On Sandwiches and Being Nice to People

Often times when I work at my tech support job, I will get lunch from Subway. It's close enough to be reasonable ("Hey guys I'm going to run to subway, be right back") but far enough away to have an enjoyable walk in the sun and a refreshing break from the incessant glow of fluorescent bulbs and computer monitors.

I've noticed, in my pattern over the past few months that a new girl got hired at our Subway and she will occasionally be in the queue to make my sandwich. When she does, the sandwich is always neat, and she doesn't do something crazy like load it up with 2 gallons of mustard- it always tastes pretty good.

Well today, before lunch, I'd been chatting with a friend of mine and he had reminded me of PostSecret, a really neat website where the blogger asks people to send him postcards with their secrets on them and he anonymously publishes them. I read a bunch of them, got hungry and went to Subway.

On my way there I was thinking about all the little things people have in common- the things we think about that seem private, but really they are just things that everyone thinks to themselves. For instance, whenever I go into the cinderblock basement of the building I work in to get a soda, I always wonder if an atomic bomb will explode and I will be saved because I had the good fortune to be in a bunker. Now, even to me that seems strange, but I assume that people all over think of many similarly bizarre things all the time.

All of this was going through my head when I walked into the Subway to see this girl waiting to take my order. I ordered my sandwich and watched her judicious application of my sandwich components when I suddenly blurted out:

"This may be strange, but I work nearby and I just thought you should know that you make a pretty good sandwich."

She looked up with a bemused expression.

"I mean to say, that a lot of people put too much mustard on, or whatever, but when you make the sandwiches they always taste pretty good. I hope you don't think I'm psychotic now."

She laughed and said she was glad I'd said so and that it made her feel good.

Now I am hoping that she actually did feel good and that she doesn't think I'm some sort of sandwich psychotic killer, but I really do think it was a good thing to say. We always come in and do our jobs and we don't talk to each other about things or mention that "Hey, I don't know you or anything, but this is something good you've done." and I can't help but think that maybe our lives would be slightly improved if that happened more often.

Ah well. At least I've got this tasty sandwich.