[journal] When I was younger I used to hate small talk. I thought it was an utter waste of time to talk to a stranger that you knew you would never see again. Wasted breath or something like that. But now I feel that they don't have to be in your future life to be good to someone. You can be good to them now and the present should be enough. Actually, being nice to someone you'll never see again (rather than a close friend) has this strangely satisfying feeling.
Today I was at TD bank exchanging my money into Yen. I got to the counter and a young gentleman of 23-years started chatting with me when I asked him to exchange my money into Yen. I shot the crap with him for awhile talking about traveling, Japan, threw in some men jokes and it was nice. After 5 minutes of transactions (I had to cash cheques and deposit money also) and chit-chat he asked me if I could wait because they were out of traveller's checks and he had to draft more.
So I waited and waited and finally after like 20 minutes he came out. Now here I could have been angry or, like most Canadians, make an indirectly passive complaint "
Wow, that was a little longer than I expected" followed by nervous chuckle -- but I didn't. Instead, when he apolygized for the wait I said, "It wasn't a problem, and I'm sure you went as fast as you could." He seemed happy with my remark and we chit-chatted again, forgetting the incident, while he finished up. When he gave me my traveller's checks, he told me he waived the commission fee ($5) and then gave me 2 business cards (he's apparently a manager there) and said to talk to him if I ever need anything with TD. I wished him a happy new year and wished him well on a trip he was about to make and he did the same on my move to Japan.
