Special Snowflake Stories

[CrochetFanatic]

I'm not sure if this first one qualifies as SS or road rage, but I had someone riding my bumper most of the way home.  On that particular road, there was nowhere I could pull over to let him pass, and the opposing traffic was too busy for him to make an illegal cut.  He was driving almost up against my bumper, occasionally honking his horn, and I could see him making wild gestures and cussing me out.  Yeah, I do the speed limit.  I'm not getting a speeding ticket.

This next story is hard to define, too.  I'm not sure if I was almost a SS, or if this "lady" was the SS, but it involved a parking space.  I didn't see this woman until I started to pull into the space and heard someone honking at me.  I'm still not sure if she was waiting first, or if she just wanted to park there.  Anyway, I gave up the space and mouthed "sorry", and what does she do?  Gives me the Death Glare and shakes her head at me.  Half of me wanted to just have the space anyway, and the other half is saying, "Just let it go, she's not worth it."

[magician5]

Ah yes, the second soprano with aspirations for loftier places.  I was in the second soprano group when I sang and there was always a lot of girls convinced that they should have have been or could have been firsts. Some were still good in the second in terms of holding their notes in opposition to the firsts and just complained verbally, but others "had trouble" and would stray onto the firsts' part leaving the rest of us to pick up their slack.  Just got them scolded, not moved (the ones that actually could hit those notes were actually good enough to understand that there is skill and value in singing second) so I'm not sure why they'd persist in trying.

It was ever thus, in any field.

Old film crew joke:
Q: How many of the talent does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Four. One to change the lightbulb and three to mutter "That ought to be me up there."

Q: Well, then, how many grips does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Five.  One to change the light bulb and four to tell you about the one they changed in LA last year.

[elephantschild]

It snowed here today, so of course all the SS's were around. My sister and I went to a local market that had plenty of spaces available - including some directly across from the doors.  So what did the SS's do? Parked in the fire lane where it had signs and lettering painted on the ground saying NO PARKING. They parked right over the lettering - which because the car had been in that spot for so long - had no snow on  the letters.  It did not end there.
   I went in and these folks were walking three abreast and refused to move to allow others to pass by...at one point one of the two ladies in the party swung her cart across the aisle so quickly and aggressively she almost hit me, and told me to "watch out, you don't own the store!" We finally got passed them and went to a second aisle to look for what we wanted, only to find them at the exit to that aisle when we were done, again refusing to move to let us pass and telling US how rude WE were.  At this point we thought better of being in this store and left... shaking our heads and wondering what they were thinking.

I think I encountered them earlier in my neck of the woods. On Friday night, I stopped by a local liquor store. The lot was a sheet of ice. I exchanged grimaces with fellow shoppers as we minced our way to and from the doors. Note: This is a relatively small store and the spaces aren't horribly far away.

When I got to the store, there were two cars pulled up right next to the doors. Facing each other. Right on top of the "no parking" lettering. With their caution lights blinking. No handicapped tags. (Even if they were, they weren't supposed to park there, but I might have had more sympathy under the conditions. Or not, considering that this wasn't exactly an absolutely necessary stop for anyone.) One in particular was so close that if you opened the front passenger door all the way, you'd probably hit the building.

I considered mentioning it to one of the clerks, but decided it probably wouldn't do any good. As I was paying, I saw a well-dressed man leave the store and hop in one of the cars, bag in hand, no sign of any possible reason for his parking "specialness." Special Snowflake, indeed.

[ica171]

snip
   I went in and these folks were walking three abreast and refused to move to allow others to pass by...at one point one of the two ladies in the party swung her cart across the aisle so quickly and aggressively she almost hit me, and told me to "watch out, you don't own the store!" We finally got passed them and went to a second aisle to look for what we wanted, only to find them at the exit to that aisle when we were done, again refusing to move to let us pass and telling US how rude WE were.  At this point we thought better of being in this store and left... shaking our heads and wondering what they were thinking.

My SS weren't quite so rude, but I had to go to a big box store the other day and it took forever to get through. I swear, every person in my area who does that stopping in the middle of the aisle thing was there. I think I counted six different people that just stopped in the middle of an aisle. A few were talking to friends, a few were just stopping where they were to look at stuff. I politely asked one woman to move and got a look that made it clear that she found it very rude of me to ask.

