Scrounging For Change Underneath the Seats

I almost forgot to tell you about my story last Friday about literally scrounging for change under my car seats in order to buy a hotdog.

Los Angeles has this cool spot for hotdogs called PINK’S… cool enough to warrant its inclusion in the new DirectTV commercial featuring the guys from Entourage. Since I was in the area that day and since I haven’t gone to Pink’s in a while either, I figured, why not? I was hungry, hotdog stand in the corner, done deal. Problem was, I’m the sort of guy that hardly carries any cash on himself and just charges everything to his card everyday. Pink’s on the other hand, is a cash-only establishment. Such a big embarrassment when I tell my girlfriend to order whatever she wants to on the menu and even pushed for a side order to boot! What happened next harkens a time from back in my college days wherein my friends and I would scrounge underneath the sofa for spare change to pay the pizza delivery guy. I knew that I had some change in the car that I always keep for the meter or sometimes the toll roads. But this time, I calculated lunch to cost me just a tad over $20!! That’s lunch for both me and my girlfriend, as well a meal for my brother who’s waiting at home.

I’m sure glad the cashiers at Pink’s, despite a look of surprise (okay… maybe a little of annoyance too) accepted twenty dollars worth of quarters to pay for my bill without saying a single word. They DID count the quarters though to make sure I wasn’t short-changing them.

All in all, I think I’ll put that in my back pocket as a lesson learned that I need to keep track of minute things like that in order to avoid embarrassing moments like those from happening again. At least I felt like my younger college self again!