quintessential guam

a perfect example of what i have to deal with everyday:

went to the base bowling alley with a friend and her kids. while they procured our lane, i went to the concession area to order us a pizza and drinks. first, i had to wait for about 10 minutes while i watched 2 separate employees struggle to take the guy's order in front of me that consisted of exactly 3 items. they eventually had to employ the assistance of the elder stateswoman employee, who seemed to me the "manager", to get the order right. then, the young woman who so valiantly struggled with the previous order took mine. since i was sharing with children, instead of getting my normal supreme i ordered a large half-cheese, half-pepperoni. she told me my total, which seemed a couple dollars too much, and i thought, "huh, maybe they decided to start charging tax on guam." i signed my receipt and was then handed my itemized bill. she had charged me for a specialty pizza instead of a one-topping, thus accounting for the extra couple dollars. i explained the mistake to the employee, who, refusing to be told she did something incorrect, said that my total was correct. since it was a special order, she always charged a specialty price. but she didn't exactly put it that clearly and succinctly. i, refusing to get swindled and always the cheap bastard, said that i wanted to speak to the manager. she motioned for the young guy who also struggled with the previous customer's order and i explained the situation to him...at least 3 times, after which i asked if he understood what i was saying. all the while the old woman is sitting there watching this unfold. finally, she steps 2 feet to the counter and i engaged her explaining the indignity that was unfolding. she agreed with me. the young girl then proceeded to explain to the woman that's how she was initially trained to charge for a good 2 more minutes. the decision was then made to void the charge and recharge me which led to another 10 minute long fiasco, b/c the old woman left these 2 budding stephen hawking's to figure out how to void the transaction. needless to say, even though they had a laminated printed sheet outlining how to do this in front of them they were unable to do so after several seemingly valiant (but really half-hearted--i.e. going through the motions--i've come to recognize this very well) attempts. the old woman then tried and couldn't even do it. they had to call the main lady in charge of the alley over to show them how. so, exactly 30minutes after getting in line with 1 person ahead of me and placing my simple order, i was on my way to my lane to bowl. I think i've grown somewhat in 6 mo, b/c 5 mo ago if the above situation happened to me i would've become outwardly irate, swore up a storm, said "i'll have your job", and likely have been kicked out of the building. it's just par for the fucking course here. like my good buddy walter always says, "fuck it, Dude. let's go bowling".

post script. i couldn't even bowl 100.
post post script. i won't be surprised if i see 2 charges from the bowling alley on my credit card in a few days. par for the course, i tells ya.