Martin Hash wrote:I got caught in something last night that, now that I think about it, really irritates me, and also shows how society norms are used as clubs to beat people over the head:
Yesterday afternoon my wife, Gwynne, got a call from a long-time friend of hers inviting us to a BBQ at their house. Gwynne bought some cookies & cake because that's what she does. I didn't take anything but myself. When we got there, I went outside to the patio. There were a half-dozen people there, all of whom I vaguely recognized from BBQs past. I shook everybody's hand, introduced myself, looked for a place to sit around the patio table. Everyone had a beer in their hand, so before sitting down I looked around for a kooler; there was a small one near the table, I opened it up, there was some random bottles & cans, I didn't take anything because it was out-of-the-ordinary stuff. Before I could close the kooler lid, this bitch says to me, "What? You just look into somebody else's kooler? You're too cheap to bring your own beer?" (Turns out, it wasn't even her kooler.) I thought she was fucking joking but she needed some work on her delivery.
"Where's the kooler?" I ask the host.
"There's no kooler?" he replies, matter-of-factly.
I'm off balance, "Didn't you have a kooler?"
"Not that I know of," he says, then continues talking to somebody else.
I look around, there's no kooler, nobody offers me a beer, I sit down. The dick who's kooler I looked in wouldn't talk to me. I go all evening without anything to drink. About 8 pm, I grab Gwynne, make an excuse, and get the hell out of Dodge.
Ya know, I've been gone for a while; is BYOB the new norm? WTF, somebody needs to tell me these things.
That's crazy.
Who the hell thinks this is offensive somehow to be at a BBQ and get pissy about a guy looking for a Beer. Was there even any Red Meat at this thing ? Or just Vegan Burgers and Tofu ?
Ya know, you should have just said excuse me, stepped out to a C store and bought a case of Natty Ice, put it in the Styrofoam cooler, strip down to your T-shirt, go back and proceed to get drunk.
