To test your patience...

So I'm at Barnes & Nobles today and I can't find a book. So, after scouring through all of the sections I THINK it would be, I swallow my pride and go to the customer service counter to bother someone else with my troubles. The desk itself is not intimidating, nor is it inconvenient to find. However, what is daunting is the lack of customer service. No one was there. Just three empty computers and me. So I wait. Surely someone is bound to return after successfully helping someone else. There's a man with a nametag all the way across the store in the music section that sees me. He smiles. A lady walks by, also wearing a nametag. She slows and asks if I'm waiting to be helped. I say yes, when suddenly a loud radio goes off announcing there's someone waiting to be helped at the customer service desk at the same time a third lady swoops in to my rescue. I didn't see the music department man use any radio, and the other ladies didn't have radios, which leads me to believe someone else was watching from somewhere else. And that freaked me out.

This is not a very good story, but it made me think of those bells that say "ring for service". I think these bells, as convenient as they may be, are very rude. Nothing says "impatient" like ringing a service bell, no matter how polite the angelic belltone sounds. If there was one at this customer service desk, I probably would not have rang it. Good thing someone's always watching at Barnes & Nobles.

Oh, and they didn't even have what I was looking for. Figures.