New month, new stuff to write

I have so much to write about that I kinda dread getting started!

So I'll come back to our busy weekend and tell you about our trip to the grocery store today.

Biscuit is usually good in the grocery store. He says hey to everybody and wants everybody to stop and talk to him (I have NO idea where he got that from!).

But lately, I've had a hard time getting through certain parts of the store, namely the produce department and the baby aisle.

My Biscuit baby loves bananas. He REALLY loves bananas. So when I walk through the produce department, and he SEES bananas, he GOES bananas. He starts reaching toward them saying, "Eeee. Eeee," which is his way of saying that he wants to eat the bananas ... RIGHT NOW!

It does not go over well when I try to explain to him that we can buy the bananas to eat later, but we can't eat them right now. He can see them in the buggy. He can even almost reach them if he turns sideways in his seat. But they're just out of reach ... literally and figuratively.

I try to distract him with all the other colorful produce, but he just gives me the stink eye.

Then we move through the rest of the store, and he gets distracted by all the people and other stuff to look at.

On lucky days, we don't need anything from the baby aisle. On the unlucky days, we repeat the produce department performance once he sees the apple juice, puffs and all the other snacks he can eat.

How our trip to the store ends usually depends on who's in line with us and what the cashier is like. If the cashier and people in line talk to him, he's fine. He loves making new friends. But if he's stuck in his seat, in line, with nothing to do but wait, it doesn't take long for him to start getting antsy (I have no idea where he gets his sometimes lack of patience, either!).

Of course, sometimes when he's making new friends at the cash register, I get distracted and have to remind myself to pay attention. This happened a few weeks ago at Target, and I ended up stealing a watch.

I was looking for a dressy watch that looks more like a bracelet, and I found exactly what I wanted for $12.99. I was excited about it, so I put it in the buggy. Then I realized that Biscuit still had on his jacket. So I took it off him and dropped it in the buggy.

We did the rest of our shopping and when we got to the register, the cashier was making a big fuss over Biscuit, and so was the lady in line behind us. I was so distracted that I walked out of the store and didn't even know the total of my bill. I just swiped my debit card, punched in my code and waited for the receipt.

When we got to the car, I started loading the bags in the trunk. I noticed my new watch in the bottom of the buggy. Assuming it just fell out of one of the bags, I tossed it in with the other stuff, put Biscuit in his car seat and headed for home.

When we got home, I took the receipt out of my wallet to double-check everything. I usually sort of add up my purchases as I shop, but the total on the receipt was a little less than I thought it would be. I scanned all the items listed and realized that the watch wasn't on the receipt.

I took the watch and never paid for it. Then I realized that it must've been under Biscuit's jacket, and I never put it on the conveyor belt at the checkout counter.

I immediately started to panic. I was a thief! A jewelry thief! A $12.99 jewelry thief, but still, a thief nonetheless.

I called Target and told them what happened. It took several times to explain what had happened. The customer service rep thought I had paid for the watch but it wasn't in my bag. I said, "No. It's just the opposite. I didn't pay for the watch. I never took it out of my buggy. I thought it had fallen out of one of the bags but it hadn't. I never paid for it."

My voice was getting a little more frantic as I tried to explain what had happened. The voice on the other end of the phone was just as calm as she could be. "Just pay for it the next time you come in," she said.

I couldn't believe she was being so nonchalant about it. I guess she figured that if I was calling to admit what happened that there wasn't much reason to be upset.

The next day, I took the watch to the service desk to pay for it. Again, I had a hard time making them understand what happened. And then, once they figured it out, they treated me like a saint. They made a huge deal about how impressed they were that I came back to pay for it.

I know it sounds weird, but I got mad at them. Don't praise me for doing what I should do. I'm not being some selfless hero, I'm simply doing what I'm supposed to do. The odd thing is that when I've polled several people about what they would've done, I've had mixed reaction of people who definitely would've paid and people who say they wouldn't have worried about it.

So anyway, we've had some interesting times in stores lately. Maybe now that basketball is winding down for Jeff, I'll be able to do my shopping by myself, so I can concentrate on what I'm doing!