Dear Kevin, the nice manager at Union Station McDonald’s,

I was heading to New York City on my friend the Acela out of Union Station on Saturday morning when I stopped by your McDonald’s counter. All I needed was a bottle of water for the trip and all the vending machines were out.

I walked up in a hurry with too many bags for three days, and you said “how are you?” to which I rudely replied “oh, just a bottle of water please.” I looked up to you, a young nice man, looking down at me with a sort of fatherly stare that said “I understand you’re in a hurry, and I’m okay with that, but you were just a little rude.”

When you were ringing me up and told me I only had one dangly earring in, I gasped (knowing I had one of my favorite pairs of obnoxious earrings on), reached up to find both of them securely at home on my ears. You were laughing – you had got me twice now, in less than a minute.

And because you could see I was in travel mode and off my game, when you rang me up for $1.20, you said “that will be one hundred and twenty dollars.” Okay, at least this time I knew you were kidding! I’m not going to lie, I was a little annoyed at first, but you broke through my travel-zoned-out mode to catch me for two jokes and it made the day a little more tolerable. I’m sure you make the same semi-funny jokes to most of your customers, but you made me laugh after being in a more-than-noticed travel/working-on-Sunday mood.

Thanks for that.

Stacey