I say it happened with six different people but it happened more than six times--I got stuck behind one woman at least three separate times. The third time she just stopped in the middle of one of the main aisles in the store and started reading a package she had in her cart. I went around her and thankfully was able to get to the register and get out without further incident.

[Hillia]

snip
   I went in and these folks were walking three abreast and refused to move to allow others to pass by...at one point one of the two ladies in the party swung her cart across the aisle so quickly and aggressively she almost hit me, and told me to "watch out, you don't own the store!" We finally got passed them and went to a second aisle to look for what we wanted, only to find them at the exit to that aisle when we were done, again refusing to move to let us pass and telling US how rude WE were.  At this point we thought better of being in this store and left... shaking our heads and wondering what they were thinking.

My SS weren't quite so rude, but I had to go to a big box store the other day and it took forever to get through. I swear, every person in my area who does that stopping in the middle of the aisle thing was there. I think I counted six different people that just stopped in the middle of an aisle. A few were talking to friends, a few were just stopping where they were to look at stuff. I politely asked one woman to move and got a look that made it clear that she found it very rude of me to ask.

I say it happened with six different people but it happened more than six times--I got stuck behind one woman at least three separate times. The third time she just stopped in the middle of one of the main aisles in the store and started reading a package she had in her cart. I went around her and thankfully was able to get to the register and get out without further incident.

Definitely SS shoppers, but it's not helped at all by the grocery stores near me that put out small, temporary cardboard displays of whatever's hot at the moment - right now it's baking items, like spices, cupcake papers, frosting, etc - so the already just-barely-wide-enough-for-two aisle is now barely wide enough for one, and since the displays are staggered right-left-right, you find yourself weaving drunkenly down whatever aisle you're in trying to avoid them.

[ica171]

snip
   I went in and these folks were walking three abreast and refused to move to allow others to pass by...at one point one of the two ladies in the party swung her cart across the aisle so quickly and aggressively she almost hit me, and told me to "watch out, you don't own the store!" We finally got passed them and went to a second aisle to look for what we wanted, only to find them at the exit to that aisle when we were done, again refusing to move to let us pass and telling US how rude WE were.  At this point we thought better of being in this store and left... shaking our heads and wondering what they were thinking.

My SS weren't quite so rude, but I had to go to a big box store the other day and it took forever to get through. I swear, every person in my area who does that stopping in the middle of the aisle thing was there. I think I counted six different people that just stopped in the middle of an aisle. A few were talking to friends, a few were just stopping where they were to look at stuff. I politely asked one woman to move and got a look that made it clear that she found it very rude of me to ask.

I say it happened with six different people but it happened more than six times--I got stuck behind one woman at least three separate times. The third time she just stopped in the middle of one of the main aisles in the store and started reading a package she had in her cart. I went around her and thankfully was able to get to the register and get out without further incident.

Definitely SS shoppers, but it's not helped at all by the grocery stores near me that put out small, temporary cardboard displays of whatever's hot at the moment - right now it's baking items, like spices, cupcake papers, frosting, etc - so the already just-barely-wide-enough-for-two aisle is now barely wide enough for one, and since the displays are staggered right-left-right, you find yourself weaving drunkenly down whatever aisle you're in trying to avoid them.

The worst is when they have a display, then a pallet an employee is unloading, then another display, then another pallet, all the way down the aisle, so you can't get to anything on the either side of that center display unless you walk all the way to the front or back of the store.

[rain]

I've got my first SS story to report- This occured at a mall
(btw- my DM uses an electric scooter)


SS uses an electric scooter and parked across the doorway of a store (he was outside the store in the hall) while he and a friend chatted.  There were people waiting to get in ... I waited a bit, then said excuse me & slid past (I had enough room) ... then others started doing the same.  If he'd pulled forward even 1-2 feet people could have gotten in/out of the store without troubling him.

[nuit93]

This could go here or in the "Drive you crazy" thread, but I'm still irritated so I'm going with SS.

