Takin' It to the Laundry

Started out a humid but cool and cloudy day with the Sondheim: Concert at Carnegie Hall show I dubbed last summer while I ate Honey Bunches of Oats for breakfast. I finally made it to the laundromat around quarter of 12. I didn't have a lot of laundry, so it didn't take very long. I read Stop Saying Everything's Fine while listening to CBS. The laundromat was pretty quiet, too. There were one or two people in and out, but it was mostly just me.

I went home, put everything away, and ran jazz CDs and Natalie Cole as I ate shrimp and a salad made with farm market-fresh veggies for lunch. As Natalie Cole wound down, I packed a ham sandwich and baggie of cherry tomatoes for dinner, changed into my uniform, and headed into a now-sunny day for work.

Ugh. I wish I hadn't. Work was insanely busy all evening long. We were short on help, too. A cashier and a bagger called out at the last minute. One family came through my express line and unloaded their huge, 200-dollar order before I could tell them they had too much. After all that, the mother ended up having Shop Rite gift cards she couldn't use in Acme. She'd gone to the wrong store! They ended up not taking that whole darn order.

Later that evening, another man rang up a much smaller order on his credit card. The card wouldn't go through. The man slammed his fist against the credit card machine, threw a temper tantrum, and took off before I could call security for wanton destruction of property. The Army recruit behind him was about ready to "take" him (in his words), that's how damn obnoxious that man was. If your card doesn't work, pay cash or use another card, and don't throw a fit over it.

I was so happy when the person in the self-checkout lane came in for me and I was able to get out on time. I don't think I could have stood it for much longer.