To the most likely gay man in aisle 12...

this is dedicated to you :)

Some days just are going to fall into a perfect mess. I'm okay with that. What I don't like, however, is the random commentary from strangers.

I'm on the fast track through the grocery. Robert is sobbing and refusing to sit. Zoe hits him, he hits her... back and forth goes the beautiful play of siblings.

We nearly make it through the store. Robert has nearly stopped crying (He was mad that I insisted on saying SORRY when you KICK your sister. Inhumane of me, I know.)

And then, Zoe knocks a jar of spaghetti sauce out of the cart. Oh joy. Of course it shatters and splatters. I walk to the end of the aisle to ask the employee to call for clean up.

Enter the gay man on the phone. He starts shouting at people, waving his arms, to keep them from running their carts through the splatter mess. Now I have to wonder, how could you miss a giant pile of spaghetti sauce on the floor and why would you want to walk through it? But nice of him to warn the general public I suppose.

I walk back toward the mess with the employee who tells me she will stand there until clean up man comes.

Phone guy says, "Ma'am (with tone of distaste) are you planning on telling someone about this?"

Me, "I just did." (And the lady is standing there.)

Phone guy, " Because I've been standing here (all of 85 seconds sorry I was so slow), keeping people's carts out of this FOR YOU. So if you're not going to wait here until someone...

Me, "Sir, I JUST TOLD THEM. SHE IS RIGHT THERE."

Phone guy, "Oh, I've been standing there for you..."

Wow, um... Good thing my wits are completely numb from the 45 minutes of screaming I've just endured. Now, I'm not sure. Perhaps he would have preferred I clean up the broken glass with my hands? Or I should have stood there and guarded it, with my two small sobbing children? Or even better, MAYBE I should have left my cart there, with the 2 small children guarding the mess. The two children that regularly hurdle out of the cart. Now, that's a GOOD idea!

THEN, he gets back on the phone and says, "I tell you, being back in the general public is tough."

Perhaps wherever he was, they couldn't eavesdrop? Perhaps he was staying with his royal family in Europe where he did not go where the commoners were, like grocery stores.

Either way, I'm thinking that if dealing with me and a jar of spaghetti sauce is tough, the guy has a rough ride ahead of him. I realize I'm spicy, spunky and several other adjectives that I won't use here. But thank you for saying that sir, really made my day.

I would like to give some brownie points to the lady who stopped me on the way out and said, "You handled that better than I would have."