Consistency in the boss' eye

Dropping Sam off today was by far the easiest of these past three days. The ease was definitely aided by my lateness. I was wondering how long I would go before we'd be late. Answer: three days.

Three days is also how long it takes to establish a routine, apparently. I drop Sam off in the morning now, do a U-turn, park in the one-hour-max parking spots, wander into the local sandwich shop with free wi-fi, surf and work for 58 minutes, wander back to my car and drive to work from there after the traffic has cleared. I have enjoyed becoming lost in downtown San Jose again, remembering the streets and haunts and shortcuts from when I worked there oh so long ago. The city is much the same in the daytime; I have no idea how it is in the evenings.

After spending most of the time driving, I returned in the late afternoon to pick up Sam. I parked in the same one-hour-max parking spot and waited for the groups to be let out. When they were, I walked across the street to retrieve Sam. To my surprise, the girl supervising the group asked for identification. "Really?" was about the most I could ask, as I stood there dumbfounded. "Yes, it's policy."

While completely tempted to just say, "Sam, let's go," I instead stomped back across the street completely irritated, grabbed my passport, because, dammit, if you're going to make me show identification, it's going to be one you don't see very often, and stomped back across the street. As I shoved the passport onto the girl's clipboard, I commented, "I don't mind showing ID, and I prefer that you check, but I much prefer consistency. Don't ask me today when you didn't ask me for it yesterday." The girl avoided my eyes, muttering, "Thanks," as she checked the box next to Sam's name.

In retrospect, I should have been nicer to the girl. Kris commented that the reason she's checking today when she didn't check yesterday is probably because her supervisor was watching. People usually have a reason for going from casual to strict, and the boss' eye is the big one.

I may have to apologize to the girl tomorrow.