A Cut Above

     OK, here's the deal. I'm not very good at waiting in line and I hugely dislike it when someone cuts in line. It probably has something to do with the PDD (patience deficit disorder) diagnosis that my husband has given me. That's why I was glad when I found out that we can call ahead at the Texas Roadhouse and let them know that we'll be there in 20 minutes. Cuts down on the wait time there in their noisy - and VERY messy because it's littered with peanut shells - waiting area. We just did that Friday night. We called ahead and only had to wait about 8 minutes out on the patio before we were seated. The best part? Nobody even tries to cut in line, something we're NUTS about.

   On Saturday morning when Joshua and I went for haircuts, we timed it so that we arrived at the Supercuts just as it opened so we wouldn't have to wait in line. Sure enough, we were the first two customers there and were both at the hair-wash basins by about 9:01. Somehow that just started my day off on the right foot. Anyway, at about 9:20, a third customer comes into the shop. I could tell that he's a regular because he heads to the reception desk and puts his own name on a little ticket so he can be next in line without interrupting the two hair stylists as they finish with us. At 9:23 or so, another man enters the store. Joshua is about to be done, so his stylist Rosalie asks the customer to have a seat and says she'll be with him momentarily.

   When she says, "next," both men stand up. Uh, oh. She points to the second in line and indicates that since he phoned ahead through their new SuperCall system, she'll take him first. "That's what I would have done," says the first man to arrive, "but I forgot the phone number." Now what? I wonder. The two men look at one another and then start this back-and-forth thing where the one says, "ok, then you go ahead," and the other politely replies, "no, that's fine, you can go." They end up resolving it like this: The man who called ahead tells the man who's been waiting longer - by only about three minutes, mind you - to go ahead and go first, that he doesn't mind waiting. He gives us his spot. Actually lets the other guy cut in line. The first guy to arrive says, "thanks!" and sits down in Rosalie's chair and the second sits back down on the benches to wait for my stylist to ring us up. That was so cool! What makes it even better? Joshua was watching the whole thing. Such great modeling for my impressionable boy.

   I asked Joshua in the van if he'd seen any good character in the shop, and we talked about it all the way home. He understood that letting someone have your appointment could have consequences, like putting you a bit behind on your morning's plans or not really allowing you to get the hairstylist you want. But he also understood that it was a caring gesture with more important, real-life significance and consequences that just might be, a cut above.