excuse me?

Story I.

so tonight i went to giant to get my produce for our shindig on the 5th. most places aren't open tomorrow and i want to clean house tomorrow, so tonight after the rush was the best time. I went to giant, even though it's out of the way, because they have this scanner thing you can ring all your groceries up yourself as you go along and then when you get to the register, they scan your club card and you pay, saving a lot of time, and i get to bag things myself, which is a plus. Teenagers rarely know the art of bagging food. One young man tried to put my peaches in a bag with draino last week.

Anyway, I'd completed my shopping and had it all bagged the way i wanted to and then got in the self-check out line. It's an open area with 4 stands. You're supposed to stand in a queue where the first person in the open area waiting is supposed to go to the first open machine etc. Today they didn't have the little "wait ehre" sign, but I'm well versed in this holding pattern, so I was chilling with MissM waiting my turn. The next slot opened up and here come this biotch out of nowhere starting to ring herself up.

Now, usually, i'd just let her go, but I've been having the periods to end all periods, I have a sinus migraine that won't quit, I was hungry and tired AND I already had to wait in line with a 2-y-o for more than I should have (Pawpaw and MeeMaw Clampet took forver to ring up their 4 watermelons and used 2 check out stands to do so. I'm not kidding!) MissM wanted supper and I wanted something cool to drink and some sinusPM pills, so I said "Ma'am, you cut me in line."

Was she polite? No, she responded with

"Well, you weren't in line at this register, how should anyone know that you were next?"

Really? because all of the OTHER people in line were in line behind me too, and we were all in the middle waiting our turn where the missing sign is traditionally.

She did move over to the side so I could have my turn, but she bitched loudly and long to everyone in line.

Whatever happened to "Oh, I didn't realize, I'm sorry, you go right ahead?"


Story II.

Oh and at the park yesterday, two little boy who appeared around 8 were throwing rocks. The park in my 'hood is usually busy, but I rarely see a kid being bad or kids without an adult so this was bad news.

I take a lawn chair with me so I can sit near where MissM plays. I've been to many playgrounds in the past year and haven't found one yet near me that has benches near the junglegyms facing in a direction to watch your kids. This is an easy solution for me.

Anyway, I was sitting next to a middle-aged couple who had a whole passle of kids with them (about 8) and we had a nice chat etc. when I looked up and saw some kids tossing rocks. I asked the couple if he was one of theirs and they said nope. So we started to ask around at the other adults in the area if those kids were with them. At this point, the kdis were in the bab/toddler area throwing rocks the size of apples. I had MissM with me and I started yelling at the boys to quit it and some of the other parents joined in. After 15 mins or so the boys kept doing it. Suddenly a car window rolls down in the lot, about 200 feet away, and a woman sicks her head out and shouts at the boys to quit it. The boys respond by finding bigger rocks and then proceed to wrestle as well as toss rocks. The middle-aged woman went nuts and stormed over to the car and let the mother know that if any of the kids were injured, she'd be sued and that when she brings her kids to the park, she needs to get out of her car, turn her phone off and WATCH them. Her husband stayed at the park to watch the kids, but we had a chat and he said "look at the mama, it's no wonder they're tossing rocks." I replied "look, we're lucky she didn't just drop them off for 8 hours and then come back" he laughed and said "you're right about that."

I took the time to explain to the kids I was now pushing on the swing (I always end up pushing every kid in the park on the swings!) that tossing rocks isn't the thing to do and if they do it, they have to go home. MissM seemed to take this to heart, but a few of the little boys seemed to think that tossing rocks must be great because those other boys had been doing it.

I was warned away from this park because it's so close to the ghetto, but this was the first bad patch i've seen and I've been bringing MissM to this place since last fall. But becasue it is so close to the ghetto, and I'm not trashy, a lot of the people won't socalize with me and I really have to go out of my way to get people to warm up to me. One woman explained to me that the only white people they know are the ones they work with or have to deal with via various government agencies. I laughed and explained that I wasn't from social services and I don't care if someone's getting a check for anything, I just want to take my kid to the park!