So I lived through the BIG one! Yep, all 5.9 sizemos or whatever they're called. Thought I was gonna die. Thought that some terrorist organization had dropped a bomb on Washington and was in a panic until I knew my husband was OK and it was confirmed that it really was what I said it felt like - an earthquake!!! In beautiful, pastoral Virginia of all places. Now, you west coasters may laugh at us, but it's just not something that happens around here with great regularity. In fact, never in my lifetime - the last one of any similar size having been in 1944 and the last one of that size to occur in Virginia was in 1897. And in either case, I'm just not that old! And I really can't believe that we've had "aftershocks". When we do have a tremor - which I have never felt here, they announce it on the news and we all go "huh!".
The first big aftershock happened in the middle of the night. I was sound asleep with the 80 pound golden retriever at my feet. He jumped up like a scalded cat and scared me so bad I had to get up and pee. Heart pounding, I returned to bed, he did a couple of turns, lay down, and went back to sleep. I lay there looking at my toes telling myself how much I really do love him. In the morning it was "BREAKING NEWS" that we'd had an aftershock at such and such a time. At which point I looked at him and said that it was as good an explanation for his rude behavior in the middle of the night as we were gonna get. I'm pretty sure there was one last night. We were watching T.V. and I was stitching. Things were relatively quiet except that I'm kinda hard of hearing and have to turn up the T.V. to hear it. Suddenly Buddy jumped up and began barking fiercely. Good lord! I jumped like a scalded cat!
As I told you, my husband's birthday is this month. We finally had a chance to celebrate this weekend. I was at the grocery store picking up what I'd need to create the culinary masterpiece he'd requested. I was in a hurry, getting home later than I'd wanted and still having places to go so I went to the self-check lane. Last summer I completed a training course on the self-check lane with my son. He was very frustrated with me, but I did finally succeed in showing him that I am trainable (darnit!). So I go through there pretty quickly now that I know what I'm doing. So I have this big tub of Greek yogurt in my hand, just about to scan it. I hear "Ma'am" "Excuse me, Ma'am". It's funny, I still don't think I'm old enough to be called "Ma'am" so I generally don't pay any attention. But, the self-check lanes were pretty deserted at that time so I kinda figured it was someone trying to get my attention. It was the cashier that stands at the kiosk to make sure you pay for everything. When I turned she began waving me over to the kiosk. I still have that tub of yogurt in my hand and I'm slowing walking over there, very confused, not knowing what she wants me for. However, I had brought my own bag so I was just piling my groceries on the scale with the bags to stop the annoying machine from telling me "Please Place the Item in the Bag". So, I thought she was going to chastize me for this. As I approach the kiosk however, she starts waving her arms like a madwoman and telling me it was my lucky day! Yippie!
There's another woman standing there - I assumed she'd been signing her credit receipt as I would be doing in a few minutes. She has a surprised/concerned look on her face. The cashier is still waving her arms. In one hand she has a sheaf of small papers. I begin backing away. This woman concerns me. She tells me to stop. I keep backing away. She starts to follow me. I said, my purse is over here - to explain why I'm backing away - which was true, it was sitting there on the self-check machine. But in truth I just wanted to get away from her period.
So she says "Oh, I'll take care of that" and like any good running back, she does an end-run around me, grabs up my purse, puts it on her shoulder and dashes back to the kiosk where the other woman is still standing. Her eyebrows are now up in the rafters! Me, I'm after her faster than a speeding bullet. And remember, I'm still holding that tub of yogurt in my hand. At that very moment I actually considered lobbing it at her head. My blood was boiling! So the cashier tells me that this other woman has just donated so much money to a particular charity which has earned her so many chances to complete and drop into the box for a drawing. This is apparently what the sheaf of papers in her hand was all about. In reality, her mouth was moving, but I was hearing "blah, blah, blah, blah" 'cause I was really seeing red now. She'd put her finger on one of my shopping pet peaves which I'll get to later.