I sing in a community chorus of 80 people with 8 voice sections: 1st and 2nd sopranos, 1st and 2nd altos, etc. Tonight was our first concert and somehow every single 1st soprano but me called in sick. During warm ups our director announced that I would be miked since I would be singing my parts alone. One of the 2nd sopranos offered to step in and help but the director reassured her that I knew my parts and would be fine.

Except when it came to my first descant line that I was really looking forward to singing, she started singing it along with me, off key and off rhythm. The second time several people hushed her and afterwards I saw the director talking to her. I don't know if she really wanted to help or just wanted part of the spotlight, but she made things worse, not better.

Ah yes, the second soprano with aspirations for loftier places.  I was in the second soprano group when I sang and there was always a lot of girls convinced that they should have have been or could have been firsts. Some were still good in the second in terms of holding their notes in opposition to the firsts and just complained verbally, but others "had trouble" and would stray onto the firsts' part leaving the rest of us to pick up their slack.  Just got them scolded, not moved (the ones that actually could hit those notes were actually good enough to understand that there is skill and value in singing second) so I'm not sure why they'd persist in trying.

As someone who's done a bit of choral work...why would they want to do that?  I honestly don't get it...if you're a 2nd soprano, why would you want to sing 1st?

[Slartibartfast]

I have a large vocal range, so I'm used to being stuck wherever the director needs me (usually alto or occasionally second soprano).  I can totally see switching to first soprano if all but one of the first sopranos failed to show up.  The difference is 1) I'd only do this if I had the music in front of me (not all choirs do), 2) I'd only do it with the director's express permission, 3) I know my range and know which high notes to skip, and 4) I may not have the world's most beautiful voice, but I can keep on pitch and I sightread better than most semi-pro musicians out there.  Oh, and 5) I'd only do it on mostly homophonic pieces (where the different parts are singing different notes but they're all doing it at the same times) so any direction our conductor has given us about where to breathe, get louder or softer, etc. still applies.

I definitely agree it's snowflakey to just reassign yourself right before a performance without getting the okay from the person in charge of the group!

[NyaChan]

This could go here or in the "Drive you crazy" thread, but I'm still irritated so I'm going with SS.

I sing in a community chorus of 80 people with 8 voice sections: 1st and 2nd sopranos, 1st and 2nd altos, etc. Tonight was our first concert and somehow every single 1st soprano but me called in sick. During warm ups our director announced that I would be miked since I would be singing my parts alone. One of the 2nd sopranos offered to step in and help but the director reassured her that I knew my parts and would be fine.

Except when it came to my first descant line that I was really looking forward to singing, she started singing it along with me, off key and off rhythm. The second time several people hushed her and afterwards I saw the director talking to her. I don't know if she really wanted to help or just wanted part of the spotlight, but she made things worse, not better.

Ah yes, the second soprano with aspirations for loftier places.  I was in the second soprano group when I sang and there was always a lot of girls convinced that they should have have been or could have been firsts. Some were still good in the second in terms of holding their notes in opposition to the firsts and just complained verbally, but others "had trouble" and would stray onto the firsts' part leaving the rest of us to pick up their slack.  Just got them scolded, not moved (the ones that actually could hit those notes were actually good enough to understand that there is skill and value in singing second) so I'm not sure why they'd persist in trying.

As someone who's done a bit of choral work...why would they want to do that?  I honestly don't get it...if you're a 2nd soprano, why would you want to sing 1st?

These people considered 1st soprano to be the better part.  They saw it as evidence of being a better singer,  i.e. they believed that being able to hit high notes means that you are good at singing.  In one of my choral groups, the solos always went to girls from the 1st sopranos unless it was firmly an alto solo, though I would argue that the girls in that group at the time were simply better singers than the 2nd sopranos who were auditioning.  Another reason is that one of them thought the first soprano part was more feminine and pretty.

[CrochetFanatic]

I don't know much about choral groups and so on, but I remember when I was in chorus for a year in elementary school.  The teacher said that every part was important, and even the so-called "small" parts bring something to the mix.  It's one thing to want to be one of the "stars", but it's another to disobey the leader and sing the part you wanted anyway.    Sorry that happened to you, it must have been uncomfortable.

