I didn't think I was stressed. 5 week old baby, wife in hospital, I thought I was handling things pretty well.
I took a walk to Brugger's Bagels to get a sandwich for lunch. Peanut butter on a bagel that I would eat on the way home. As I watched the customers in front of me, I noticed that the Brugger's employees would cut the bagel first in half lengthwise (i.e., on the transverse plane) and then top-to-bottom (i.e., coronal plane). I only like my bagels cut once because it is easier to eat while walking (note: if I ate like a civilized person, the second cut makes sense). So, when it came to my turn, I said "Please don't cut my bagel in quarters." He said "okay" and proceeded to cut it into four equal pieces (as described above). I then said "I JUST SAID NOT TO CUT IT INTO QUARTERS!," to which he replied "I DIDN'T! I JUST CUT IT IN HALF." (Note: There were four equal pieces on the counter. I tried to explain that it was a whole bagel, that he cut it in half and then in half again, making it quarters. It was at that point that the more experienced employee next to him said "I'm sorry sir. We consider this 'half.' We'll discard it and get you a new bagel." Other than having too much peanut butter on the bagel, there were no more incidents.
Sure, in a mathematical sense I was correct. Linguistically it was ambiguous at best. But socially it was incorrect. My reaction to the employee's mistake betrayed the stress I'm feeling - it certainly wasn't going to help resolve the situation. It is funny how stress manifests itself...
