walmar---ack

Today made me laugh...eventually. I'll recap.

At work I was:
Sent on a shopping run to buy household items for refugee apartment
setups. the basics.
Got to walmart and immediately overloaded with bottom dollar efforts.
After 25 minutes, noticed a migraine...loss of vision with headache
soon to follow.
left half-full cart in isle.
Ran to my car for medicine. it wasn't in there.
Hurried inside to buy meds.
Called dad (doctor) to make sure they were ok to take together.
tried to read directions but had trouble.
Sat in the airlock for 45 minutes after drinking 20 oz of coke, 600mg
of ibuprofen and 2 excedrin migraine.
Wanted to throw up.
Lost 35% of my vision and about 18% of my ability to reason properly
(migraines make me foggy on both counts)
Meds kicked in and poof, felt good. could see properly again.
Found my cart in the store and returned to shopping
Filled the cart to overflowing with, among other things, 6 pillows,
blankets, cookwear, food, cleaning and sleeping items. Stuff for 2
apartments
look for tolerant cashier. see friendly looking lady.
checkout: divide it all into two groups.
Bill with tax exempt card
Push two carts to the parking lot.
Momentarily can't find car.
Begin unloading
It is 40ish degrees out
have to pee badly. instantly.
remember coke and caffeine in the pills
try to hurry but pee is coming.
can't leave and run inside (two loaded carts)
can't unpack quickly enough.
consider kneeling by the tire
reject the idea
during deliberation, lose precious moments and recognize I will be
even later back to the office if do nothing and most imminently wet
myself.
frantic
jump into car and rummage and find mcdonalds cup.
relief
leave cup outside by door with new sense of freedom
go back in to buy 9 remaining things: table and 8 chairs.
find them, price them, buy the cheapest (same cashier as before)
forget to divide them into two checks.
call manager to cancel payment.
go to second register. won't work. back to register and invade
tolerant cashier space. cancelation complete
tolerant cashier re-purchases all 9 items.
leave
find an unpaid-for item in the bottom of cart
have crisis of conscience.
go back in and wait in line.
re-read receipts.
find out that the chairs were almost double the price I thought they
were.
weigh how long it's taken me to shop and against unnecessary expense
(will my boss be more upset about my slowness or my expenditures?)
leave unpaid-for item in the store
go unload 4 chairs from car
bring inside to customer service
avoid locking eyes with tolerant cashier. (she'd be seeing me process
the chairs for the 3rd time)
call manager b/c charged with tax exempt (same manager as before)
go investigate chair mis-labeling.
customer service can't find legitimate pricing...the chairs shouldn't
exist.
grab 4 new chairs
refund old chairs
discover that ONLY 3 of the 4 refunded chairs were originally billed
ie. 2 things. (I'd inadvertantly stolen 2 items which I thought I'd
paid for. and actually HAD already, once not 20 minutes earlier before
canceling and re-charging it (but not charging it))
discussion with customer service of how rediculous it all is.
run and grab unpaid for conscience item i'd left in the walmart the
second time I'd left to go bring in chairs I'd bought the first time I
left.
payed, now carrying a handful of receipts, returns, refunds and
cancelations
been to my car now 5 times upon leaving
drive to the office
explain in brevity why all the receipts, "you don't have time or the
inclination to care...so here's the bottom dollar"
unload into two other vehicles and drive to two apartments for
distribution
sent back to first apartment with misplaced items
get lost b/c my lead driver guy can't give me directions with street
names or proper compass directions. "um, go that way (points EAST)
and turn at the hill by the car fixit/dealer place. go up and left
and it might be the second left after the school zone" (this is
nolensville rd! Every other establishment on that hilly side of
nashville is a car dealer! And i know it's NORTH, so I ignore him and
go north.
have to call barak to iphone me around town to the apartment.
find apartment in google "unmapped area" up north (not east...bozo)
try to get to the office but get lost driving a full circle behind a
school bus doing deliveries.
phone battery is beeping dead
ask barak: "quick, is murf. pike west or east of I-24. I can make it
if I know"
get back and act like nothing ever happened.
make work-time adjustments for airlock interlude.
hope my boss doesn't think I was slow or doing nothing while on the
clock.

sigh. never leave home without a GPS

a quick story. in cambodia, my brother was in a company vehicle with
a gps and the passenger inquired on it's purpose. "it helps you get
where you need to go."
Magically, barak took the cambodian man through the winding streets
right to the proper location. On a subsequent trip, they were lost
and the man said, "just use your device and we'll get there." "I'm
sorry" my brother said. "it only works if you have already gone there
once."
the man looked at my brother and just laughed. "haha." he said.
"that's like me. If I go there once I can always get back again."

I'm not cambodian and I'm dependent on technology.

_________________

Michelle. confirmed. the primary refugee population in nashville is
Iraqi...as you supposed.