THE SAGA OF THE PIZZA
The Setup of a Pizza Fight
A fight can jump into your marriage with no warning. So one day, I was extremely late getting out of the office, so late that Bryan was already on his lunch break at 8pm and since my drive home passed his work, I decided to stop and hang with him for a few minutes. During our time together, I mentioned that I was thinking of the possibility of ordering pizza for supper (which we normally eat just after midnight when he gets home). He apparently thought that was a great idea and gave me some cash toward that end. I said when I got home I’d see if there were any coupons.
After his break was over at 8:30, he went back to his machines and I went home. I looked for coupons, but all the ones we had magnetted to the refrigerator were expired (of course) so I went online. Bryan’s favorite pizza place had a moderately good special, but after the stressful day I’d had I was in the mood for a white sauce so I checked the website for the place that has my favorite white sauce pizza. Their deal was about the same discounted value, so I decided to order from them.
I rarely order online, but it was appealing not to have to talk to anyone, so I started the online ordering process. I chose the location nearest to our home, and sighed when I chose pick up over delivery since it would have been really nice not to have to leave the house again that night! But the last time I wanted to get delivery, the pizza place would only do it if I paid by credit card over the phone because they said they don’t permit their drivers to have cash on them. I way prefer to swipe my card if I don’t pay cash. I do not like my numbers to be that susceptible to theft, so I chose that time also to pick up my pizza order.
Surprisingly, the website had an option to delay pickup to any time of choice up to midnight. Well, that was cool, as I was going to have to go out and move my car so Bryan could park in the driveway ahead of me (a nearly nightly ritual :/ ) since I had to leave for work earlier the next day than he did. So I chose 11:45 pm for pickup. That way, I would arrive home just as he did, let him pull in first, then go enjoy hot pizza.
Picking the pizzas was quick—small white sauce with veggies for me, large traditional with mushroom and green pepper for him. Most of the deals around here are for 2 large pizzas. Then we have leftover pizza for 4 days and don’t even really enjoy it by the time we are finishing the last few pieces because it was too expensive to just throw away. This time the deal was a percentage off, I thought I’d not buy so much pizza and I got a small for me and a medium for him. That was plenty with our salad.
Although I couldn’t bring up the receipt on my phone, I took a picture of the laptop screen. Order completed by 9:30, receipt ready, salad chilling in the fridge, reminder set for 11:30 to go pick it up.
Okay, 11:30 I drive the 1.3 miles to the pizza location, but everything is dark and deserted. A few businesses nearby are open, but clearly not this one! Pulling my car closer, I see they close at 11. What? I check my receipt on the phone and yes, it is set for pickup at 11:30. Now what??
This order is already paid for and we can’t eat it. I have no other plans for supper, and at this point no ambition to prepare anything! Bryan will be home in 20 minutes. And I somehow have to figure out this mess. I call the phone number for the location, but no surprise it just rings and rings. Well, okay, maybe I’ll go down to Taco Bell—I know they are open!—he said the other day he was thinking about going there. This is crazy, possibly two meals out in one week!? If I can’t get them to refund or stop the credit card purchase. I already had a busy day tomorrow because after work I had to go back and finish fixing the snafu from today along with several errands on the agenda.
Alright, Bryan likes burrito supremes, but we might have that credit card payment go through so we should limit the spending on this purchase. We have tomatoes and sour cream in the fridge, so I’ll get regulars and add it myself. And only 2 of them. I’ll just get one taco, and use it to make a big taco salad.
Cue Pizza Fight
So Bryan calls me as soon as he clocks out and starts asking me about the pizza while he is still driving home! I told him I was just leaving the drive thru at Taco Bell and he jumped right in, why are we having that when we were going to get pizza. I start explaining what happened and he began having the same process of ramifications and questions to me that I had had to myself earlier.
