“It’s always something and nothing’s ever easy.” I seem to
be saying this on a daily basis lately. It just really is always some problem
that lands in my lap. Then when I try to do something about the problem, it never
ends up being as easy as it should be. I’ve come to accept this for the most
part, but man, some days seem to lay it on pretty thick. Today was one of those
days.
I could talk about several little things throughout the day,
such as the heavy fog on the way to work, getting food on my pants, breaking an
expensive necklace when I leaned over to get something in my car and it caught
on the parking brake lever, and other such headaches, but I want to focus on
the worst part of my day, which involved Walmart and my purse.
I simply needed a few toiletries at Walmart. It was supposed
to be a quick trip in and out. I had a few coupons for specific brands, but I
didn’t think that would matter much. I went to a fairly new Walmart and when I
walked in, I quickly realized that it was organized in a much different way
than I was used to. I headed to where I thought the makeup and hair stuff would
be, but found garden supplies instead. I headed to another side of the store
and found electronics and pets. I finally found what I was looking for, but
every attempt to get through an aisle was made more difficult by the two or
three carts and people in my way.
Once I reached the items I needed, I then had to find the
brands that matched my coupons. And of course someone always needed to get by
me or look at the same items I was looking at as I was trying to do this. I was
getting hungry and irritated, but I was still okay, because I knew I had some
leftover homemade vegetable soup at home waiting for me. I just had to get
home.
Next, I went to check out. It was then I that I discovered I
had dropped a $1.00 off coupon somewhere in the store and I accidentally ripped
the barcode on another. The barcode thing meant the cashier had to key it in,
making it take longer. I finally left, loaded up the car, pushed the cart into
a corral, and went on my merry way. Vegetable soup, here I come.
About 15 minutes into my hour drive home, I remembered that
I still had my phone on vibrate and decided to turn up the ring volume. I
looked on the passenger seat for my purse, but it wasn’t there. I was on I-75,
so I couldn’t thoroughly look in the back until I reached the next exit. When I
was able to stop at a gas station, I looked everywhere, but it was no use.
My purse was in a shopping cart in a Walmart parking lot 15
minutes away.
Panic mode set in. I decided to call the store, but I didn’t
have their number or my cell phone. I went inside the gas station and asked for
a phone book. The new Walmart wasn’t listed, so I had to call another Walmart
store and ask for the number, but I didn’t have anything to write it down, so I
had to ask for a pen and paper. I then called the right store and answered
several questions, including my name, address, what the purse looked like,
where I left it, etc. I waited several minutes while they searched for the
purse. I prepared for the worst and wondered if a surveillance camera would be
able to catch the person who stole it. I was definitely kicking myself for
being so forgetful.
The woman finally came back on the phone and let me know
that it was there. Whew! She told me to go to Customer Service to claim it. I jumped
in my car and headed back to the store. When I arrived, there was a line at the
Customer Service Desk, so I waited as patiently as I could. When it was my
turn, I asked for my purse. The employee asked for my name and address and then
used a walkie-talkie to call someone else. He told me to go to Register 12, so
I went there. At that point, a woman asked me for my address again. I told her
and she said that my name and the description of the purse matched, but the
address was different on my license, so they couldn’t give it to me.
“Oh, that’s because I moved a while back. I changed it with
the DMV, but they didn’t give me a new license.”
“What was your old address?” she asked.
I told her my old address, but she still wasn’t convinced.
She went into an office and asked someone in there if I could get my purse. She
came back out and asked for my date of birth. I told her and she went back in.
I don’t think I need to tell you how irritated I was getting
at this point…and I am not easily irritated. I was so hungry I was getting the
shakes. I just wanted to get my dang purse and go home, but I was being treated
like some sort of criminal. Why would someone pretend to be me to pick up my purse?
Why was my PHOTO ID not good enough? I know I look like my license picture. I
appreciated the extra security measures to make sure not to give my purse to
some random person who might have spotted it in the parking lot, but c’mon, let’s
use some common sense here.
She came out holding my purse and said they would let me
have it back. When at last I was reunited with my purse, I checked to make sure
it was all there. I then checked my phone and saw that I had missed a call from
my husband. I called to tell him I was going to be about two hours later than
usual and then started my hour-long drive home all over again.
At least it would have been an hour if my low fuel light
didn’t come on and I didn’t have to stop and get a gallon of milk at a separate
store, because Walmart was too far away for cold groceries and I forgot to get
milk at the gas station. Then when I reached in the cooler to get milk, I saw
that the sell-by date was four days away on all of them except the milk in the
very back, which was 14 days away, so of course I had to take a bunch out to
reach the new milk and put it all back.
When I finally reached the back door of the house with
armloads of things, I almost stepped on a bloody, severed mouse head left by my
thoughtful killer kitties.
Like I said, it’s always something and nothing’s ever easy.
So the next time you’re having one of those days, just say this little phrase
with a chuckle and realize that you are not alone. It happens to all of us.
