I saw red...

So, I had something else I was going to blog about but then life happened.  I will shelve that blog for a later date to tell you about something that happened to us tonight.

We had an open house today- don't get excited, I am sure it wont produce anything.  After working hard to clean the house we went to Brooke and Austin's during the OH.  It started off fine but then it came time to decide on dinner.  Brooke and Austin suggested pizza- which normally is a for sure in our house.  The problem was we just had pizza on Friday and I don't think we were overly excited about it.  It was difficult to come to a consensus.  We decided on Subway, although the little girls were going to get a Subway pizza (which are really good if you have never tried one).  Austin and I headed out to Subway to get dinner.  Let me first say that the guy working at Subway had the worst attitude ever.  He looked pissed that Austin and I were there buying dinner.  I was up first to place my order and I attempted to order what my wife wanted.  They didn't have it, they were out.  I eventually attempted to order the pizza for Caroline and Baylor....they didn't have that either.  They were out of damn near everything my family wanted.  I didn't make a huge deal out of it, I would just go somewhere else.  I didn't really want to get the girls Happy Meals but at this point it was the easiest thing to do.  Austin took me to Taco Bell to get Brooke's dinner, then to McDonald's to get food for everyone else (this is the third place we have been to).

Now I understand that you don't need to be a genius to work at McDonald's.  I almost always respect the people that work there, regardless of their brainpower or hygiene.  I knew I was in trouble when the lady taking my order told me, after I tried ordering it three times, 

Lady:"we don't have the two cheeseburger meal. I can however give you fries and a drink with my two cheeseburger order." 

I proceeded to say "really? I have never been to a McDonald's that has not had the two cheeseburger meal.  Even if it isn't on the board, they have it, but whatever.  If you don't have the cheeseburger meal option, I will just take fries with the two cheeseburgers." 

She says "okay, you wanted two cheeseburgers(plain- I say, just to re-enforce the idea that I wanted them plain), a cheeseburger happy meal (again I specifically point out that I wanted that plain too), two chicken nugget meals....with apple dippers???" 

"No mam, I don't want apple dippers (I had told her twice I wanted Apple Juice drink box), I said I wanted apple juice boxes with the Happy meals."  I then look up and see on the board that the meal option #4 was the two cheeseburger meal I wanted the entire time.  I made the mistake of pointing that out to the PhD. candidate who was taking my order.  "Mam, #4 on the board right there is the two cheeseburger meal." 

She replies..."oh you wanted the meal?"  I was getting testy at this point. 

"Yes, you even stated you didn't have the cheeseburger meal, that's all I wanted."  She was looking rather confused.  "Mam, just give me two cheeseburgers plain, I don't care what else you give me with it,  a plain cheeseburger happy meal, and two chicken nugget happy meals with apple juice boxes to drink."

I then paid, checked the ticket (which was right), grabbed my food and left.  I noted that I got one juice box and two soft drinks for the Happy Meals. This was not what I ordered but I didn't feel like going to prison, so I took it and got out of there.  We arrived back at Austins and I placed the food down on the table.  Everyone was confused because we agreed on Subway but there was food from three places.  I said to everyone.... "don't ask."

Brooke walks upstairs looks at the food and says "You got them Happy Meals?"  Now, it wasn't just what she said- it was how she said it. She saw Happy Meals and proceeded to yank my chain about it. I looked at her and said, "Brooke don't say a fucking word." I admit, that probably wasn't the best choice of words.  But with all the stress of work, trying to run this household because she physically can't, trying like hell to get food for everyone, I didn't need her yanking my chain because I got the kids Happy Meals.  Which were becoming less happy by the moment.  In retrospect, I then proceeded to take a page out of my father's play book.  I pounded the three Happy Meals and proceed to storm out the door. Had I been at my place I would have thrown them out in the yard.  I looked for a garbage can and couldn't find one so I got in the car and drove away. 

About a half an hour later I drive back to the house to pick the girls up and go home.  Brooke gets in the car and proceeds to try and apologize.

Brooke: I didn't know what I said was going to be so sensitive.

Now, all this did was throw me into a deeper rage.  That wasn't what needed to be apologized for (in my opinion), I wasn't really sensitive about anything.  I was pissed that after all I went through to get them food the first thing she did was get all over my case about something I didn't have a lot of control over and went through hell to get.  Had she asked what happened I would have explained.  I didn't want to get them Happy Meals either but I did the best I could.  So, after saying a few things that probably shouldn't have come out of my mouth, it has been a quiet night around our house.

After watching AFV with the girls, Extreme Makeover:Home Edition came on.   Tonight's episode featured a family who had an athletic father that was paralyzed from the neck down after a car accident in which one of his three girls was driving.  At one point in the show he was crying and asked his wife to wipe his tears away because he couldn't.  It immediately put things into perspective.  As mad as I was at Brooke, as justified as I felt I was, it really didn't matter.  In the end, it wasn't that big of a deal.  I can still hug my girls (something the Dad wanted desperately to do) and I can still crush the "Happy" Meals when Im mad.  Most things aren't worth getting so worked up over, something I had done a great job at keep in perspective.  Tonight I did not.

And for the record, the cheeseburger Happy Meal, the one I specifically asked twice to make sure it was plain for Reagan, came fully dressed.