A few months ago my Dad was in the hospital about to be taken to a different hospital several hours away. My mom was at work and could not get away so I told her I would go to their house and pick up a few items for him before they moved him.

When I pulled in the driveway I saw a guy knocking at the house next door and didn't think much about it, but somewhere in the back of my head I was thinking "salesman, must get out of house before he gets here". It didn't happen. Just as I finished grabbing the last item and putting it in a bag I heard a knock on the door, I had no choice but to answer it since I needed to move in that direction to leave anyway. So I open the door and there stands this young guy (maybe 22) and I knew it was one of those magazine sales gigs, but he starts off with...

"I'm soooo hungry, could you spare a...."

and I just looked at him as he switched gears and said

"I'm just kidding actually...." and I cut him off saying

"Look, I don't live here actually I'm here picking up some things for my Mom because my Dad is in the hospital, and I'm actually in a hurry and need to leave."

Evidently all he heard was "I don't live here" because his response was:

"Well that's ok, you can still vote for me and help me win a trip to..."

I repeated what I had already said about needing to leave and he interrupted me telling me something about some project for a Communication class. DING DING!

"Well, if you are studying communication then you need to pay a little better attention because the #1 part of communication is listening and you obviously weren't listening when i said that my Dad is in the hospital and I need to take these things to him."

That pissed him off a bit and he went on to tell me how I was the most rude person he had encountered that week. I then pointed out that wasn't it rude to not actually listen to someone when they tell you that their family member is in the hospital and need to leave.

Wow if this is what they are teaching in Communication class... I'm worried.