It's not too often I get mad, and even when I do there still isn't much in the way of fireworks. I jest get real focussed and impatient and do my best to calmly let people know that they are being needlessly retarded.

I am very poor right now. My bank account has -122.28 dollars in it, and I have $500 left on my credit card. Rent is due. Last night, however, I wanted to get thai food with my girlfriend. Oh, she is broke too, by the way. So I call the restaurant to make sure they take "Discover" brand credit cards, because a lot of people don't. The lady says "yeah", I say "cool". We go. The place is neat. I'd never been there before, and it had just been remodeled so it was kind of new to Angie, too. We got one big order of Tofu Pad-Thai and Angie got a fresh coconut, which I thought was cool but not very tasty. She drank/ate the whole thing herself.

So the bill comes around and I toss out my Discover Card. She comes back and asks for a visa or a mastercard or an atm card or something.

"Huh?"

We don't accept Discover.

"HUH?"

I immediately understand the gravity of the situation. That card that they don't accept is the only way we have to pay the bill, which was about ten dollars. Turns out the lady on the phone thought I had said Debit card. I did not say debit card. I would seriously bet my pinky finger that I said Discover, and I'm a musician. I really love my pinky.

It turns out that the source of the misunderstanding is a person on the other end of the phone who doesn't understand english very well. I am now angry. I do my best to explain that this little situation is not entirely my responsiblity. The waitress, instead of talking to her manager or god-forbid do something about it herself, she goes about cleaning up other tables and ignoring us completely. Are we supposed to run out now?

After much more bullshit, the woman who seemed to be in control is talking to me. She doesn't seem to be full of ideas, either. I tell her, "Lady, we can't pay you. We would like to, but your little phone person got us over here with a discover card, and now we want to leave, but we can't because you can't make up your mind." We had a camera on the table. She says "Leave the camera, go to an atm."

Bitch. On the way to the atm, Angie and I pretty much agree, that in that situation you let the people go. No charge. Good karma all around. It's just the way the restaurant business works. If you are the least bit at fault for something, the house takes the fall. Especially if its for a ten dollar meal at a local place that relies on local repeat customers. I really liked the food there. I totally would have come back tipping big (once I got a job) if they let us go.

So anyway, I call up Discover and figure out how to use their card as an atm card. I come back with a 20 dollar bill. They had started to close up, and the gate in front of the front door is chained up. The lady that had answered the phone came and opened the door. I was half expecting that she was just going to hand me my camera and say "Don't worry about it, sorry for the trouble." And to my surprise, she hands the camera through the gate. There wasn't anything but an awkward silence, though. I kind of studder, and she asks in an impatient tone, "Are you going to pay?" Keep in mind she is on the other side of a chained up gate. I say "No, because I don't think I should have to." I walked away. I felt really good about it.