The Grocery Store

One wouldn't think a quick trip to the grocery store would be too interesting, but it can be. Tonight I went to get a few needed things (ice cream, badly needed) and the whole place was crawling with mini-shows. These are tonight’s highlights.

At the ice cream there was a woman who was opening up every door to look at each brand. Of course opening each door only fogged them up and no one could look through them, so everyone else had to open them too. She would pick up one, turn it around and around, squeeze it (?) and put it back. There was a small line there waiting for her to make a choice and get out of the way. Finally, she made a choice. None. As she was walking away, an older man in front of me turned around and rolled his eyes at me and started laughing. I laughed too. He was saying something about not believing that someone like that woman existed, yada, yada, yada... All I could do was laugh (he thought I was laughing with him) He had no front teeth and wasn't shy about it at all. Not just the top teeth but the bottom were also missing. It looked like the rest were there. I started thinking that he could put one of those tiny flashlights in his mouth, smile, and he would look just like a Jack-O-Lantern. That would be cool.

So I hurry to the checkout. I wanted to do the 'check out on your own' thing, but those lines there were amazingly long. Sorta defeats the purpose, so I chose the shortest line. Turns out the shortest line isn't always the best. There was only me, an older lady with the biggest diamonds on her fingers that I had ever seen in front of me and a young girl with a small child in front of her. Problem was the young girl was paying with WIC checks. The cashier would scan maybe 3 things, the girl would hand him the check, he would run it through the machine, sign it, give it back to her and she would sign it and give it back to him. They kept up this pattern for.....forever.

I attempted to leave for another line, but found myself trapped, so I just decided to wait it out. The whole checkout thing took at least 20 minutes.

During the WIC thing, the old lady in front of me was obviously annoyed. She was sighing so often I thought she would start hyperventilating. Then when she saw the checks, she started looking around and doing one of those harrumph sounds that people do when they feel put out by someone lesser than them. You know, the hand on the hip, nose in the air "Harrumph!" She seemed to be that type of person. I felt sorry for her. Judging someone you don't know is a sad way to live.

Finally I was through and started toward the door. A man and his son (I assume) walked out ahead of me. The son was gothed out. Dyed black hair, all black clothes including those huge bell-bottom jeans, spiked choker, silver spikes on his wrists and about a hundred piercings. As we headed toward the door, another man left a different line and headed out too. He was dressed in all camouflage, even a camo hat. When he saw Goth Boy, he stopped dead, put his hands on his hips and just stood there shaking his head. He started looking around like he wanted someone to join in with him in his disbelief that someone like that had invaded his perfect protected life. I just laughed at him as I went by, shaking my head. He started saying to someone behind me "Did you see that?” but I just kept going. I felt sorry for him too.

Can you believe the diversity to be found in just a short trip to the grocery store? I sometimes don't notice much of the things that are happening around me, but tonight I did. Some funny, some kinda sad. But at least it wasn't boring, and besides, I did get my ice cream.