She strolled by, up and down the cheap linoleum aisles of Wallyworld in search of kitty litter in case the Storm of the Century actually materialized and dumped a metric ton of snow on her insanely steep north-facing driveway.
She’d been to the gym.
Plenty of sweat in plenty of places.
Hair completely out of place.
The gray hoodie around her shoulders did nothing but wash out her skin tone (and keep her warm).
But with gas prices creeping near $4 a gallon, a trip into town is a trip into town and efficiency is key.
So, with feminine hygiene products perched proudly in the child seat area of the cart, she rounded the corner and headed down the pet food aisle toward the kitty litter display at the back of the store.
In slow motion, at the end of the aisle, she looked left, then right, then left again. Driver’s Ed lessons applied to the aisles of Walmart.
On the first look left, she saw him.
Cute.
Then a look right.
Traffic’s clear.
A second look left.
A half smile exchanged between them.
And the kitty litter was to the right.
After careful selection (i.e. Which one of these crappy bags of rocks is the cheapest because we just need to DRIVE over it?), and the ultra-feminine act of hefting a 30 lb bag of pellets designed to absorb cat pee into her cart, she turned the cart toward the exit.
Once again, the cute shopping man was there.
A full smile this time.
Not laughing. Not condescending.
Just an apparently genuine smile.
And then the irony: on the day that you look most like crap, with a cart full of feminine hygiene products and cat litter, you’ll see a cute one.
Yeah. That.
Sigh.
Photo credit: ortonesque on sxc.hu
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Story of my life my friend!!!
Alexa recently posted..Have Your Voice Heard
Yep. It’s when you the cute ones, and also when I see the one person from HS that will run back to the grapevine and tell everyone how I’ve let myself go.
You know what’s saddest about that? That person wouldn’t run back to the grapevine to report on how fabulous you looked…they’re all about tearing things down, not building them up
Always! This is the Murphy’s Law of looking like crap – ex-boyfriends and high school rivals. Always.
Kathy at kissing the frog recently posted..Nine Lessons I WANT My Kids to Learn From SpongeBob
I know, right? When I take time to look decent, I never see anyone I know!
That’s life!
PS. I’d never thought of using cat litter as grit, thanks for sharing.
idiosyncratic eye recently posted..A Domestic Month
aah, but you looked like that and he -still- smiled at you. maybe he isn’t shallow? lookin’ on the bright side
So true! And I’ve come a long way…in the past, I’d have ducked and refused a smile. Maybe next time I can actually say hi?