dumb blondes

With the horrible news of the week, and then a bunch of us having to go in to work despite that, I was a little drained last night. I was on empty — literally and figuratively. I had been hearing about the lines and the prices at the gas stations, so when I turned the corner to my gas station (with SpeedPass), I was so relieved that there were no lines. And the price hadn't gone up since that morning. And that's when I saw the "Out of Service" bags on every single pump.

Luckily, there's another station right up the street, so I went there. And there is an empty pump that I pull right into. Woo hoo! So I grab my credit card, get out, and pop open my gas tank cover and unscrew the cap.

Then I go to put my card in the slot, and they don't have a graphic showing which way it should go. And the slot is horizontal, not vertical. I'm thinking about what bad usability this is as I take my best guess and stick my card in. But it won't go all the way in. So I shove harder. And that's when that long moment in time happens when I simultaneously see the credit card slot and realize this is the receipt dispensing slot.

I try everything to get my card out. I'm trying to grab it with my fingernails, or think that maybe if I get some gum I can stick it to it and pull it out. The whole time I'm thinking "This is not happening!" I am very close to breaking that receipt slot. No good. It's not gonna come out. So I have to walk in and ask the cashier for help. And the place is full of people. I walk up to the registers:

"I cannot believe that this is actually the day that I am having, but I stuck my credit card in and it turns out that's the wrong slot, and now I can't get it out." The chick behind the counter looks up at me while she's picking at her fingernails and says "The receipt slot, right?" (At least I'm not the first.) She tells the other cashier to take the keys to the pump, and a pen.

He opens up the pump and pokes at it with the pen, trying from one side, then the other. "Man, that's really jammed up in there!" I sigh and mumble, "Yeah, when it didn't go in, I just pushed harder..." He finally gets it out and hands it over, with a definite "you blondes" smirk on his face. So with hot face and bruised ego, I filled up my tank.

The upshot? I got my gas and a blog entry to boot. And I needed a good laugh.