We went to see the new Ben Affleck movie, called “The Way Back.”  The hype on television says this is an uplifting movie, and the first “feel good movie” of 2020…I have to say that they might be leading the viewers slightly (or quite a bit) astray.  If any of you see this movie, please let me know what you think.  We found it to be kind of depressing, and not a “feel good movie.”  We went with our college friends that love movies like we do, and unfortunately, our friend had just lost his mother a couple of weeks ago, and I think, was hoping for something uplifting.  I don’t think he expected to be sad when he left the theater, but it was clear from his face, that he was.

The only upside was having lunch at Blaze Pizza.  If you have a Blaze Pizza near you and you haven’t tried them, Rich and I think they make a great pizza.  Each person chooses their own pizza, as well as the number of toppings they want.  Rich always gets a two topping pizza because he likes pepperoni and bacon.  I get the unlimited topping pizza, because I like a lot of different vegetables.  We’ve eaten there several times, and have also eaten at their location in the Cranberry Mall near Pittsburgh.  They’ve never said anything to us about the two topping pizza, but this time, when I asked the server if she could add more bacon to Rich’s pizza, the server said he’d need to change it to the unlimited topping pizza if she added more.  I’ve never heard anyone say anything like that to us before, and we both were a little bit unhappy with her response.  If I had to guess, I’d say she was either having a bad day, or was just really bad at her job.  I know I should have said something to a manager, but we never complain.   I read once that for every person who has a bad experience in a retail establishment/restaurant, they’ll tell thirty people about it, but if they have a good experience, they will only tell six.

Once I heard that statistic, I decided every time I had a really good experience at a business, I’d make sure I told someone there in management, and would fill out any kind of response card to give the employee kudos.  I can’t tell you the number of times that managers have come to talk to me, and I can see on their face that they expect the worst, only to have me tell them what a great job their employee has done.  Let’s face it, the people who are doing these jobs aren’t paid exceptionally well, and receiving praise for a job well done, or receiving special recognition from management, would give them a little boost in their work day.  In the world we live in today, we can all use a little more of that…

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