The helpfulness of others

Sometimes people try too hard to be helpful and it's annoying. I just wish they knew. Maybe I had low blood sugar. I was waiting in line for food after all, waiting impatiently for the lady who knew I was waiting impatiently while she took her sweet time pretending to do more important things, which clearly didn't include helping the customer. Finally, I said what I wanted -- some of that fake meat over there, some of them stir-fried vegetables, some of that soggy brown jackfruit, some of that sour green stuff and a few spring rolls for good measure. All tasty treats by the way.

Then this French Vietnamese guy asks me in English if I speak French. No, I don't. And then he asks if he can help me with something. I just ordered, bro. He was standing there when the lady was filling my environmentally-unfriendly styrofoam container. Does it look like I just got off the boat trying to escape the economic crisis in America? Then he proceeds to tell me this is a vegetarian restaurant. Really? I mean, I know the dude didn't know I'd been there every week over the course of the past couple years, but c'mon man. I can see the trays of food on display and it's pretty obvious that none of them are really meat even if half of them are trying their best to resemble it.

So after doing my best to ignore his efforts to prove he could speak English well, I forked over the cash and intentionally pocketed the change before turning to leave so I could also ignore the obnoxious beggars with their upturned conical hats and fake smiles hoping to charm the foreigner into throwing them some dong. I'm not against giving, I'm really not. I just have something against these particular clowns. And if you saw them, you'd know what I was talking about.

Anyway, I know I should be less irritable. At least the guy didn't presume I was one of the lifer expats that permanently resides in the Pham Ngu Lau area drinking beer for breakfast. That says something. I have that going for me. I guess I just wasn't in the mood to talk and to have someone assume I didn't know what I was doing. Dammit man, can't you see I've been here? I'm practically a local. Didn't you hear my near fluent Vietnamese? {sarcasm} I know it ain't perfect, but I got what I wanted no thanks to you. But cám ơn anyway.