Thursday, February 25, 2016

Obliviots. They're everywhere.

Obliviot. n. "an idiot who is oblivious to their idiocy."

I saw one today in a small Mexican restaurant that I walked into for what was supposed to be a quick lunch. And as I was just the third one in line, I figured I'd be in and out in a flash.
Wrong. An Obliviot was two people ahead of me.
It really doesn't take that long to order one burrito plate, but when the Obliviot orders five in a row, and wants each one specially made...
Yep. Sitting there in line, watching this woman order one burrito after another, the only thing that could possibly have made if more frustrating would have been if the restaurant had one of those separate Windows for phone and Internet orders. Oh wait--this one did! Yet here stood the Obliviot, ordering one "to-go" meal after another from a list in her hand, while thos if us in line behind her could only look at the clock and watch our lunch hours evaporate.

Ten minutes lost to this Obliviot because she couldn't be bothered to cal, text, fax or e-mail her large order in...and that's ten minutes times each of the seven people in line behind her.

There needs to be a law that lets people in a restaurant line vote Obliviots out of the line and bar them from restaurants until they learn to show a bit of consideration and common courtesy. Argh.

11 comments:

  1. Obliviots, they're everywhere.

    And now I have a word for them!!! Yay. (And merci beaucoup, y'all.)

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  2. When my shop was in DC, I banked there. I swear, every single time I actually had to go in to the bank I was behind one. I think they all had at least a months worth of transactions to do, not a one was prepared, no matter how long the line was, and they were counting out pennies on top of it... Arrrgh!!! I have great sympathy for you.

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  3. I spent four years working behind a supermarket deli counter. I dealt with those kind of people every day. Every. Damn. Day. It's a miracle I'm still semi-sane.

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  4. Yes, obliviots. They are overrunning the country.

    The most common ones around here generally come in pairs. They're the ones who strike up a conversation with one another right in the middle of a doorway or a passageway and are oblivious to the people trying to get past them. (Nope. Their conversation is much more important than any business YOU have to get to.)

    And we've all encountered the obliviot in traffic. That's the guy, (it's almost always a guy) who is having an intense conversation on his cell phone while driving in the left lane of the interstate - while going 50 in a 65 - oblivious to the conga-line of traffic behind him and those who must maneuver around him to try and get past.

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  5. Obliviot. I like it. Working in law enforcement, they're a constatnt sense of amusement and anger. A metaphor for our times.

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  6. THe issue isn't the "Obliviot". They are also uncaring. It is with the shop that still chooses to cater to them instead of the other customers that are behind them.

    If the shops and service counters would not allow them to be that way, they'd soon learn. Plus the rest of you were probably too polite.....

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  7. Anonymous10:14 AM

    Behind one yesterday at a drive-through; she apparently wasn't ordering food but dictating her novel instead. My solution was rotate that round arm rest thingie and go elsewhere. Second time that has happened at that food dispensary and it'll be the last. I don't have the time that kind of "fast food" requires.

    Which I think is probably the best solution, even if it involves taking the ankle express to the parking lot and your car. If a business came to understand that a single customer can cost them the business of many others they'll deal differently with the idiots. I see nothing wrong with "ma'am/sir, please stand over there and figure out what you want while I help these other customers."

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  8. Anonymous11:07 AM

    How about being able to shoot them?

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  9. I like it, a new word... And I'm surprised YOU put up with it... :-)

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, normally I would have been more "me" about it, but I was on travel for my new job, identifiable as being with my new job, and with new co-workers, so I thought it best just this one time to grit my teeth and let it go.

      Not again though.

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  10. Get ready for a lot more of that in NOLA!

    "Obliviot." I like it! Here's a synonym phrase: "unescorted men in grocery stores with BIG ol' carts." (Sorry, guys. But it's true.)

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