This was an old journal entry from March 14, 2005:
Chris called me on my way home yesterday and asked me to pick up a few things for dinner. I did my typical stroll around the grocery store and grabbed his requested rice, beans, and Louisiana hot sausage. On my way to the rice and beans, I was summoned to some freshly made cinnamon rolls… and some bagels… and some ding dongs…
I stood in the frozen foods aisle and debated whether or not potato skins could be considered a meal. Potatoes, cheese, bacon. Mealish right? After thinking carefully, I decided that they couldn’t… unless I ate them by myself.
I finally finished and started looking for check stand. The ‘9 items or less lane’ was relatively deserted so I looked at my tiny basket and thought, ‘Surely there are not more that 9 items in there. I’m just here for rice, beans, and hot links!’ and started to unload my stuff onto the conveyer belt. One, two, ….Eleven, Twelve… Sixteen, Seventeen - do bagels count as one item or six? And what was the limit again? Quickly realizing that I was over the limit, I carefully stacked my items to hide the quantity. You know how you do it - you stack the 8 boxes of rice behind the 3 cans of beans. I glanced at the girl behind me knowing she was thinking, ‘One, Two…Fifteen, Sixteen…HEY!!!’
By that point I was embarrassed and felt awful about my complete lack of estimating skills. Who knew those ding dongs and bagels (which either counted as one or six) could throw me over?I finally get up to the cashier who stares at me and says ‘Wait a minute.’
...Just as I was about to throw myself to the floor, beg for mercy, and tell her what an accident it was she says, ‘I know you.’ I didn’t know whether to be relieved that she knew me and could grant forgiveness or embarassed that she knew me and may have thought I was ‘one of those people’.
I’m not ‘one of those people’!! I just can’t count!!
Come to find out, I know her daughter.
Umm, Alicia. … yeah… you can tell your mom I’m sorry for being the 17 (23 if the bagels are more than one item) items in the 9 items or less lane.
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2 comments:
Try going through a twenty items or less with 19 items. It looks like a lot and even though you are under, people can give some dirty looks (it could also be the three kids I'm haulin'-not sure)
I always think of the Reader's Digest article where the checker replied,"So which 10 items do you want?" I'll pass on the embarrassment:)
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