Grocery Rage

Anyone else miss this show? I coulda been a rockin contestant.

I entered the store in a peaceful and sunny mood. The woman walking in with me was cheerful and friendly and made me smile. And the first thing I noticed was a scattering of cheese samples. Yummo! I practiced some self-control and only sampled one, tiny piece (way to go, sraa!*). Then I carefully made my way over the butcher counter to pick up some seafood and shellfish for dinner. Again, yummo!

The second I walked up to the counter, I could sense that an evil force was trying to wreak havoc on my serenity. A woman there stepped up after me, ignored the semblance of a line we had going, and elbowed her way up to the meat case. Unbelievable. (Is it just me or does SoCal's population have the biggest sense of self-entitlement going?) Lucky for me and nanner-nanner-poo-poo for her, I was making eye contact with the butcher as he walked up and asked, "Who's next?" Ms. All Elbows missed the boat as she was critically scanning the selection of meats in the case. Karma, baby!

After my stint at the butcher case, I was immediately bumped into by a person and then by a cart. This was while I was standing stock-still, trying to pick out some ground sirloin. And nary an apology to be heard. From there, it just went downhill. The store's aisles were littered with dropped (and squished) produce, screaming 3 year olds, abandoned shopping carts, and women with bad attitude written all over their faces. My hair is decidedly frumpy today, but that certainly shouldn't earn me ugly looks from the general public.

My only motivation to stay in the store - and not run away as fast as these pink paisley flats could carry me - was my huge annoyance with making multiple trips to stores. I knew that I had to stick it out long enough to at least gather ingredients for a salad. (And even then, the store was out of the greens I usually buy.)

It seems that today has just been one of those days. As Chiml was singing me (over IM, of course):**

It's just one of those days that a girl goes through
When I'm angry inside,
Don't wanna take it out on you.
Just one of them things.
Don't take it personal.
I just wanna be all alone
And you think I treat you wrong.
Don't take it personal
Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby.
Don't take it personal.


* sraa is yet another of my alter egos. I'm up to at least 3 named personae by now, so brownie points to you if you can remember the other names :)

** I'd embed the youtube clip for this song, but it appears that I've lost youtube connectivity along with my iTunes connectivity. The IT people here have no idea how ugly I'll get when I'm cut off from music.

Parking Lot Etiquette

Take 1. (Because I know for a fact that I'll sadly be forced revisit this issue in the future.)

Let me first apologize to those of you San Diego residents who truly are thoughtful and respectful and considerate. You do exist; the handful of you may even be my friend already, because I know for a fact that my friends are keepers.

This entry was spurred on by my lunchtime drive through a busy parking lot. The Ralph's parking lot over there is always chaotic at lunchtime, and I try to avoid driving through it if I can help it. But today, I was wandering aimlessly and found myself in said parking lot. To my huge annoyance, I watched drivers barely even pause for an old woman cross the parking lot. In all honesty, it almost didn't even count as a rolling stop. I was so completely shocked that my jaw dropped, and I returned to work fuming mad.

As such, I'm forced to jot down a few common sense (one would think) rules of parking lot courtesy. If only I could carry pocket-sized printouts of these to fasten to rocks and throw at people when they offend. I jest. Sorta.

The Rules, a working list:

1. Come to a complete stop for old people, and wait patiently for them to completely cross the road.


2. Ditto for pregnant women, women with strollers, and little kids.


3. If I have my blinker on to signal that I'm waiting for a parking spot, do not swervingly pull into it and pretend you didn't see me. Unless you are legally blind, you definitely saw me.


4. Don't even bother giving me your "courtesy" wave as you cut me off or steal my parking spot. I'm not fooled by your smile and hand in the air. In fact, I'd almost rather you flipped me off.


5. If you drive a minivan, give the same consideration to runners and bikers out there that you would to your precious child-cargo. You wouldn't burn rubber through a crosswalk if your kid were in it, so don't make me fear for my life while I'm running through one.


6. It takes more energy to heave your shopping cart onto the plant-covered median than it does to walk over and return it properly. You might burn a few more calories that way too.
   

I know I haven't exhausted all the stupidities of parking lot drivers. What others am I missing?