interesting story...

yesterday, i was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

at work and at life.

i was dropping things, spilling things, breaking things...

just one of those days.

i had a customer, an older lady probably around 40's-50's, who ordered a two scoop in a waffle cone, pistachio on the bottom and tiramisu on top.

not a particularly complicated order under normal circumstances, but because of my bad day, i made it rather complicated by breaking her cone. twice.

when a cone breaks with only one scoop in it,

it's easy to just flip it over onto a new cone.

but with two scoops, not so much.

especially when specifically ordered to have one certain flavor on the bottom.

so after breaking two cones, i flipped it into a cup

i told her i was very sorry and offered to put a new cone on top.

she huffed and said something along the lines of "don't bother" then picked off the last few pieces of broken cone, tossed them in the trash, took her cup of ice cream and left.

i felt a little angry, a little hurt, and very annoyed.

i was already having a bad day,

i didn't need some bitchy woman being huffy about her ice cream.

then, about an hour or so later,

i saw that very same woman approaching the counter.

i of course thought "oh shit, what's she going to complain about now?"

and braced myself for hurtful words.

instead, she came up to me and said

"excuse me? i just wanted to apologize for being so snarky with you earlier. i know you didn't mean to and that you're trying and i just wanted to say sorry."

i was shocked and confused and didn't know what to say so i just stared at her for a moment and fumbled with a "thanks for that"

before she nodded and walked away.

once the shock surpassed,

my surprised face turned to one of amused satisfaction.

"that was very nice." i said aloud, which prompted my coworker to ask what i was talking about, which led me to telling her the story (which i also retold to my sister and dad on the drive home and to my mum when i arrived)

normally, people wouldn't come back and apologize for something like that.

they'd just feel a little guilty, think "ah, fuck it, forget it."

and carry on their merry way.

but this lady came back.

and as surprising as it was it was mostly very nice.

the rest of the night, even though I was still having difficulties (I spilled an entire glass of freshly poured chocolate milk across my kitchen table, which seeped down the crack and onto the floor and had to be cleaned up with a mop and the table pulled apart so the milk wouldn't rot and smell)

I just kept thinking back to that lady...

and how even though the world is full of asshats and idiots, there are still people out there nice enough to come back and apologize to the ice cream girl they were snarky to.