being nice/social "because it's the holidays"

While I was travelling during the holidays, I noticed that people were a lot more... cheerful?  chipper?  friendly?  jolly?  all of the above?  From my observations, generally speaking, people are normally disgruntled and unfriendly.  If you're standing in line with a group of strangers, you probably aren't going to talk to them, and they probably aren't going to talk to you.  Unless you're that person who does randomly strike up conversations with strangers while you're both waiting in the slowest line evar.  I'm that person sometimes.  Mostly because I come up with these clever things in my head and they are so funny/silly/clever to me that I feel that to keep it to myself would be a loss to mankind.  That and if I giggle to myself for no obvious reason, people get stand-offish.  So, I might quietly say my funny thing outloud, which gives me an excuse to giggle at my funny thoughts.  Sometimes people nearby hear me, sometimes they don't.  Sometimes they hear me and don't acknowledge me, which is pretty funny to watch people's facial reactions then know they are avoiding eye contact.

Having several flights, meant lots of waiting times.  Leaving from DCA I met a retired Army Sargent Major.  He saw my military ID in my hand as we were waiting to have our boarding passes scanned.  He asked me how many years I'd been in, if I was going to stay in.  I ended up telling him that this was my first Christmas home since I'd joined the Navy and it was a surprise.  He was also going home, to visit his daughter.

When I was in line to board the plane leaving MCO, a boy and his mom were in front of me.  She and I had exchanged a few pleasantries, something about how hot it was and how it wouldn't be this hot in Charlotte hopefully.  He looked up at his mom and said, "Do you know that lady?"  She said, "No, but its the holidays."

While I was waiting at the concourse to start boarding at CLT, 2 girls were sitting in front of me.  There were lots of giggles, and they were headed to NYC, I assume for NYE.  They were meeting some friends and I was trying not to pay attention to the fact that they had shared a salad (while they actually both needed a cheeseburger), after I'd just pounded down most of a Qdoba burrito.  They asked me if the internet was working since they couldn't get signal and they saw I was on my computer.  I told them which network to get on.

I'm not complaining.  Let me just put that out there.  I'm not.  I'm actually MORE upset that this ... courtesy?  can't be managed year round.  Is it really hard to not ignore your fellow line-mates/species?  You're all probably standing there thinking the same thing anyways, "Really, he's going to pull out exact change when there are 5 people in line behind him?!  This is the express line asshole!"  Sometimes it really does take the edge off to make a joke and laugh about it.  It is distracting from your anger and it makes the world seem less like an impossible place.

Granted there are those awkward moments when you say something, attempting to be funny, and the people around just look at you like you have 3 eyes and then avoid eye contact.  That's pretty much the response I get from my one-liners 10 months out of the year.  But when you're all in line at Target/anywhere during the Christmas shopping season and you make a joke about them getting the last Talking Teletubby, they usually at least make a response, like yeah, they should get more cashiers (probably implying that they'd like to get out of the store quicker so some weird girl (me) will stop talking to them about their weird purchases (Teletubby)).

Video for your entertainment.  PS.  I actually owned a Dipsy talking Teletubby (the green one).  I was 11.  Keep your judgement to yourself, that sucker was awesome.  Babakaba badobado.  And, yeah he has a green penis on his head, what?

My argument is this:  Why does "its the holidays" an excuse to be pleasant to someone?  Why can't these pleasant attitudes and behaviors (like letting someone in line in front of you or holding open the door for someone behind you) be practiced year-round?

Also, be nice to your cashiers.  They are people to, and if you ask them how they are, expect to sometimes get the truth, especially if you're the asshole backing up their line.  They are the person that is going to have to deal with the 5 pissed off customers after you.  Thank you, have a nice day.


**end of rant**