The Rosas-Standring Family

We had a pretty good laugh yesterday. I took the kids up to Playa del Carmen for the day to help Barb and Shannon get into their hotel and we hung on the beach. We found a little spot and sat down and sent the kids off to play in the water. About 45 minutes later a much older woman and her 2 friends came and sat in the beach chairs they had rented behind us. After a few minutes of her bitching to her friends, she leans over to us and says "you know you guys, it was very rude of you to sit here right in front of us." Totally shocked that this person felt some entitlement to the whole beach I simply told her "mame, i am sorry you feel that way but you rented your chairs, you have your chairs, and beyond that you really have no say at all in where we sit." Barb and Shannon were pissed. It was funny to us all at the same time. I got up to go with Lena for a few minutes and this woman moves her chair and covers where I was sitting and all of my stuff. Determined to not let it bother me I said "mame, i am very sorry if we bothered you and disturbed your day." this is where I got pissed. Her response was "well, you did, my whole day is ruined." First of all - not accepting someones apology is just plain rude. all I could say to her is how sorry I felt for her as that is a terrible way to live. Then Barb and Shannon and I went on with our conversation. Barb asked me if a lot of people were like that. I said that Ruben and I have had the experience that people who come on vacation have some sense of entitlement to more then what is true and fair. She interjects with .." I live here. and that I should rent a chair." I told her I live here as well and sitting in the sand is no problem for me. She then suggested that I got to the public beach. I politely reminded her that I was a public beach and that there is no where on the beach that I would sit that would not be in front of someone- she said that that would be fine- but not her. So the real issue was she felt entitled and that her comfort or preference was more important the the other people on the beach. She then repeated that she lived here. I then told her that if she was from her she should be smart enough to not come to 10th and 5th on the busiest week of the year if she does not want people around her.

Not wanting to be around the very negative environment that this woman carried around her, we got up to get a bite. Many of the people around us were simply laughing at this woman who was being so rude and high faulting. I had a good talk with a woman near by, some jewelry store owner who splits her time between New York, Playa del Carmen and Mexico City (where her husband is from) After commenting on how beautiful and obviously special my kids were (which just made my day) she said that she wanted to get up and tell the woman to shut up and stop being a bitch but then she said to herself..."no, do not be a New Yorker" we both chuckled and I simply said thank you for the thought but that the difference between that woman and me is that she lives her life that negative and I simply do not have time for it. After we held back Shannon enough to where she was not going to bitch slap this woman... we decided to send the woman a drink. We sent her over a glass of wine, watched her try to see who had sent it and then I walked over and told her that we meant no offence and that we hope she has a better day. What I was really saying was ..."do you have any idea how much easier it would have been for you to simply be nice." She could have simply said to us in the beginning, hey guys, would you mind scooting over a little bit, we would not even have batted an eye lash. We would have happily moved over, but she chose to be a bitch. If there is one thing that I have learned from my behavior in my younger years and watching some of the people in our lives now, it is that these people do not approach things in a positive way. It is undercut, rude, manipulated and many times just plain bitchy. Oh well. Hopefully that glass of wine chilled her heart a little.

Moral: do not be bitch and always accept someones apology.