Finally she drew breath and I pointed at my purse on her shoulder and said, "I'd like you to give me my purse now." I enunciated every word very slowly and clearly - I do that when I'm really p----ed. She replies oh, sure and turns her body for me to lift my purse off her shoulder. I'm still considering the yogurt. Then she attempts to launch back into my lucky day. I look at the other woman - still standing there - and I look back at the cashier and I said "I don't know what's going on here. Thank you, but no, I am not interested. Please give them to someone else." With that I went back to the self-check and finished my scanning and completed my order. However, at this particular store, you have to sign your credit receipt at the kiosk. I took my time packing my groceries in my bag - telling myself think happy thoughts think happy thoughts and finally turned to the kiosk. They were still there, both looking at me. One with concern, the other with this (sorry) stupid grin on her face. I walked up to the kiosk and asked if she had something for me to sign. She had my receipt and I signed it, giving her back the receipt and her pen; all very professional. I was just going to walk away. But then she opened her mouth and said she was sorry, she just wanted me to have those chances. Then the other woman chimed in about how she'd been in the banking industry for 30 years and she was so proud of how I'd handled myself and that she knew this woman who'd taken my purse and she couldn't think of anyone more trustworthy. I just looked at them both (trying to equalize "purse snatcher" and "trustworthy" in my head) and said "I don't know either one of you." Then, to the cashier, "What you did was very wrong and you should never do something like that to anyone again." I still wasn't quite sure if I wanted to lob that tub of yogurt at them - especially after the "proud" comment. But, I think in all fairness, that woman wanted to dig a hole in the floor and pull it in over herself - being appalled at what the cashier had done and was really just trying to find the best way out of a bad (for her friend) situation.
As I walked past the customer service desk I thought, all I need to do is go there and have them look at the security tapes. She would lose her job on the spot for what she'd done. I can be a real pissant sometimes. I was that mad, I considered it. But in this economy it's hard for people to find jobs so I didn't. It was hard. I was really mad. But, I told myself it was over, I had my purse back, I'd kept my eye on it the whole time, no harm, no fowl. I sure hope she learned something. And I'm sure that the two of them stood there and watched me walk past that desk and out the door - holding their breath the whole time. I think things like this happen to me because my soul still has a long journey to take through many lives ('cause I'm such a pissant). This was another one of those darned karma tests, I'm sure of it. Hope I got a good grade. My son, who works for the competitor grocery store around here was absolutely appalled that I didn't go to customer service and have her fired. But I think that was mostly bluster because I'm his mom.
And now we're dealing with the hurricane. In fact, where we live, there will be little effect. However, Washington will be another story. And I've had the news coverage on today as background noise while I worked on canning my tomatoes. I'm worried about Glenna in Richmond, Alice in Fairfax and Nancy who lives somewhere in Virginia. I hope you guys are all all right. And it's not going to be good for New York, Boston - New England in general either. So all you all that are in harms way, just remember that the thoughts of one who will eventually be a better person are with you all the way!
The first big aftershock happened in the middle of the night. I was sound asleep with the 80 pound golden retriever at my feet. He jumped up like a scalded cat and scared me so bad I had to get up and pee. Heart pounding, I returned to bed, he did a couple of turns, lay down, and went back to sleep. I lay there looking at my toes telling myself how much I really do love him. In the morning it was "BREAKING NEWS" that we'd had an aftershock at such and such a time. At which point I looked at him and said that it was as good an explanation for his rude behavior in the middle of the night as we were gonna get. I'm pretty sure there was one last night. We were watching T.V. and I was stitching. Things were relatively quiet except that I'm kinda hard of hearing and have to turn up the T.V. to hear it. Suddenly Buddy jumped up and began barking fiercely. Good lord! I jumped like a scalded cat!
As I told you, my husband's birthday is this month. We finally had a chance to celebrate this weekend. I was at the grocery store picking up what I'd need to create the culinary masterpiece he'd requested. I was in a hurry, getting home later than I'd wanted and still having places to go so I went to the self-check lane. Last summer I completed a training course on the self-check lane with my son. He was very frustrated with me, but I did finally succeed in showing him that I am trainable (darnit!). So I go through there pretty quickly now that I know what I'm doing. So I have this big tub of Greek yogurt in my hand, just about to scan it. I hear "Ma'am" "Excuse me, Ma'am". It's funny, I still don't think I'm old enough to be called "Ma'am" so I generally don't pay any attention. But, the self-check lanes were pretty deserted at that time so I kinda figured it was someone trying to get my attention. It was the cashier that stands at the kiosk to make sure you pay for everything. When I turned she began waving me over to the kiosk. I still have that tub of yogurt in my hand and I'm slowing walking over there, very confused, not knowing what she wants me for. However, I had brought my own bag so I was just piling my groceries on the scale with the bags to stop the annoying machine from telling me "Please Place the Item in the Bag". So, I thought she was going to chastize me for this. As I approach the kiosk however, she starts waving her arms like a madwoman and telling me it was my lucky day! Yippie!
There's another woman standing there - I assumed she'd been signing her credit receipt as I would be doing in a few minutes. She has a surprised/concerned look on her face. The cashier is still waving her arms. In one hand she has a sheaf of small papers. I begin backing away. This woman concerns me. She tells me to stop. I keep backing away. She starts to follow me. I said, my purse is over here - to explain why I'm backing away - which was true, it was sitting there on the self-check machine. But in truth I just wanted to get away from her period.
