that by the other busy lazy people frequenting the facility over the course of an hour or day, and it grows to be a nasty pile of garbage within arms reach of a garbage can.  As my daughter would say “what is wrong with you?”

So today I taught a lunch hour class at the Leisure Centre.  I parked my car and made my way over to the ticket machine.  There were a few people ahead of me so I repeated my stall number over and over again in my mind, because there is nothing worse than when it is finally your turn and you forget which stall you parked in.  It was my turn, but the lady ahead of me forgot (or so I thought) her ticket.  Naturally I pulled it from the machine and handed it to her, it was her ticket.

Me “Oh, you forgot you ticket.”

Her “No, I don’t need it.”

Me “Ok, well I guess I will put it in the garbage for you.”

Her “You don’t need to, I just leave it there (pointing to the ground), everyone else does.  Is this your first time here?”

She promptly exited the area.

Breathe Keri, breathe!  Calm, blue waters.  I counted to ten and prayed out loud that she was coming to my class, today was Tabata (sadly she was not, Christine, I hope that you kicked her sorry ass).

In answer to your question orange-leathery lady with the over-sized blingy gym purse, NO, this is not my first time here.  And no, everyone else does not do that.  The person before you didn’t, the person after you didn’t, and those behind me who watched my head almost explode didn’t.  The twenty people in my class may or may not have done it before, but after my class I can assure you that they will never do it again!

I know that getting bent out of shape about a 2” x 3 ½ “ piece of paper may come across a little ridiculous, but for me it is really about the blatant disregard and lack of respect that some have for community.  Could you imagine if we all had orange-leathery lady’s attitude?  Put your fucking (sorry Mum and Nadine)  garbage in the garbage can!

After 8 rounds of tabata, I let it go, I was not about to let ‘garbage’ ruin my day, especially because I am going to be an Aunt.  But look what I passed and cleaned up when I returned to my car.