Water drinkers of the world, unite!

Last night I went to my book club meeting. A bunch of folks from my office have been doing a book club for about two years now. I am proud to say that I have read every book and attended every meeting since we began. At any rate, last night we were having a (slightly off topic) discussion about discrimination, and I told everyone about the discrimination of which I myself have been a victim, one that upsets me to this day. My boss, Karen, suggested that I blog about it. I thought it an excellent idea, so much so that I promised to give her credit for suggesting it. So, Karen, kudos to you!

What kind of discrimination might befall a middle class white woman, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. It's drink discrimination. No, not THAT drink, people. Water. That's right, I'm a water drinker. Not because I'm cheap, but because I really do like water.

Now, I also happen to like fast food. Please, no comments about how disgusting McDonalds is. It's good and you know it. At any rate, I love a good Dr. Pepper as much as anyone, but when I was pregnant with Abby, I made a concerted effort to eliminate caffeine from my diet (though judging by that child's activity level, you'd think I was hooked up to an espresso IV the entire 9 months). So when I would go to fast food restaurants and order a value meal, which is practically inevitable these days, I was told--and not too kindly--that the following were my choices:

1. Pay the full price for the meal even though I was getting a cup full of water and not expensive soda.

1. Get a discounted price and use a water cup the size of a Dixie cup.

How is this fair? I tried several times to point out to the person behind the counter that I was pregnant, and this by definition meant that I would need about a gallon of water to drink with my meal. I spoke in vain--they didn't care. Not that I can blame them; I wouldn't care if I was getting paid minimum wage to wear that goofy visor either. Some of them were really mean about it though. Usually out of principle I would take the water cup. Woe be to the person who worked in a place that didn't have self serve drinks. I would drink the entire cup as soon as they handed it to me and then hand it right back for my first refill. That REALLY irritated them, but they couldn't do anything about it. Once, I got so angry with the person working the Arby's drive through that I wrote the company a nasty email, but I never got a response.

The more I think about this, the more I think I have the makings of a very successful class action lawsuit on my hands. Why should I, a water drinker, not be allowed to purchase water, at its fair price, in the same quantity that I can buy other drinks? Am I right? You want in?



An addendum to yesterday's post: After a long and spirited conversation with my mother, I retract my use of the word "catty" to describe her remark regarding Abby's bangs incident. Love you, mom!