nothing is free in America
It so happened that I home for literally half an hour this afternoon, since I had to run an errand and my apartment is on the way back to work. I decided to save some time and effort and eat my lunch at home. No sooner I settled down in front of my computer (I know it is supposed to be lunch, but eating alone is so very boring:), I heard a doorbell. Usually, I just ignore them, and I should have ignored this one, but I felt like answering. There was a young blond trim little cheerleader thing from a local HS trying to raise some "points" for her summer internship. She asked me if I wanted to participated and could I, please, choose a magazine from her handy-dandy little card? She had a lot of gossip rags (which I leaf through only in the supermarket lines) and sports magazines (with which you wouldn't catch me dead). I picked the least obnoxious one, then she asked if she could come in and use my kitchen table to write down some info. So, in she goes, gets comfortable, and only then it comes out that I have to pay for a two-year subscription on the thing. It is not that the sum was large or I was unwilling to help her out with her "points." It had a feeling of a con to it. I don't like to be duped, and even though in the back of my mind I had known that it was probably about money, it still felt like a cheap shot on her part. I just refused to spend the money, give her a check or my credit card info. She got upset with me, when I tried to suggest that I would have reacted better if I had known from the start that she wanted me to buy a subscription. Her final mean parting shot was that "Lady, you should know that nothing is free in America!" Considering that I speak with a slight European accent and she had inquired about it only a few minutes prior, I felt like answering that I thought that America was the land of the free:)