Old Friend?

Last night, I started to write a schedule of the next morning chores. General things; water plants, clean dog's water bowl, pick up groceries, etc. My mother and I planned to start at 5:00 in the morning so we could could get everything done early. Well, we both got to bed at about 10 PM and tried to get up at 4 AM, she couldn't do it... I got up at 4 and she set the alarm to go off at like 5 something. So while I was waiting for her, I stumbled around in the dark getting prepared for the grocery shopping. (This sounds like a lot of work just to go to Safeway, huh? Well, we have a long way to get to the good stores.) The long hot shower was nice, but I came out all pruney! I whizzed through brushing my teeth, well I didn't feel like brushing so I just rinsed with mouthwash, and began reading my new book, "I Heard the Owl Call my Name." This is one difficult book! I didn't have a chance to read much as my mom's alarm finally went off. She got dressed in an instant and we walked out the door, into the car we went. Drove down the road and we were stuck in traffic, the city was expanding the road. Luckily because it was early, it did not take long to pass. As we pulled into the parking lot, we looked at up in surprise, the front of the lot was all torn up! My mom said "Ahh... Now we can't park in front." We walked into the store and started at the produce department. We spent more time in just the produce than the rest of the store, that is not what we usually do. Anyways, when we got to the meat section, there was no meat in the shelves and the poultry was covered in plastic sheets. We walked around the meat, wondering what was going on, and headed for the frozen section. This very nice male employee greeted us and told us that there was a power outage. Mom asked, "How long did it last?" He replied with, "Well, from about 3 AM to 20 minutes ago. Ya, it was hard taking all the meat off the racks in pitch black." It was about 7 AM now and Mom and I both looked at each other in surprise. We ended our shopping with some ice cream, I chose Almond Praline and Cookie Dough. When my mom saw the flavors she said, "Eww... Cookie Dough is too sweet, but if it's what you want..." I told her to choose something else if she wanted to, and she did, she quickly put the Cookie Dough back and grabbed Slow Churned Coffee. As she did so, I asked if we could each get a donut, only one. She nodded to approve since she was paying for it. (I love it when she does that!) We went looking for the bakery and went to the wrong side of the store, we turned around and traveled back to the other side. When we got to the bakery the shelves were empty! Now, they were either empty because of the early time, or because of the blackout. Either way, my mom went up to ask if they were still baking when she recognized someone that she worked with just before she was pregnant with me. She mentioned it to me and I told her to say something to the lady. Now the surprising part is that we've moved far away from where she used to work and this lady must have moved too. When my mom asked the lady if she remembered her from the Safeway where she used to work, the lady replied with, "What was your name?" My mom said her name and the lady nodded, we could tell that she hadn't remembered. Well, we headed to the checkout line and my told me the story about the lady: They used to work at a safeway together about 16 years ago. One day their boss told my mom that he wanted her to work up front because she was prettier. Well, the lady overheard the boss say this. She did not tell me what the lady did, but I would imagine that she was pretty upset, for 1. the boss said my mom was prettier, for the second reason, working up in front at the bakery was a big promotion. After my mom was finished whispering this to me, I told her that it was a good thing she did not remember you. She nodded and we got back in line, donut deprived. She said, "I hope this doesn't come to over $221, it is all that is left in my bank account. Our cart is stuffed... Uhh oh." Well, guess what. The total came to $221. Luckily, my mom did not hand the club card to the cashier yet. The card brought the price down to $161, big discount. We packed everything into the car and headed to the nearest donut shop. This time they learned how to speak English, last time, they were speaking Chineglishees. We got one donut each and headed home. (What? No more donuts? One donut is just not enough!!!)


~Spray Guard