1/6/24

 Happy Birthday to my friend Melissa! We have been friends since the sixth grade!

Avery tells me I sound angry ALL the time. I am paying attention more and she is right. I am used to barking orders at the dogs all day. “Get off the couch!” “Drop it!” “No biting our friends!”  I think it has carried over into my everyday communication style. 

I try to be a patient person. Avery and I had to run into Walmart today. That is NOT the right venue to exercise patience.

I have the nose of a bloodhound. I can smell smells from across the room. Sometimes if the smells are too over bearing, it gets confusing to figure out what the smell actually is. One lady had rotten egg breath. 

There were a couple traveling together that smelled like stale butt hole funk.  Eww! Gross! Avery said that it was more like stale cigarettes. So, my nose was confused on that one. I just knew it smelled bad.

At one point I had a woman park her cart in the middle of the aisle while her friend, with a gaping mouth, was looking at stuff on the shelf. There was no social awareness. I waited patiently but it was apparent that they were unaware I was there.

I politely said “excuse me” and they apologized. The cart driver moved the cart off to the side. She just happened to be right in front of the items I needed on the shelf. I immediately had to terminate the rest of the trip. That was what pushed me over the edge. And they smelled!

That’s it! We need to leave immediately!

We hurried to a check out line. I was stewing internally but kept it held together.  This is why I do grocery pick up. 

As we were checking out, Avery saw a girl that she went to high school with. This girl was very friendly and worked at Walmart.

She had the gift of gab.  She started telling us all about her car, how she got it, that she had to go to the DMV and just had verbal diarrhea all over us while we were bagging things.

We finished, I paid and she was still talking. I noticed Avery’s body language was turned away from this person and it was evident she had checked out of the Conversation. But this girl was still going.

She was again so friendly, bubbly and animated when she talked giving way more details than necessary. And she kept going.

And going!

And going!

We all know a person like this. That just will talk your ear off if given the chance. 

This girl finally came up for a breath and we inserted our goodbyes politely. Off to the care we went! Wwwwooooowwwww! My ears were bleeding.🩸 

Avery and I recounted all the information that was spewed onto us. We compared details and tried to make sense of the story. “Whose dad was it that passed away?” And “whose car was it originally?”

We giggled over the situation as we walked to the car. I am curious about people like this because I am not one. I wondered if there was an anxiety component or loneliness component to the excessive rambling.

Did she just need someone to listen for 10 minutes?

After unloading our purchases, I retuned walked over to the cart return. It was cold out, snowing and the parking lot had mushy, dirty snow. As I went to return my cart, I ran into a lady the was maybe 10 years older than myself. She was headed into Walmart. Poor thing. “Would you like a cart?” I asked her.

She responded with “yes, thank you!” I proceeded to share “This cart is at least dry” as I handed the cart over. After the exchange, she put her hands on the cart and with a big smile says “this cart is warm too!” In such an excited voice. She happily walked off pushing her warm and dry cart. 

The small exchange erased the annoying trip. I commented to Avery how I just loved how that stranger just made my soul smile.

Avery came home and made tortellini with a homemade spinach and basil sauce. What a kid! I enjoy having her around!

There were only 8 eggs left with the