“You have to call them and find out what happened,” he’s telling me. (I did call, no one answered.) “What are we going to have for supper now?!” (That’s why I’m at Taco Bell.) “You have to stop that credit card transaction!” (I know, I will at the earliest opportunity.) “Find the number for the corporate office.” (Yes, but I’m driving right now and talking to you.) “Say you ordered it and the store was closed and . . .” (I know what to say, you don’t have to tell me.) “We have to fix this!” (Yes, I know. We will, but let’s stay calm and talk about it when we get home.) “I can’t believe you did this.” (Deep breaths, no answer.) “Are you sure you have the time right?” (Yes, I’ll check but I’m sure I saw they were open until 12:30.) ”Well, we have to hurry then, to get there in time!” (There’s no way we can get anywhere by then. It’s pretty impossible that we are having any pizza tonight.) “This wouldn’t have happened if I had just ordered from _____! “– the place he preferred. Cue the biggest fight we have had in quite a long time!
By this time, we are pulling in the driveway. I go straight to the laptop and pull up the screens I used earlier. The pizza place that was open until 12:30 is the place Bryan likes that had no specials or coupons. Whoops. The place I ordered from, yes it’s the same location that I ordered from, went to, and called. Hmm. Uh, oh. It says their hours are 11-11. What, then why do they accept a pick up time of 11:45?? Geez, it was 9:30 when I put the order in, why wouldn’t they call when it came up on their list and tell me? I wonder how big this corporation is—could they have branches in other states that are still open because they’re in another time zone? Nope, this map shows only regional locations. Oh, here’s a ‘contact us’ page. Ok, corporate phone, no good til Monday, but I can at least email them and get our issue on record. Corporate needs to know there is a glitch in the online system anyway.
All this time, Bryan is making sporadic comments on my progress in “fixing this” but I’m ignoring him because I can’t concentrate on answering him and what I’m doing at the same time, and I’m so upset—about the original situation and by how we are handling it—that I probably wouldn’t respond well anyway. Ahem. After I send the email, I go start making his burritos into supremes before he realizes and that possibly adds fuel to the fire.
Aftermath of a Money Fight
I tell him that there’s nothing else that can be done tonight. It’s 12:45 by now. I’ll call the pizza branch as soon as I can after they open in the morning. I’ll be at work, but I might have a chance to call before I get off, if not then I will right after. All I want is to stop the transaction or to get the pizza we ordered. He says yes that will satisfy him too, but he was really looking forward to pizza tonight. Yes, I had already figured that out! I said I was too, but we need to work on not letting things like this build into a fight like this turned out to be. He said he was only mad because I was snapping at him. I told him that I didn’t mean to snap at him and to remember that this has been an issue with me plenty of times in the past where I sound worse than I realize. I need to work on that more!! I asked him to help me by telling me, “Honey, I’m sure you don’t realize it but you are sounding really snippy right now.” And hopefully, I will respond to that and tone it down. I told him the only time I actually FELT snippy was when he was giving me instructions what to say to the corporate office, as if I was too stupid to know on my own. I told him it made me feel like he thought I was an idiot who needed everything explained to her when he did that.
So we talked it out and calmed down and prayed together. We learned (after being married for 28 years!) that he hates my pizza place and I love the white sauce pizza only available at my pizza place. After a while we were looking through websites planning our upcoming long weekend with close, inexpensive activities. I was really enjoying showing him the ideas I had been gathering, and I was really enjoying us not being mad anymore!! But I was way, way past being hungry, and way, way past being tired, and I was starting not to feel very well. He sits down to his cold burritos, dipping them into sour cream, and eating his salad. My system isn’t too favorable about a taco salad, so I whip up some couscous and stir in some cheese and reheated vegetables. Bryan tells me he actually likes the plain burritos with our own sour cream better than the supreme! I’ll have to find out what else they put in that he doesn’t miss.
Pizza at Last
But the pizza saga isn’t over!! After work, I call up the pizza shop and explain what happened. The manager says they recently upgraded their online ordering system and it has been having some issues. She was very apologetic about our experience. She said she couldn’t track the credit card transaction to stop it but they would be happy to replace the order at any time we chose. So I finished my errands and collaborated with Bryan and we set a time.
He went to pick it up but he was very disappointed with the order. I told him that I had purposely downsized our order since we usually wasted the leftovers, but he was still unhappy with the small size of his pizza. Then I realized that they had made his the small and mine the medium! I didn’t have it in me to complain again! And surprisingly, Bryan didn’t argue!
What was your last marriage fight about?
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