Snap Out of It
So I've been feeling pretty awful for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is because there is no internet or phone service at work right now. We have to use cell phones to communicate with the outside world. The only time I can access my email is via my phone, and I shudder to think of the bill.
So I've been feeling pretty wrapped up in my own woe, which is not the way I want to be when I can pull my head out and think straight. And luckily I had one of those moments at the store.
Freakshow and I had been to the library--always good--and my fine this time was under 5 bucks, even better. So I was feeling pretty mellow. She and I stopped by the Enormo-Dillons, where we picked up some things to continue their lunches, and some laundry stuff, and things for tomorrow night's supper--white chili, mm, good. With fresh cilantro!
Well, Freakshow was just good as gold the WHOLE time (Kindergarten has really mellowed her out), and she pushed the little kids cart Dillons provides with alacrity. She was even helpful, putting the items up on the checkout belt.
Ahead of us there was a middle-aged woman (crap, just a few years older than me--maybe not even that much) with her daughter, and I heard her (I was flipping through a copy of Oxygen) telling her daughter about getting something packaged that cost more and had less in it--and she was decrying corporate America. I had to smile to myself, because I've had the same cynical conversations with my child. Her daughter noticed the caramel apples I had gotten for the girls' lunches tomorrow, and they were wonsering how much there were, and I unglued my head from the magazine to tell them they were only a buck apiece, So her daughter went off to get one, and the woman and I started chatting. Well, the chekcer started putting her stuff through, and her daughter stil hadn't come back. And she was telling the checker her daughter had gone off to get one, and they were a dollar, etc. So, not wanting her to have to wait, I said, "Here, take oneof mine, and then when your daughter comes back, she can just give it to me."
Wel, you'da thought I'd offered to pay for it. She looked so surprised. I told her she was welcome. When her daughter came trotting up with her apple, she told her what I'd done. It was a little wierd, but nice. We talked all the way through my check-out and into the parking lot, and she'd told me that what I'd done was commendable, as so many people would not have done what I did, that so many folks were so self-absorbed.
But it was just a caramel apple. I coulda got another. I always try to be nice in the check-out line. Still, being nice to someone else putme in a much better frame of mind, and I was able to end the night more or less successfully.