[RingTailedLemur]

There are no small parts, only small singers? (With apologies to Stanislavski)

[shadowfox79]

I can sympathise with wanting to sing first soprano, although I don't condone what she did at all.

I was usually first soprano, but occasionally ended up second. Unfortunately I'm not great at picking out middle notes, so I generally found myself singing the top part simply because I couldn't "hear" the second - fortunately the choir I belonged to never noticed that, because with the complicated songs they gave us the conductor was more concerned with people making up the parts they didn't know than with a soprano singing the wrong part correctly. 

[RebeccainGA]

I encountered one this weekend - SS-I'm-too-drunk-for-the-drive-in.

DP decided she needed a milk shake late Saturday night, so I drove down to Steak and Shake. Love, love, love this place - service is always top notch, food is hot and fresh, never had a single problem and we go there regularly since we've been living here. I order, and notice the girl taking my order is having to get me to repeat myself a lot, and taking a long time to do my order, but I figure it's just that she's multi-tasking since the dining room was pretty full. I pull around, and see what's really going on.

The woman in the white BMW ahead of me is screaming, flailing her arm out of the window and cursing a blue streak. She gets her bag of food, and pulls up about two feet (so she's not in line with the window, but close) and puts her car in park, lays on the horn for a good twenty seconds, and then throws her car in reverse and pulls back to the window without looking (glad I'd waited to pull up!). She thrusts the bag back at the window, starts screaming something about onion rings, cursing again, and waving the bag at the girl at the window. The girl at the window asks her for her receipt (apparently the SS thought she'd ordered one more serving of onion rings than she had). They get it figured out, the SS all but throws her card at the girl at the window, and then is asked to pull forward to the little 'parking' area ahead so they can get her additional order ready. She inches up a few feet, then a few more, then a few more, the car jerking to a stop suddenly every time. She finally gets to the end of the building, puts it in park (not where they asked her to go, but at least out of the main drive through path) and sits there for no more than a minute. I pull up, get an apology for the delay, and pay for my food. I hadn't even gotten my card back when the SS starts honking her horn again, for another 20-30 seconds, then the drivers door opens, the woman leans out and, um, soils the parking lot. She slammed her door, threw it in drive, and took off, squealing her tires. I figured she'd be back around in a seconds, but realized why she wasn't when I finished my order - there were *three* police cars parked on the other side of the building. :-)

[o_gal]

A variation on the choral 2nd soprano story:

I was in the Wind Symphony while in undergrad school. There really wasn't any auditioning to get in - they pretty much took anyone who wanted to play. I played flute, which in most groups like ours, means that there are 10 gazillion flute players. So you would have to audition for chair position. Usually, they took half the group and had them play first flute and half play second flute. They would only "seat" the number 1 and number 2 flutists for each part based on skill level. Everyone else sat alphabetically down the line.

My senior year, I'm a 1st flute after 3 years of playing 2nd. But not quite good enough to be sat in the 1st two positions in this section (was previously sat in the 2nd flute position). My last name began with C, so I'm sitting in the "3rd" chair. The girl in the 2nd chair and I became friends pretty quickly. The girl in the 1st chair was an arrogant SS.

Christmas concert came and went, and 1st chair girl is not happy. She didn't get all of the solos. Some went to her, some to 2nd chair girl. And then 1st and 2nd chairs in 2nd flute section got theirs.

Spring concert time comes and 1st chair girl puts forth a demand to our director (who was one of the coolest, most fun directors I've ever had.) She gets ALL of the flute solos or she walks. She did this 2 days before the concert, probably thinking that this late in the game, director will cave.

Nope, director basically says it's been fun having you but don't let the door hit you on the way out. He then comes to rehearsal and tells me that guess what, you're now 2nd chair. He let former 2nd chair girl do the 1st flute solos because I couldn't learn them well enough in time, but she and I now did all the parts where it just went down to 2 flutes. I scrambled and learned all 3 of them in the next couple of days. Concert comes, former 1st chair girl doesn't show, so we did the concert and I did OK. She never did come back, probably out of embarassment.