Unexpected

Sometimes the most unexpected things happen in the most hum-drum places. In the past week, I have had two eventful grocery store visits. I may or may not be over-representing the excitement of these times as I do tend to live in the library/at my desk (when I need too many books to bother carrying them all to the library) these days.

Incident #1.

I ran into the grocery store "real quick" to buy a couple of items, and much to my dismay, the three open registers were simply not sufficient to handle the volume of late-afternoon customers. Annoyed, I chose a line and prepared to spend the next 10 minutes being annoyed at the line length. Not 2 minutes later, I heard strains of a rather heated conversation behind me. Basically, 2 registers right next to each other were open, and for some reason a few people decided that it would be best to form one line and [ski lift line style] "merge" as they came to the registers. Well, obviously someone came who did not get the memo and accidentally cut in front of the "one line-rs". One of which, naturally (in a heated tone) informed him of this. Well, that was just too much. He was quite affronted by the accusation that he had violated some sort of unknown agreement and defended himself vehemently ("Hello Mädel! If there are two registers open! Then we can certainly from two lines! ! !) Of course that is when the boyfriend stepped in. With a look like he was trying to eject his eyes out of his head, he got right up in the line-cutter's face. (insert a string of not so nice slangy German words here). It almost came to blows. Way intense. Suddenly, I realized how incredibly rediculous it was that everyone was so worried about saving 2 minutes of waiting in line! Honestly! The rediculous argument made me stop and check my own attitude and realize that my two (or ten, whatever) extra minutes in line could be better used than by being frustrated. There are so many nice things to think about and observe, not to mention thoughts concerning my papers / oral exam topics / lesson plans to sort out. So, new attitude - hooray!

Incident #2

You know those times when you "bop" into the store just to pick up a few items. You don't need a cart! You're only buying 2 things, 3 tops! And by the time you make it to the register, you look like you are auditioning to become a circus clown balancing act. This was me yesterday. [Oh, I forgot, I totally need tomatoes ... and cheese ... do I have any rice cakes left? better buy some to be sure ...] I knew I could get all the stuff home, I just had to make it to the black band at the register to relieve my precarious load. Then it happened. I dropped a bag of lettuce ("oh thank goodness, it wasn't the cream - that would be such a mess!") A nice girl behind me (seeing my plight) quckly bent to retrieve it. Then I took a step forward. I lost the rice cakes ... And then the cream ... bent to pick that up - still intact! thank goodness! - and dropped the pasta. Finally, the girl behind me offered to hold a few items until I made it to the register. We all need help sometimes. And although I felt pathetic and slightly inept, I was thankful for the kindness of strangers, who held my things and resisted laughing out loud.

I wish you some unexpected happenings in the most mundane of places! ~love~