Grocery Store Hell

The last thing I want to do on a weeknight is stop by the grocery store on my way home from work. I'm tired and hungry and all I want to do is get home. I'm nearly home tonight when hubby calls and asks me to go to the store to get milk. *sigh*

Sure I could go to the little corner grocer near my house but they don't have organic milk and I really don't want to buy anything else. I know...total geek.

So I turn around and head back down the road to Safeway. I nearly get creamed by oncoming traffic when I take a left hand turn...because the moron in front of me thinks it's okay to go less than one mile an hour when turning. WTH!?!?! I honk because seriously there was traffic bearing down on me. There had been plenty of time for me to turn after them if they didn't drive like my deceased 80 year old great-grandmother.

Okay...deep breaths. I get a decent parking spot and head on in. They have soda on sale...buy two get three free!!! Yes we are eating better and I'm trying to avoid chemicals and processed foods. But I cannot give up my Diet soda! Diet Tropicana Twister and Diet Mt Dew are my current loves. Great deal! Soda has gotten so expensive lately.

I find a few other things that look interesting (organic popcorn!) and head to the checkout. One line looked fairly short so in I went. Mistake! Never choose the shortest line if all the other lines are long. There is inevitably something wrong.

I had nearly finished unloading my cart when the cashier said the lady in front of me had run out to her car for something. Oh boy. I said that it was okay, figuring she couldn't take *that* long. I was wrong.

Not only did she take forever to get back she didn't even apologize!!! I understand that things happen - but for the Love of Pete if you hold up a line for that long say you are sorry! And so this girl (she was a girl...young 20s) with two kids taught them a good lesson. It's okay to hold everyone else up because the world revolves around you.

Besides the fact that she was paying with a welfare check. :( It bugs me ... call me insensitive but I work damn hard and seeing some girl with two kids (and a nice purse with a cell phone and name brand shoes) paying for her kids' food with a WIC check hacks me off. Especially when she clearly thinks that she is entitled. I would be mortified to have to rely on the gov't for basic food for my children. And I certainly wouldn't try to call attention to it by holding the entire line up (twice! She also had gotten the wrong kind of milk and it didn't qualify for WIC).

So now I'm ticked and feeling slightly guilty for being mad at her just for being on WIC. But I also remember the one time I was on gov't assistance. I was 21 and I had been fired from a job and was panicked because I didn't want to move back home. Two weeks later I had a new job and stopped accepting the checks (I think I even returned one extra that they sent...and never would have missed because they're so freaking inefficient).

But at least I made it home in one piece...what is wrong with people? Do they just forget how to drive?!? I really wish I didn't have to commute.

This is such a rambling rant...but I do feel better. :) Don't hate me for being frustrated with WIC. I just hate handouts. I would be fighting my butt off to get off WIC if I were forced to be on it. Though I am not against helping those who truly cannot survive - i.e. handicapped like my little cousin who broke his neck at the age of 14...though I have a feeling that as soon as he graduates college he'll get a good job and get off the public dole. It's just how we're raised. :)