Math is hard

I haven't had a weekday off in a while. So as a treat to myself, I went by Dunkin Donuts to pick up a half dozen donuts for the weekend.

No, I wasn't going to eat them all by myself in one sitting. sheesh

Anyway, I pull up to the window and there's a large, sort of doughy and effeminate young man in a bandana at the register, totally flustered. He waves his arms around for a minute and then asks me to repeat my order. I do and he smiles thankfully to me. The price is $6.09

I hand him a $20 bill and one dime. He turns back to the register and types away.

Then he hands me the dime back. And I'm thinking he's just grace-ing me the nine cents, which is a bit ridiculous (I worked fast food for a while and a penny or two is one thing, anything over that and you're asking for trouble), but I took it and wondered where this was going.

Next come the donuts. And then the kicker.

He gives me $14.02 in change.

?!?!?!

I triple counted the bills because I was half expecting to find out he gave me a five instead of a ten, but he didn't and I just drove home, amazed at the whole experience.

How can you f*ck up a transaction like that? I get that he was having a flustery day though I wasn't sure why since there was no line at the drive through, but maybe it was his first day or something. I'm not unsympathetic. But the register gives you the correct change when you ring in what the customer gave you.

Is this where our educational system is taking us? Who's going to build rockets and solve science mysteries and create medicines when we're churning out young folks who can't make change. Being a superstar with your smart phone doesn't actually make you smart, you know?

*sigh*