So she says "Oh, I'll take care of that" and like any good running back, she does an end-run around me, grabs up my purse, puts it on her shoulder and dashes back to the kiosk where the other woman is still standing. Her eyebrows are now up in the rafters! Me, I'm after her faster than a speeding bullet. And remember, I'm still holding that tub of yogurt in my hand. At that very moment I actually considered lobbing it at her head. My blood was boiling! So the cashier tells me that this other woman has just donated so much money to a particular charity which has earned her so many chances to complete and drop into the box for a drawing. This is apparently what the sheaf of papers in her hand was all about. In reality, her mouth was moving, but I was hearing "blah, blah, blah, blah" 'cause I was really seeing red now. She'd put her finger on one of my shopping pet peaves which I'll get to later.
Finally she drew breath and I pointed at my purse on her shoulder and said, "I'd like you to give me my purse now." I enunciated every word very slowly and clearly - I do that when I'm really p----ed. She replies oh, sure and turns her body for me to lift my purse off her shoulder. I'm still considering the yogurt. Then she attempts to launch back into my lucky day. I look at the other woman - still standing there - and I look back at the cashier and I said "I don't know what's going on here. Thank you, but no, I am not interested. Please give them to someone else." With that I went back to the self-check and finished my scanning and completed my order. However, at this particular store, you have to sign your credit receipt at the kiosk. I took my time packing my groceries in my bag - telling myself think happy thoughts think happy thoughts and finally turned to the kiosk. They were still there, both looking at me. One with concern, the other with this (sorry) stupid grin on her face. I walked up to the kiosk and asked if she had something for me to sign. She had my receipt and I signed it, giving her back the receipt and her pen; all very professional. I was just going to walk away. But then she opened her mouth and said she was sorry, she just wanted me to have those chances. Then the other woman chimed in about how she'd been in the banking industry for 30 years and she was so proud of how I'd handled myself and that she knew this woman who'd taken my purse and she couldn't think of anyone more trustworthy. I just looked at them both (trying to equalize "purse snatcher" and "trustworthy" in my head) and said "I don't know either one of you." Then, to the cashier, "What you did was very wrong and you should never do something like that to anyone again." I still wasn't quite sure if I wanted to lob that tub of yogurt at them - especially after the "proud" comment. But, I think in all fairness, that woman wanted to dig a hole in the floor and pull it in over herself - being appalled at what the cashier had done and was really just trying to find the best way out of a bad (for her friend) situation.
As I walked past the customer service desk I thought, all I need to do is go there and have them look at the security tapes. She would lose her job on the spot for what she'd done. I can be a real pissant sometimes. I was that mad, I considered it. But in this economy it's hard for people to find jobs so I didn't. It was hard. I was really mad. But, I told myself it was over, I had my purse back, I'd kept my eye on it the whole time, no harm, no fowl. I sure hope she learned something. And I'm sure that the two of them stood there and watched me walk past that desk and out the door - holding their breath the whole time. I think things like this happen to me because my soul still has a long journey to take through many lives ('cause I'm such a pissant). This was another one of those darned karma tests, I'm sure of it. Hope I got a good grade. My son, who works for the competitor grocery store around here was absolutely appalled that I didn't go to customer service and have her fired. But I think that was mostly bluster because I'm his mom.
And now we're dealing with the hurricane. In fact, where we live, there will be little effect. However, Washington will be another story. And I've had the news coverage on today as background noise while I worked on canning my tomatoes. I'm worried about Glenna in Richmond, Alice in Fairfax and Nancy who lives somewhere in Virginia. I hope you guys are all all right. And it's not going to be good for New York, Boston - New England in general either. So all you all that are in harms way, just remember that the thoughts of one who will eventually be a better person are with you all the way!
Geez, between the earthquake and the hurricane--what else?? I saw a tornado has also been spotted touching down in different places.
ReplyDeleteThe grocery store story--I'm just shaking my head. The store where I go is soooo devoid of customer service that I have twice sent in responses to the 'tell us how we're doing!' on my receipt. Bad customer service is a major pet peeve.
I'm not sure how far in from the coast you are--hope you don't get any property damage from Irene.
Goodness me what a week indeed!! Hope you can find time to relax this weekend. xx
ReplyDeleteThat was quite an eventful week. Hopefully this week will be better, once Irene has passed. Hope you're as far away from it as possible.
ReplyDelete