Really? REALY?!?!

I had the pleasure of running into another self-important person who felt compelled to go out of her way to make a point to me today.

Sigh.

I'll back up.

When I was a senior in High School, I worked for a year as a bagger in a grocery store.   Yep, I was the kid at the end of the line making sure your raw meat was in a different bag from your fresh veggies and splitting up the heavy and light items to make sure that your bags were of similar weight so that as you exited the store your shopping experience ended on a high note.  Heck, I even brought people's groceries to the car and loaded them all up.  And people were nice about it.  Some even tried to tip me, though it wasn't allowed.  A couple insisted, leaving the money on the cart.  Nice people. 

All in all, I enjoyed the job.  I got to hang out with the cashiers, chat with customers, and on two occasions, I was brought in to be a female witness for a couple of shoplifters.  Good times. 

One of the less desirable parts of the job, however, was retrieving carts.  I'd have to go out into the parking lot, round up all the scattered carts around the parking lot, and then push a huge row of them back into the store.  Granted, this wasn't so bad when the weather was nice, as I enjoyed the opportunity to get outside and move around a bit.

In upstate NY, however, summers are hot, and winters are cold.

Lets just say, I've paid my dues.

Now that I'm on the other side of the conveyor belt, I feel like I've got a few "gimmies" in my book that I can call on from time to time.  Usually, I park next to a cart return, and not only do I return my cart there, but I combine several with them, making it easier to return more there, and for the person retrieving them to, well, retrieve them.

Yeah, I'm cool like that.

However, there are times when I've got kids in the car and for some reason I'm not parked anywhere close to a cart return, and I just don't feel comfortable leaving the car unattended.  And I leave the cart.

Gasp.

I did it tonight.  I had a car cart for the littles, and we had to run home, drop off dinner for the hubs and pick up the big ones at CCD.  I pulled them out of the cart on one side of the car, ran to the other side to strap them in, and realized that someone wanted the space that was occupied by my cart.

Lets look at this.  I was parked in the second spot in the row.  The cart was in the first spot of the row.  The woman parked her Mercedes halfway between the first spot and the store in the main drivethrough area so that she could take my cart, walk it all the way down the aisle to the cart return.  Mind you, she could have brought it to the storefront which was only a few feet away and is where the keep the carts anyway, and, AND.... she walked past several empty spaces in order to get rid of my cart.

I couldn't believe it.  The hubs was just trying to tell me that she may have been trying to be nice, but I saw the look on her face, and it wasn't nice.

It just occurred to me, I should have thanked her.  Just to piss her off.   :)