just say no!

so yesterday i am at safeway...i don't really care for safeway, BUT we were in the neighborhood NOT getting wingman's hair cut because once we got there, per his request i might add, he refused...a story for another day...

anyhow, there are some benefits to safeway...it's the only place in this godforsaken county i can get 7 day guadalupe candles and they have some wonderful organic petit frozen blueberries i can't find anywhere else...which sounds kinda snooty, i know, but when you're blending blueberries for a smoothie the big ones just don't cut it...

i dashed in by myself for one or two items...but the giddiness of being alone in a supermarket got to me so not surprisingly i ended up just under the wire for the 15 items and less checkout...

it's so freeing to stand and compare cost and value of say dishwasher tabs without a miniature version of broadway meets ultimate fighting going on behind you...see because one brand was on sale, but it was a cheapy kinda brand and i was concerned it would leave a residue on the dishes...then i noticed the brand i usually get was not on sale but DID have a 75 cents off coupon...so handy and it's just not the kinda of thing i would have noticed with the boybarians in tow...

so i head to the checkout and i am in one of those double lines...a checker on either side, shoppers and carts in the middle...it's kinda a tight fit and i am loading my items on the belt and i haven't even gotten the first item on when the checker calls to me

"do you have your club card?"

"um yeah, let me get these groceries on first"

so she's annoyed and just sighs...

okay, give a girl a chance why don't you!...you're in such a damned hurry why don't you move yer big old arse over here and pitch in!

so i get the groceries on and swipe my card and she says

"i see you have a 75 cents off coupon on the dishwasher tabs...do you want to donate it to the county girls soccer league or do you want to use it?"

whaaat?

"i'm going to use it"

and if this was something being played out on t.v. this would be the part where the whole store gets quiet and everyone looks at me...

well excuuuse me...but don't put a substantial coupon on a high dollar product and then ask someone to choose!...what is this survivor?...i chose that product because it had the coupon and represented a savings to me...sure i don't need the 75 cents, but it was the only reason why i chose that product...and i don't even know this county girls soccer league!...it's not even my town!...and i don't even HAVE girls i HAVE boys!!...and truth be told i don't think i even like soccer!!...

good lord DO NOT make the checkout a moral obstacle course!

the checker and the woman behind me just looked at eachother...

so we are continuing with the transaction and when it comes time to pay and finish up the checker asks

"do you want to donate one dollar to help fight breast cancer?"

and because i'm on a roll i breezily say

"no"

oh. my. god. now the people in the other line are looking at me too...you'd think i just drowned a box of fluffy mewing kittens one by one right in front of them!

what is this mcdonald's?!!...you don't offer stuff at the supermarket!!...this is not fast food or a department store or the gap!...this is a supermarket and it is a NECESSITY....food sustains life...in this day and age you can't just go out and spear a water buffalo and call it a day...one must shop for food in order to be able to eat food!...

and i don't care if it's some small town girls soccer league or breast cancer it's just wrong!!...if you have a jar with a sign or something like that that is one thing...but to just bombard someone with do you? will you? why not? everyone else is standing around watching and judging you you'd just be a bitch to say no! is just wrong...it's no better than peer pressure and mob mentality...

okay so i don't have girls and it's not my town and i don't think i even like soccer...BUT, sure i care about the fate of small town sports and obviously oh my god i care about finding a cure for breast cancer and any cancer for that matter...duh...but it's bad enough i've got to swipe a wallet's worth of cards to save $4.41 cents and do it at the speed of light or get attitude, i don't need the hard sell...and not once but twice!

and that's the express lane!...i don't even want to think what they've got going in the other lanes!

there is a time and a place people!...a time and a place...it's part of the social contract...or at least it should be...

i think i'm gonna have to stop going there...for good...my own home store just does not do that and i don't care if their prices are higher on most items and i don't care that i remind the cute young deli counter guy of his mother or when i go to weigh myself with the complimentary scale in the pharmacy there all of a sudden seems to be a huge crowd of people behind me all pressing in and craning their necks...

there is absolutely no push to do anything other than get my groceries and hand them my money...they don't even HAVE club cards!...plus there's free cookies at the bakery for the kids which buys me about 3.5 minutes of silence during my shopping...a better value i really don't know of...

/end rant.

todays $1 menu tao

emerging

thunder and rain at night.
growth comes with a shock.
expression and duration
appear in the first moment.

everything is as it is at the first moment of life...it's all there like a little syllabus...but even as we are predestined, there is always room for growth...and with life comes the potential for forceful and *destructive* events that bring shock and fear and devastation...yet with any event positive or negative there are always new opportunities for growth...

and sometimes the most devastating and shocking events pave the way for the greatest growth...sometimes everything needs to be cleared away to let the sun shine down and give the tiniest sprouts that we didn't even know were there the chance to grow and thrive...

x.