Can you hear me now?

This afternoon the kids and I took my husband to the airport since he's traveling yet again. Sidebar: I'm beginning to think it was something I said because he's been on the go a LOT lately! :)

Okay, so back to the airport excursion...

We dropped off my sweetie and started to head home, but made a pit stop at a McDonald's because we hadn't had lunch and it was approaching 2pm. I decided to just run through the drive-thru, which is probably my first mistake to begin with seeing as how there are frequent language barrier issues I seem to have when attempting to communicate with employees working the drive-thru window at fast-food eating establishments in this area.

Please know I'm not bashing those who work the drive-thru window, nor am I discriminating against those people for whom English is obviously a second language. I'm impressed by the fact that there are people capable of speaking more than one language. I am not bilingual and, just for the record, don't know that I'll ever be bilingual. That being said, going through the drive-thru today was simply frustrating and yet completely and utterly hilarious for both me and my boys.

I pulled up to the "Order Here" menu and the attendant inside asked if she can take my order. I proceeded to tell her I'd like two Mighty Kids Double Cheeseburger Meals and could I please get those without onions (per my boys' request), which is my second mistake. Here's how it went down after that...

She said, "Hold on a minute."

I wait.

She came back and said, "May I take your order?"

I reply, "Did you get my Mighty Kids Meal order?"

She replied, "Yes, what would you like to drink?"

I then said, "I'd like Dr. Pepper and sweet tea to drink with those and I'm ordering for boys. (You know they have toys in the kids' meals and you have to specify whether you need boy or girl toys.)

The drive-thru lady then said, "What would you like to drink?"

I told her once again, "I'd like Dr. Pepper and sweet tea."

She replied, "Dr. Pepper and Sprite?"

Again... I said, and this time very slowly and rather loudly (because I don't know if she can hear and/or understand me), "DOCTOR... PEPPER... AND... SWEET... TEA!" By this time the boys are laughing uncontrollably in the back seat and I'm starting to get tickled myself.

Then the drive-thru lady said, "Would you like anything else?"

I wish I could have answered in the affirmative and that my order would indeed be complete, however, I hadn't ordered what I wanted for myself, so I continued with "I would also like a #8 (I don't remember the actual number now, so I'll just use #8) with a sweet tea."

The drive-thru lady asked, "Grilled or crispy?"

I said, "Grilled, please."

The lady told me how much I owed and to pull around to the pick-up window. All the while I'm wondering if our order is going to be correct and thinking it'll surely be jacked up somehow or another. I had little to no faith that I'd drive away from McDonald's with a warm, fuzzy feeling, however, much to my surprise, we received EXACTLY what we'd ordered.

It wasn't a rude exchange in that neither the McDonald's employee nor I used inappropriate language in any way, but I did have to raise my voice and speak as if I were talking to a child in order to make myself clear. That made me FEEL rude. I left McDonald's feeling exhausted, disappointed in myself for expecting the worst, and frustration over the fact that it really shouldn't be this hard to communicate something so simple.