A Thin Slice of Life

     Sometimes, like on a wintry Wednesday after Thanksgiving, a thin slice of life is what I feel like blogging about. Well maybe more a thin slice of avocado…
     I was grading in my office after my morning classes and before a 1 pm Faculty Senate Executive meeting. Around 12:30, I thought I would head over to the Johnson Center, our newest building on campus, where the meeting was supposed to take place. I would get there with time to grab a sandwich at the ARA run Einstein Bros. Bagels in the lobby. A specialty of the house, a turkey, bacon, and avocado sandwich was sounding pretty darn good.
     I got there between classes so there was no line. I placed my order, paid, filled my drink, and waited for my sandwich. The student worker announced, “Turkey, bacon, avocado.” I said right here, and she said, “We have no avocado.” I responded, “Well then it isn’t really a turkey, bacon, avocado is it?” All I got was a deadpan stare. So, I added, “How much rebate will you be giving me?” More deadpan. Then I said “You know for the missing avocado… for which I paid.” The deadpan pan continued but she did say, “Pardon me?” I responded, “I ordered and paid for a turkey, bacon, avocado, you gave me only a turkey and bacon sandwich. As I got less than what I ordered and paid for, I figured I should pay less.” My estimate was that the missing slice of avocado was about 15% of the value of the sandwich. "What else would you expect from a professor who teaches microeconomics.” All I got was more deadpan.
     The young lady’s boss, another student, asked if there were an issue. Mind you, I was doing all this in a lighthearted way with, as far as I could tell without a mirror, a twinkle in my eye. I told him, “It is at best a minor issue if at all.” I rephrased what I told his colleague including the suggestion that a rebate was probably in order. I just got more deadpan and he was not as good at it as she was. Needless to say, I did not get the rebate and honestly, I really wasn’t looking for one. The whole thing just kind of struck me as a bit absurd. Maybe the operations management professor in me that they should have told me, when I ordered the turkey, bacon, avocado sandwich, that they were out of avocados. Then, I could have made an informed choice and not been surprised at the end. Maybe, I was just in a playful mood and was simply disappointed they were deadpanning instead taking playing along.
     I sat down, unwrapped, and ate the sandwich. It was actually pretty tasty. Upon leaving for my meeting, I told them so and thanked them for making it. They both broke into wry deadpannish smiles. A semi-sweet dessert if you ask me.
     I wonder what today will bring? We shall see.