Say Thank You!

Time for an understatment: I'm not the nicest person in the world. I can admit it. I'm not ashamed. I own my bitchiness and wear it proudly. I embrace my attitude and impatience.

However, this does not mean I'm an impolite heathen. I still have basic manners and I observe the standard common courtesies -- respecting personal space, refraining from loud personal cell phone calls in public, holding the door for people. (Although, I must note that I will not wait with the door open if you are more than a few steps behind me. Unless you are attractive. In which case, take your time so I can stare at you some more).

But the most fundamental examples of good manners are the words "please" and "thank you" in addition to knowing when to say these things. Now, admittedly, I'm not very good with "please." I prefer to think that phrasing a request in an overall polite tone is enough of an indicator of "please." If you get this tone just right, "please" is superfluous. But I digress.

"Thank you" is the important one. (Especially for the point of this blog entry). How hard is it to say? How hard is it to show appreciation for something somebody did for you? It's just two tiny little words. You don't even have to be genuinely grateful to say the words. Of course, that helps, but it's not a prerequisite. It's like saying, "Yes, your baby is cute." Or, "No, those pants don't make your ass look fat." Or, "Wow, your new haircut is great and it in no way makes you look like a 12 year old boy." How you really feel isn't as important as the words that come out of your mouth.

I certainly don't care if people are genuine in their thanks to me. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't still like to hear it, especially if I just held the elevator for someone, even though I easily could have -- and wanted to -- hit the "close door" button. But no, I was feeling unusually charitable this morning, and upon hearing someone running behind me, huffing and puffing to get to the bank of elevators, I figured, "what the hell, I'll hold the door and wait for them." Had I known the bitch would have gotten on wordlessly, with nary a glance or other such acknowledgement of gratitude in my direction, I never would have done so. I don't care if you're out of breath from running. You should still be able to squeak out the words, "thank you." And if you cannot, drop a few or leave earlier. It's that simple. But hell, I even would have taken a flashed smile in place of actual verbal gratitude. If you can't even muster that, you deserve to have the elevator close on your head.

Honestly. SAY SOMETHING. DO SOMETHING. Don't act all like you're all entitled or some shit, like it's my job to hold the door and wait for your ass. That's the only thing I can think of that explains staying silent when someone does something they didn't have to do for you. Well guess what? You're not entitled. I don't have to do anything nice for you.

For anyone wondering, yes, I did let my attitude show once it was clear I was not going to get an acknowledgement for my unnecessary good deed. As I got off at my floor, I turned and said, "You could have said thank you for holding the elevator." The girl stammered out an "I'm sorry" and then gave a "thank you." I almost immediately felt bad for my bitchy attitude, but come on. That was too little, too late. As much of a bitch as I am, at least I'm not uncouth. I may not always mean it, but at least I never forget to SAY THANK YOU!