Please and thank you

We returned from our big trip to NYC and while the vacation was nice, the food was tasty and the sights were fabulous, I definitely will not miss the non-polite nature of the city. I say non-polite because I don't think NYCers are impolite per se. They just don't place the same emphasis on the whole hold-the-door open for the stranger behind you, say please-thank you-you're welcome thing that us Midwesterners are all about.

I'm pretty sure I've never had a cashier in Iowa stare blankly at me as I 1) gave him the item that I wanted to pay for, 2) paid for said item and 3) said thank you when item was handed back to me. In NYC, I got that vacant look, not a hint of smile, not a word uttered during the whole transaction. Whaaat? Kind of awkward, right?

There was also an incident at Jamba Juice where the cashier inadvertently rang up my order twice and then proceeded to yell angrily, not at me, at her co-worker (although she was looking at me so she might as well have been), to cancel the order and start over. Her co-worker seemed angry too, although her anger stemmed from the fact that I'd ordered a baked good and there was a special process that needed to be done in order to hand over the Parmesan pretzel. Hey, if it's going to be that big of a deal, I'll go without.

In conclusion, NYC, you're lovely to visit but ultimately, my heart still belongs to Iowa.