Warning: Just Bitching
Me: You know I'm a little OCD about my groceries.
Him: A little?
Some things are just common sense. Like bagging groceries. One would think there is no need to have a class or a course on bagging groceries because everyone knows you should put heavy stuff on the bottom and cold stuff together. One would think.
I usually try to find a line where there is no bagger present so I can bag the groceries myself. This is risky because sometimes checkers get so busy checking, things just pile up at the end of the conveyor belt, spinning and jockeying for position, crushing the little guys. Just recently, I watched my bag of precut coleslaw get caught at the end, pressure building until it exploded.
I have a method. I put my freezy bag on the belt first, followed by all of my cold items in general order of weight. All a bagger has to do is grab the stuff and put it into the bag in the order they receive it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. But they don't. It's like they make an extra effort to put meat, which the checker has removed from the plastic bag to scan it, on top of the birthday card for my aunt, making it look like it was part of a crime scene. They put every single canned good plus a five pound sack of flour into a single bag so I have to remove several items when I get home just to be able to carry it from the car to the kitchen. The cold items are spread willy nilly throughout the selection of reusable shopping bags I've brought with me.
The other day I bought some delicious, fresh, hot tortillas, which are hand made right there in the store. They were literally still steaming. The checker checked them, then set them right on top of my bag of chocolates. I grabbed them, turned my grimace into a smile, and set them to the side. The bagger quickly swooped them up and set them on top of a fresh sushi roll, which was in a bag on top of all my produce because the bagger had chosen to fill my freezy bag with half a gallon of milk (good), a 12-pack of mini Pepsi's (bad) and a pack of 80 paper plates (also bad).
I rarely buy bread, but when I do - I like for it to be in slices when I use it. I find it's much easier to spread peanut butter and jelly on flat slices of whole bread, rather than on balls of dough. The two most common reasons for these balls of dough is when 1) the bread is put in the bag first with multiple items then put on top of it, or 2) the bread is smashed into the top of a bag where there is clearly not enough space for it to fit, even though there are two more reusable shopping bags sitting there at the end of the conveyor belt.
And the chips, oh the chips. See previous paragraph regarding the treatment of bread.
Even if groceries weren't so expensive, I've already become emotionally attached to all of my food items as we've been getting to know each other, strolling up and down the aisles of the store. I want them to be cared for in a gentle and loving manner.
Then one day it happened. Kaleb (because no one uses "C" to start names anymore) caught the freezy bag as it glided off the conveyor belt. He took each item in order and filled the freezy bag. Then he took the other reusable shopping bags and filled each one with heavy stuff on the bottom, light stuff on top. If I'd weighed them, I'm betting they would have been within one, easily toted gram of each other.
I held my breath as the last item, a party-sized bag of tortilla chips, made it's way to him. I swear I heard angels singing. The bag was gently lifted and placed into a bag that had plenty of room to keep those chips intact all the way to my kitchen counter. Tears welled up in my eyes and I had trouble fitting my credit card into the slot to pay for these perfectly bagged groceries. I wanted to hug Kaleb. I didn't. Instead I simply held his gaze and said, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."
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