Where am I again?

Growing up when I would go out shopping with my mom I would get highly irritated with her when it came time to check out at the register. She always used checks. And she rarely, if ever wrote out the info on the check ahead of time. You know Date, the name of the place you are writing the check to and then signing your name so that you only have to fill in the amount when you actually get to that point?

We would be waiting in line and I would be thinking, "Get your checkbook out woman and start filling it out!" But I never said anything because I felt that it would be disrespectful. Not sure why. I 'm sure I could have phrased it so that she wouldn't have been offended so I just stood there rolling my eyes and tapping my foot at her.

Then when we would get up to the register she would wait until EVERYTHING was rung up before writing anything. And to top it all off I would see her pen wavering above the "to" part of the check and she would inevitably look up at the cashier and say "Now where am I again?" I would get SO irritated. How in the world could you not know what store you were in or where you were?

It's not like she had eight kids to worry about or a husband who was in and out of the hospital more often than she would have liked. It's not like I wasn't the 7th of those eight children and we all know how you lose brain cells with each child ;) . It's not like she was up at the crack of dawn every morning to make my dad's breakfast and lunch and to see him off to work and then get a hot breakfast for the rest of the family.

Flash forward 25 some odd years. I stand at the cash register I am tired and my kids (of which I have only four...half of what mom had) are either whining or crying and usually I am lucky enough to only have one or two of them with me at the time. My hand hovers over the part of the check where I am supposed to fill in the name of who the check is going to. My mind is a blank. Frantically I search my mind trying to figure out what store I am in. In some situations I desperately search some place for the name of the store so I don't have to look sheepishly at the cashier and ask "Where am I again?"

Karma, it'll get you every time. I have become my mother.

Angry Dancing

Did you love Footloose? Did you grow up with it? It was filmed in towns close to where I grew up so it was a blast to watch thinking I was "all that" because I had been to those places where they filmed.

Remember Kevin Bacons Angry Dance (<----LINK) in the warehouse? If you like that then you'll get a kick out of this....

What Would You Do?

Scenario...

You are in a store. It's a larger store lets call it "All-Mart". You are only there to grab a few things and then head on out. The things that you need are close by the power tool isle. You grab your few items and as you are walking back you take that power tool isle. Let's say you have a mouse sander and want to see if they have any sanding papers that would fit it. As you are standing there perusing the sandpaper and sanders a lady driving one of those automated carts comes by you, goes a few feet away and stops. You stand there still entranced by the many different little gadgets that there are associated with power tools, but alas there are no papers that will fit your mouse sander. The lady in the cart, in the mean time has started doing something somewhat strange. You hear this rattling noise, like plastic packaging being ripped open so you glance down the isle towards her and see her put a pair of little wire cutters down. You hear more ripping and notice that she is totally taking something out of it's packaging. Being dumbfounded that this person is doing this all you can do is stand there and watch in amazement at the brazenness of it all. After all you are standing only 6 maybe 10 feet away. The lady takes what ever it is that she has removed from the packaging and puts it into something else but you can't tell what. You are thinking "Well maybe she needs whatever it is right then and she will pick up the packaging and take it with her to the check out." Then she puts on the power and scoots on out of there, leaving the packaging behind. Being curious you walk over to see what it is. It's a mister that mists water out to keep a person cool so there really is no way she could use it in the store and she left the packaging there.

So if this were to happen to you what would you do? Would you say something to the lady as she is in the middle of opening the packaging? Would you go and find someone after the fact and let them know what you had observed? Would you have had more presence of mind and realized what she was truly doing and gone to find someone before she drove off in her little cart? Does her being in the little cart make it o.k. for her to do something like this?

What would you do? I wanna know. Spill.