You get what you get, please pull around.

The Taco Bell on Mayfield Road in South Euclid is absolutely notorious for lousy customer service. The food is exactly what you expect at the Bell--seven ingredients mashed together in a plan-o-gram way. But the service, well, now, that's what's wholly unexpected and always a treat. Sometimes your order is right. Sometimes they forget one little thing--with me, they always forget to 86 the tomatoes. Sometimes the essential-ness of the order is ok, but they screw up the details--subsitute hard tacos when you ordered soft. And sometimes, you get someone's order who may have gone through the drive through 10 minutes ago. You can never tell.

The kicker, tho, is that regardless of what you order, the cashier's attitude is always the same--that whatever comes out is yours. Don't bother trying to send it back, or fix the problem, or complain to the manager. They are not interested in what you have to say about what you wanted versus what you got. We had a joke about this for a long time--"You get what you get. $9.39. Please pull around."

For whatever reason, we think that when we become parents, that truism fails. You think, in your post-bringing home baby empowered glow, that you can control everything about your kid's future, from likes to dislikes to idiosyncrasies, because you got him this far, right? My child will love chocolate, and pickles, and will secretly favor the Rolling Stones ca. 1968 over the Beatles, same vintage. My child will be able to sing, appreciate the fact that staying up 20 straight hours with a crying baby is very hard work and thank you Mom for going the distance, and will always volunteer to help bring groceries in from the car.

I still think some of those things about my children, especially my oldest. However, she managed to throw a little wrench in my plans for her. And no, there's defiitely no complaining to the manager this time.

Ellie has autism.

$9.39.