Thursday, March 1, 2012

getting groceries and getting ugly

Growing up my dad did all of the grocery shopping. In fact, he still does the grocery shopping. He is one of the only men I know who can be trusted to actually stick to the list and not come home with donuts, chips and some random type of meat. Of course, if there is a sale on ice cream then all bets are off, but for the most part, he goes in and gets what my mom has asked for.
When I was little, I would go with him to the store. It was our fun father/daughter time. I felt so grown up and helpful and I loved having my dad's attention all to myself. 
I'm not sure what happened but at some point I began to really dislike going to the grocery store. It became this huge time-sucking place that attracts the slow and the oblivious like moths to a flame. I'm all for taking your time and enjoying life. But I admit that I get peeved off when I get stuck behind someone who is shuffling through the grocery store and counting out change from their embroidered coin purse.
 And I definitely have an issue with the oblivious people. You know who I am talking about. The ones who park their cart in the middle of the aisle and then wander off to look at something ten feet away. A few weeks ago the woman in front of me struck up a conversation with the cashier. No problem. Except that she continued the conversation after she had already paid for and bagged her groceries. Did I mention that she was still standing in the middle of the lane? My groceries were already headed down the little conveyor belt and I couldn't even push my cart through. I said, "Excuse me please." And she looked at me and said, "Oh, did you want me to move." I replied, "That would be nice." And she huffed off. All she had to do was move out of the check-out lane and continue her conversation there.
The grocery store brings out my ugly side. The side that is impatient and judgemental. I don't want to give grace to the lady with her cart blocking the entire soup section. I don't want to wait behind the mom who is letting her child count the number of marshmallows on the Lucky Charms box. I just want to get my stupid groceries and go home.
In case you were wondering, I just got home from the grocery store before I started writing this post. I apologize for the ugliness but I promised to be honest and this is honest. This is me being ugly and small. It happens and I'm learning to notice it in the hopes that I will, one day, be able to change it. Today is not that day.

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