I took the kids to town this morning - we went to the library first and then to Sam's Club to start the grocery shopping. We had a great time at the library and everyone found books they were excited about. Scooter, especially, as she'd been looking for a particular book for a very long time and she finally found it this morning.
Then we went to Sam's and that's where it all started to go downhill...
First I crunched my thumb in the door of the van; don't ask me how, just know that I'm seriously klutzy and manage to injure myself in small ways on a pretty regular basis. So while it wasn't a major injury, it set the tone for our entire Sam's experience today.
The kids were getting a little out of hand, so I put Pookie in the seat of the cart and told Midge that he needed to have one hand on the cart at all times. Pibb had a little more attitude than I generally like in a shopping partner, but was mostly well behaved. Scooter was enthusiastic and eagerly ran back to grab the million and one things I needed from aisles we'd already been through. The Boy wandered off almost immediately to look at books and video games, so he was no help at all.
It was pretty early in the day so most of the "snack stands" weren't up and running yet. The kids love to shop at Sam's because there are almost always samples to be had. Today there were only a couple and none of them was stellar. Even our local bakery only had one kind (compared to the usual 6-8) of bread to sample - spinach feta. I loved it, most of the kids were ambivalent, except Scooter, who hated it. They were disappointed that they didn't get very many snacks and within minutes a chorus of, "Mom, I'm hungry!" could be heard throughout the store.
After what seemed like hours (but in truth was only about 50 minutes), we finally finished shopping and I steered our dangerously overloaded cart to the registers, being very careful not to knock loaves of bread or boxes of granola bars off the stack and onto the floor. The registers were surprising busy considering the very few cars in the parking lot. We waited in line for several minutes before a cashier opened another register and motioned us over.
Now, with so many of us and so many groceries, I've developed a system for getting things onto the belt and back into the cart without smashing the bread or eggs and while keeping all the items that will go into the coolers together. I like my system. It works for me. The cashier opted not to listen to me and when I told her that I preferred to do it my way, her response was a snappish, "Just give me the bread. I won't squish it!" She wasn't specifically rude to me during the rest of my transaction, but it was clear she was unhappy.
As we walked away I was thinking about how rude she was and how much it bothered me. On the way home I snapped at Mr. Wonderful (over the phone) about how much of a jerk she'd been and how upset I was about it. Later, I thought more about it and realized that yeah, she'd been a jerk, but I hadn't been much better. I didn't smile at her after she ticked me off, I didn't wish her a better afternoon or give her so much as a "have a nice day."
I feel bad about it. Because whether it's a long term illness of a loved one or just a lousy "I smashed my thumb in my car door" kind of day, everyone is struggling with something, everyone has stress and crap and personal issues to deal with. And everyone could use a random smile and kind sentiment.
Good thoughts, Rachel. :)
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