2020 Hindsight: Kindness Counts

There's a new restaurant in town that just opened yesterday.  So the 3rd day of 2019 was the 2nd day of its operations.  And we thought, for dinner on 1/3/2020, we would try them out.  Whelp, a LOT of people in town (and the area) had the same idea and the place was packed.  So we placed an online order and planned to use the old Drive Thru window (from the former occupants of the building) to pick up.  We called and asked when it would be ready and went at the prescribed time.  When we got there, we got someone else's order ("Paul," whoever you are, you can thank us later for not taking your food).  We explained this was not our order and they asked us to wait 10 minutes they would make us OUR order.  20 minutes later and we got a different order, again, not ours.  I showed them the mobile app from which we had placed the order, they apologized, gave the phone to someone else who actually found OUR order and, 20 minutes later, we got our food.  It was yummy and I will definitely be going back to this place.  Yes, even though they made us wait over an hour to get our food (from the point of ordering) and about 40 minutes sitting at the window.  But it was their second day of operation!  Opening a food place is NOT easy (I know, I remember opening Stern Dining in the Law School, Chats! in 1920 Commons, and McClelland Marketplace in the Quad (man, that was a long time ago!)  Plus, they were so apologetic and so nice even when they kept giving us the wrong orders.  Sarah and I were sitting in the van laughing at the situation.  I think the poor lady kept waiting for us to yell, or lose it, but we smiled and just kept pointing out what our order was and said we would wait for it.  And, in the end, she thanked us for waiting "too long" and gave us a discount on our meal.  And I smiled and said thank you, and said "thank you for moving in to our town!"  They will hire more help.  They will get the kinks out of online ordering.  And, hopefully, they will succeed in our town which needs successful business to keep on thriving.  So, in hindsight, as I look back on this, my 2020 Hindsight is that Kindness Counts!  We were kind to them, they were kind to us, we ended up with yummy food and all we had to do is sit in a van, laughing, for a bit longer than expected.  Nothing good would have come from yelling, and my BP would have gone up anyway.  So let's remember, when frustrated at the length of time something might be taking, that we are not always aware of what is going on, on the other side, and let's #BeKind.  To the lady at the pickup window, to the cashier at the CVS, to the secretary at the dentist's office, to the server at the diner when our meal is taking longer than we expected (us front of house people will always tell you it's the kitchen's fault anyway!) :-D  Kindness Counts!  #BeKind.