Commotion At The Save-On

My Grandmother turned 89 while we were in Phoenix. 89! She doesn't look a day over 70, and wears the cutest little shoes. I hope I'm still going as strong at 89!

I really wanted to get her something, but not knowing what's on her wish list these days, opted for the usual back-up gift. We stopped at a Save-On and I ran inside to grab a bouquet of flowers.

Just inside the door was a display of Easter Lilies. They were beautiful! And since I didn't see anything else, I grabbed one and turned to go check out. And just as I noticed that another Lily's leaves were stuck to the one I had picked up and was being dragged, it started to fall off the stand.

Luckily I was able to catch it before it hit the floor, but unluckily it ended up upside down and most of the dirt fell out. I hunched there for a minute with my purse, a water bottle, an upright Lily and an upside down Lily, waiting for someone to help me as little clumps of dirt kept falling out. But no one came over. Not able to put it back without losing the OTHER Lily, I had to let it go.

I walked over to the customer service desk and told the guy, who had been watching, that I'd knocked over a Lily. He just stared back at me, so I said, "You know, so someone can clean it up? It was stuck to the one I picked up. Um, well, just wanted you to know."

That's when I saw the flower section, tucked back into a corner of the store. I rushed over that way to see if they had the multi-colored rose bouquets that I had originally wanted. I found a nice bouquet and decided to get that instead of the Lily.

On my way back to the Lily display, a young clerk walked by me and loudly yelled to the person working in the flower section, "SOMEONE just knocked over a flower pot!" while pointedly glaring at me. I just smiled, put the Lily back and got into line.

That's when I noticed that the roses were brown all along the petal edges! So back to the flower section to give back the bouquet, and back to the Lily stand to get the original Easter Lily. And then back to stand in line. Which now had three more people waiting.

The little lady in front of me came up to my shoulder's, and was probably in her 80s. And a TALKER. She asked me all about my Easter Lily, and told me how much my Grandmother would love it, and then started in on the trailer park that was by her home and how lovely it was, considering, but she wouldn't want to live there.

As each person went through, she'd toddle up a bit further, then turn around to resume her conversation with me. Finally it was her turn, and out came the coin purse full of coupons and her checkbook. I heard a collective sigh from the people behind me.

When she was finally done checking out, we all had to wait a bit longer for someone to help her push her cart to her car, during which she told everyone within listening distance that I was from San Diego, and such a dear for buying my Grandmother a beautiful Easter Lily. And everyone glared at me. I wanted to yell, "Thanks for the warm welcome to the city of sun, ya'll!" But since I'm a bit for passive aggressive in expressing my displeasure, I just took my own sweet time checking out. It helped that the cashier wanted to blab about San Diego for a bit.

Leave it to me to run into a store and emerge 20 minutes later a sweaty mess, having destroyed store property, made a new elderly friend and purposefully stalling the check out line. Gilberto had quite a laugh after I explained my new disheveled state, including the dirt smeared on my toes.

I did love the Easter Lily, though. I'm so glad that's what I ended up getting for my Grandmother. She loved it, too, so it was all worth it.