Just Not My Night

Last night was clearly not my night. I guess I can chalk it up to lack of sleep.

I did some running around with the mother last night, trying to ensure that we had plenty of everything in the house ahead of a cold front that rolled in overnight. (Apparently, so did everyone else as many of the shelves were already uncharacteristically bare.)

During one stop, my ear warmers disappeared. I walked the store again, checked customer service on the off chance that someone may have turned them in, but no dice. Bummer.

I was already uptight about that when I get a checker who is clearly among the most clueless I’ve ever met. Maybe it’s because I worked in a grocery store during college (one of my three part-time jobs), but I’m particular about packing groceries. Most of the time, I don’t have to worry because checkers usually understand that you don’t bag cold, wet items (like, say cottage cheese) along with a paper box of crackers or cereal or Tylenol. They also seem to understand that you don’t mix cleaning products with food items. Period. Ever. This gal understood none of that.

Then, she proceeded to argue with me informing me that I had not purchased a product corresponding with one of my coupons. In a case of adding insult to injury, instead of pulling up the register tape and then just keying in the coupon code, she turns to me and barks: “Well, can you find it?”

I was so ready to explode it wasn’t funny. Somehow, instead of completely losing it, I managed to mutter through clenched teeth, “Perhaps I could if there was some rhyme or reason to how these items were being bagged.” Now she was pissed. Tough.

After several minutes of rummaging, I was able to produce the item in question. Yeah. Read it and weep, baby.

Then we stop for food. In a drive-thru. My gloves had been in the trunk where the mother had placed them after I’d removed them and given them to her during the rummaging incident. I put them on while I was loading the car. I had to take them off to get money out of my purse. I figured they had fallen into my lap or at my feet when, on the way home, I failed to spot them. Again, no dice. They vanished.

So, in about 30 minutes, I managed to lose both a set of ear wraps and a pair of gloves – hours ahead of some of the coldest weather we’ve had in a decade. (We may go below zero. Today’s high is bout 20, but 20-30mph winds make it fee between 1 and 10.)

I was not amused. The good news is that I have other ear covers and gloves – just not in that color. So, in the interest of staying warm, I’ll have to be mismatched for a few days ‘til I can replace them. I managed to make it home without losing anything else.

It just wasn’t my night. Maybe someone who could really use them will find them.