whaaa happened?

i've been meaning to write about this for a couple of months now. it still baffles and amuses me, often makes me wonder how humans have continued to live this long.

i was in Monterey a couple months back and was driving my mom around to run a bunch of errands. one stop was at Beverly's because we needed special glue for something. the total came to $4.80, so my mom gives the cashier a $20 bill and: one nickel, five dimes, and one quarter. nice to get rid of change and not get more back. well, the cashier was confused by this at first but then proceeded to count up the change to make sure it all added up to 80 cents. this is where the fun began.

count #1: she picks up the nickel. (and after she picks up each coin, she "whispers" the amount out loud to herself but it's not a whisper, as we can clearly hear her). then she moves to the dimes, and counts "5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55" and then she stops. i can see that her brain is trying to process 55 + 25 but she's stuck carrying the "1" over to the next column. so instead, she puts all the change down on the counter again.

count #2: she picks up the nickel again. WHO STARTS COUNTING WITH A NICKEL? anyhow, she says "5". then she picks up the dimes again and says "5, 15, 25, 35, 45, 55"...uh oh. she's hit the exact same point as last time and it's hopeless. i can clearly see the "oh crap" look on her face once she realized it was the quarter that was left. all the change goes back onto the counter.

count #3: she starts with the dimes. ok, at least she didn't pick up the nickel first. "10, 20, 30, 40, 50" and now there's a choice. the nickel and quarter are staring her in the face, each calling to her "pick me!" our brilliant girl picks up the nickel and says "55". she paused a few moments, then the look on her face was "dammit, i'm at the same place again!"

count #4: finally, finally, finally - she starts with the quarter. then the dimes. she got to 75 and all that was left was the nickel...and hurray, she did it! she counted the change correctly!

i'm telling you, it was so painful. SO PAINFUL. as soon as i got out of the store i had two thoughts. 1) i'm glad i didn't make eye contact with my mom during the 4 counting attempts, and 2) i love my job, my coworkers, my friends, and am so thankful that i'm not dealing with folks like nickel girl too often.

Labels: nickel girl