Out and About

The weather has remained unrepenatantly miserable, hot and humid with no relief in sight. It was into this, that my daughter and I dragged the three little ones out of the house to go shopping with us. Taking the little ones anywhere is an adventure in itself. Taking them shopping on a day like today borders on the surreal fringes of insanity.

Gabe and Jonathan quickly discovered that the JoAnn Fabrics superstore is a cavernous space with a wonderful echo. I'm certain everyone in the store knew who those two little boys were before we managed to get out of there. Jonathan, of course being the typical fat kid, threw a hissy fit over candy in the "impulse aisle" that they weave you through in order to reach a check out stand. Once outside and released from the confines of the shopping cart, Gabe immediately did and end around run and bolted for the parking lot.

It was after this that we were insane enough to take them to the Target, or as I like to refer to it, Le Target. I ended up buying a pair of Mossimo jeans for myself. It's the first Mossimo that I have purchased since the sell-out to Target several years back. Mossimo just wasn't cool any more once it started to be carried at Target. However, it happened to look better than just about any other brand of jeans that happened to be there, and I do need some jeans that fit since I've been losing weight and a load of my jeans were ruined in the dryer due to an "ink load" as we called it in the dry cleaning trade.

In an attempt to escape from JoAnn's with only minimal continued screaming and bad behavior, we had bribed the children that, if they were good, we would buy them something from Target. Jonathan had immediately spotted a 4-D cell lantern and informed me that he wanted a flashlight. I was able to change his mind with the lure of a tape measure from the $1 aisle.

While I was in the fitting room trying on the jeans, that both my daughter and the fitting room attendant had assured me regarding the wrinkled marks at the back of the hem being intentional, Amanda entertained the tribe. Gabe and Jonathan had engaged in one of those loud and repetitive dialogues that had their mother admonishing, "Stop telling that to your little brother." "Stop listening to your big brother." and other shoppers being amused by the whole scenario.

I took the jeans and we headed for the cashier, thankful to be away with only the amount of chaos that we had caused and the amount of humiliation that we had endured.

My purchases came to $60.25, and I gave the cashier $100.25. He looked to be all of 15 and spending the summer at his first job. From the look on his face whe I handed him the cash, I knew that he was lost. I received back in change, $39.75.

He did not know how to enter $100.25 into the cash register in order for it to properly calculate the change due me, that he himself could apparently not figure either, so he had just entered $100.00

I let it go. There is no reason in the world to humiliate some kid for 50 cents. I remarked about this to my daughter as we were headed across the parking lot to the sweltering shelter of the kid kart. I imagine he doesn't see a whole lot of cash transactions in the first place. But to have an odd amount like that handed to him had rocked his little world.

An update from my world on the state of basic math skills in 2007. Gotta love the 21st century. Gotta love my grandkids, too. Both are sort of the same, love it or let it kill you.

Out!