thoughts on incompetence

It's bright and early (ok, that's a lie... it IS early, but it's dark and gloomy), and I'm sitting at the desk trying to wolf down my Life cereal because 1) I am fucking starving and 2) if I don't do it now when it's quiet and not busy, I'll never get the chance. A man comes into the lobby for coffee (he's a black drinker, by the way) and I could tell IMMEDIATELY that he's a giant douche. After years of working here, I've developed a talent for being able to tell the tools from the squares, and I knew before this guy even spoke a word that I would not want to hear what he had to say.

"It's just me, I'm taking some coffee."

Problems with this scenario:
1. I hate when people announce themselves, as if I care to know what they do when I'm not looking.
2. I hate when people are so self-absorbed as to believe that
    a) I want to know who they are
    b) I care who they are or
    c) They are important enough for me to remember who they are.

Well, "just you"... good morning and get the fuck out of my lobby. OR, you can stay as long as you stop talking.

But this guy, no, it could not have been that easy. He just HAD to keep talking. Before I knew it he had turned my pretty granite countertop into his personal call center. He was on the phone with a staff member from the hotel he had stayed in the previous night. He kept telling the person "I had reservations are your hotel yesterday" when really he meant to say that he had STAYED at that hotel yesterday. It was driving me nuts because the wording he used was giving the very distinct impression that he was speaking about a future reservation (as in, he hadn't been there yet) but he was calling to ask about his drivers license that he believed to have left there yesterday. As a witness to his end of the conversation and as a hotel professional, I can vouch for the extreme confusion I'm sure the poor front desk person was experiencing while struggling to communicate with this douche.

He kept repeating himself over and over, wrongly using the term "reservation" each time, making less and less sense as the conversation continued. He was absolutely convinced that the only place his drivers license could be was at that hotel's front desk (in my professional opinion, he most likely lost it somewhere else), and when his threats did not produce any results he angrily hung up the phone, but not without first calling his friendly customer service representative an idiot.

It took some severe restraint on my part to keep from giving that man a talking-to. What an asshat.

7:06am is not too early to know already know that this Monday is going to suck.