So yesterday I took my mom to town so she could buy groceries to prepare for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. All in all, the trip into town and driving around was the most frustrating part. I fear that the craziness of the holiday shopping season was already quite evident at the store I went to. It kind of threw me off - as I didn't expect certain people to be so vindictive, at least not so soon before Thanksgiving. Then there was the crazy drivers in and around Marquette that made me nearly lose my mind. Which is why I don't venture into Marquette too often anymore, unless I absolutely have to get something or I plan to make several stops. No more joyrides for me anymore.
Our first stop was a trip to the grocery store. Instead of me tagging along with my mom, I dropped her off and I ventured to the nearby big box home improvement center. I have had my eye on buying a new lava lamp for my house. I kept one at my parents house, but eventually it quit working and my mom threw it out. The other one I had at my apartment broke during the move to my house. And I've always liked the look of lava lamps. The home improvement store was having a big sale on lava lamps, so I picked up two; one for my mom and one for me. As I strolled through the store, I heard one woman ask for assistance locating a certain item that was on sale. No - "asked" isn't the right word. She was downright rude in the way she addressed the salesperson. Apparently she was misdirected by another salesperson which obviously lead to her frustration and lashed out at this other defenseless salesperson. Needless to say, he lead her to the right direction and she found the item she was looking for. I continued to go on my merry way and I proceeded to head to checkout. Don't you just love it when practically everyone else in the store decides to go and checkout at the same time as you? That's exactly what happened in this instance, and with only three checkouts open, things were getting very backed-up. Well this same woman who was bickering earlier also needed to checkout. It appeared she was with a daughter, as she was younger than the woman. I'd say their ages were 60 and 40, respectively. Well, seeing the long lines at the checkout must've really made her blood boil. She abruptly put her item on the floor next to a shelf and walked right out, muttering to herself along the way. Honestly, how rude can you get? All you have to do is have a little patience. It wasn't much longer before two additional checkout lanes opened up and things were moving again at the front of the store. But that's how some people respond to situations like that, and they may even say that they won't step foot in that particular store again. Yet you know they will.
So after exiting the store, I walked towards the car carrying my two bags of merchandise. I popped the trunk of the car open and placed the two bags over to the left side of the trunk. Suddenly I got totally distracted - the car on my left, with two passengers, was just taking off. Meanwhile, the car on my right was just arriving. In that vehicle was an Asian couple and they were fiddling around with stuff in their car. Before long, out came a stroller. Unbeknownst to me, I dropped the keys to the car in the trunk and slammed the trunk shut. I was ready to enter the car when I started to feel around in my pockets for the keys. They weren't in my coat pockets, so I tried my pants pockets. Not there either. I didn't totally remember dropping the keys in the trunk, but then I kind of figured out what happened. Then the realization came over me - I was locked out of the car! Now, this isn't the first time something like this has happened to me. But still, knowing that the keys are inside the trunk and there's nothing you can do about it really leaves you with a sour taste in your mouth. So I had to figure out what to do next. My two options were either go back in the store and try and call for a locksmith or take a hike over to the grocery store where my mom was at and hope that she had the extra set of keys for the car in her purse, and then hike back. And needless to say, this isn't exactly an easy walk. The highway between the home improvement store and the grocery store is the busiest in the Upper Peninsula! Regardless of that fact, I pressed on and started walking. At first I didn't know if it was the smartest decision, but the closer and closer I got, I knew it was the right pick.
The distance between the two stores is probably three quarters of a mile. However, I wasn't walking a straight line. So it probably ended up being around a two mile trek round-trip. I told my mom the situation and yet, she wasn't sure if she had the extra set of keys. Yet, to both of our relief, they were in her purse. She was ready to checkout at the grocery store, so I told her to take her time. I ended up having to cross four lanes of busy highway traffic four different times; yet there was enough of a gap to take a dash across the road. By the time I got back to the car, I had worked up a pretty good sweat! I was relieved the keys opened the doors and when I went to look in the trunk, sure enough; the keys were right in the very front of the trunk. Honestly, I was glad to get out of there and continue on with our day.
Needless to say, it wasn't a typical shopping trip for me and my mom, although she probably had far less stress than I did. It just goes to show you that it's easy to become distracted and do something foolish. I used to have a car where I'd tend to leave the headlights on, which would cause the battery to go dead. Or I'd lock the keys in the car. That car was a magnet for troublesome situations like that. But then there was a time when I locked my keys inside the car I currently have and it was still running! I ended up having to get a wrecker out to my car, which was at work, and open up the car for me. The car ended up running for a good hour at least before the wrecker came. Good thing I had enough gas in it to drive back! These are all instances where at the time, you wished things would've worked out better. However in the end, at least you can look back on them and laugh. And I can laugh about yesterday's incident at least.
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