I have had to make three traumatic trips to Walmart this week. It is a source of amazement to me how any Walmart you shop at seems to be the epicenter of incompetence. In the not so distant past, shopping after midnight in Walmart assured at least a certain level of service and no waiting in a massive line. That has gone the way of the dinosaur apparently...last night there were--count'em--30 people in two lines. I felt gray hairs sprouting as I stood there trying to decide if I really needed my items. The answer was yes, so I very impatiently tapped my foot along with my 29 companions. Thankfully, registers magically started opening so I guess the Walmart fairy was having a charitable moment.

The local Walmart is approximately 5 minutes away so it is convenient distance wise to go there. It never fails, though, that I have the local Wal-mart Weirdo follow me around. I had three of the them trailing (and leering) after me on Monday night. No subtlety there...they frantically made eye contact with me and swung their cart around and nosed down my aisle. Now, I know you guys are paranoid about tampons and female products so it was not the aisle they would have willingly chosen for themselves. I can't imagine what they busied themselves with...I guess I should have paid more attention. I was waiting for the opening "question"...

"Excuse me, miss, is Super better than Slender?" or "What do you think of Summer's Eve?"

Seriously, these nutjobs followed me all through Wally's world. Maybe my J-Lo top was a bit more cosmopolitan than they are used to seeing or my short messy do was intriguing, but still....

And whatever happened to shopping cart etiquette? The average aisle will fit two carts with some careful manuevering, but no, you get those rude people who stand in the middle of the aisle with their huge honking cart taking up all the space. All the excuse mes in the world is not going to penetrate the "All About Me" zone these people are in. Even in Wally world, my manners come up--please & thank you. I would make my mama proud. She drilled those things into me at the threat of death and I manage to bleet them out even under the extreme duress Wally's world causes me. Most people look ready to spit bullets when you say excuse me though. Perhaps they have been stranded and wandering lost in Wally's world for many days...I guess I should be more compassionate.

Joseph's birthday is the 23rd, but we are doing multiple days of celebration. It has been years since he celebrated his birthday and had people make over him. Last night was the Italian feast celebration. Mandy gave him some chocolates. Today, per his request, we are having a birthday party at Chuckee-Cheeeze complete with a Pirates of Caribbean cake. Monday, he & his best friend are going out to do who knows what and then Tuesday he is all mine. I have not decided what that celebration is going to include yet. I am thinking romantic, but who knows???

I met Joseph's older sister. She practically raised him and man does she have stories...like the time he started a fire at age 3 or ran away with his 2 year old brother at age 4. He was apparently quite the handful. At one point during dinner on Thursday nite, Joseph and Mandy were shooting peanuts at each other after dinner and Debbie strongly reprimanded him (I guess old habits are hard to break). Well, the look of pure unadulterated mischief and happiness on his face was a delight to behold. I wish I could capture that look because that is the man I am deeply attracted to and it helps me to focus on that when his OCD ways are driving me a bit batty. It really works best for our relationship that we have two separate abodes...he is a super neat freak with every scrap of paper having its place and me...I have comfortable organized chaos. If something doesn't get put away, I certainly don't lose sleep over it, whereas, Joseph does. When we are in his world, I respect his nit-picky, extremely particular rules and when we are in my world, he manages (with great effort I am sure) to just go with the flow.

Anyway, a great weekend to you all! I have some blog reading to catch up on.

Labels: birthday, Joseph, OCD, psychos, shopping, walmart