If The Other Register Had Been Open, She Might Have Gotten A 7-10 Split

Please excuse me. I know it's only been one day since my last rant. But this has got to be said: Watch where you're goin', why dontcha!

People are just so wrapped up in themselves these days that they think the world and everybody in it is there to adjust to THEM! And I'm NOT talking about my own self! That's different. We KNOW the Universe should placate Mrs. Hillbilly Mom, or there'll be Not-Heaven to pay!

There I was minding my own business in Orb K, waiting patiently to feed my addiction satisfy my gambling habit dance with Lady Luck throw away free money cash in some winning scratchers and trade them for more. I was in no hurry, you see, being a retired lady with no particular place to go, except riding along in my old T-Hoe.

Orb K is looking pretty shabby lately. They've put a white wire rack in front of the counter, kind of dividing the two registers. It makes picking out lottery tickets from the right-side register quite difficult. You can't see through that wire rack because it is piled haphazardly with "bargains" that look like something my sister the ex-mayor's wife and I found in the back of the top cabinets when cleaning out Mom's effects from her house. Odds and ends. Maybe plastic gadgets, maybe 10-year-old boxes of baking soda, maybe a stray tube of salve for burns.

Perhaps that junky rack is used to funnel people to one register. I don't know its purpose, but it makes things awkward. Whereas Orb K used to be roomy and welcoming, now it seems mazelike and low-rent. The tall round turning rack of earbuds in front of the windows, to the left of the left-side register, funnel customers even more tightly past the ice cream chest to the counter.

Anyhoo...this woman was buying something small, perhaps lottery tickets. Something that didn't seem awkward in her hands, not very noticeable, yet not those tiny bottles of alcohol in the clear case behind (now) the wire rack of unwantedables. She turned to leave, and almost knocked me over like a bowling pin.

Let the record show that I was NOT standing close to her. I'm not like those old men in the dead mouse smelling post office who get right up against you in line. That gal had a good three steps before she got to me. But she whirled around and took off like a star wide receiver on the losing team with two minutes left in the Super Bowl.

I even put my arms across my chest to soften the blow. That gal barely pulled up in time. "OH!" she said. And looked at me like I was supposed to MOVE!!!

No way, no how! All she had to do was take a step to her right, and walk down the path we'd left her along the ice cream chest. There were four other customers behind me. She nearly toppled us like a row of dominoes! I couldn't move up to take my turn, because Gal kept standing there.

"Oh. Excuse me." I said. Though not at all smart-alecky. Just because I didn't know what else to say. I was merely standing there. Minding my own business. Waiting my turn. Allowing her plenty of room, so I didn't appear to be snooping at her PIN transaction, or rushing to get waited on. She finally stepped aside and went out. Seeing as how I AM A RETIRED TEACHER...the eyes in the back of my head saw four other heads turn to watch her go.

I suppose you could blame cell phone addiction these days. People never pay attention to where they're going. Just ask any mall fountain.