Becky Says...

May 2003

Entries
Current Entry
Previous Entry
Next Entry
Archives

Links
Personal Sites
and Forums/Boards

Diaryland
The Hunger Site

Communication
Write to me


Subscribe with Bloglines






May 11

Shriek Day around here. The kind of day when, as you shriek at being annoyed beyond all bounds, you want to grab annoying people by the heads and smash those heads to see if there are functioning brains inside. Yeah, I know that's mean. But it's ever so much less expensive than CT scanning!

Shriek Day began at some unholy hour of the morning when three people dressed in church-going clothes were banging on my front door. I didn't actually answer the door. Instead, I looked out my bedroom window after the third set of knocks, to see these three people, with evangelical smiles on their faces. One had what looked to be a lot of paper and a pen in his hands. Could have been a stack of sheets about some church, or a set of questions to ask the unchurched/still asleep. Whatever it was, I didn't need one.

So instead of saying anything, I waved acknowledgement at the trio, then motioned that they should go away. I tried hard to refrain from making the gesture one uses when dismissing pests from one's presence (the brush-off one gives to ants, for example). But anyone showing up unannounced, early in any morning, is not likely to get my warmest, most cordial greeting.

They left. Probably the most intelligent decision they made all day.

Later, after I realized I wasn't going to get back to sleep, I got ready and went to get groceries. Shriek Day continued at the grocery store. I knew we were out of a couple of things at the office that I usually buy on our behalf, so those things made it into the cart. They were situated completely separate from the items I wanted for myself, and before the checker started, I told her that the two needed to be rung up separately.

The checker mumbled something that sounded affirmative, and started ringing up the purchases. She did ring the two separate things first, but she didn't ask me to pay for them. Instead, she started ringing up my items. Then apparently it dawned on her that she was making a mistake.

She looked at me and asked if she were supposed to do something different about those other two items. By this time my patience was shot, and my need to shriek was surfacing. Instead of shrieking, I pulled out my credit card and waved it at the two items while saying I planned to pay for those two with that card, then use my own funds (gesturing to my checkbook) to pay for the other items.

At least she hadn't completed the ringing of my purchases, so she could deduct the two things I wasn't planning to pay for personally. I had kept track as I shopped of about what I'd owe, so I definitely would have noticed the additional amount had she tried to put it all on one ticket. But I'm glad I didn't have to waste any time (of mine or a management-level person) getting the ticket voided. I finally got the purchases made, and got home.

Shriek Day's third event (you knew there had to be one, didn't you?) happened about an hour later. I was reading, and there came a knock on the door. I looked out, only to see someone walking away, after apparently realizing he was trying to deliver dinner to the wrong apartment.

Okay, on his own, since he hadn't awakened me or done anything else scurrilous, he didn't deserve the shriek, and I realized that in plenty of time to keep from making the sound. Lucky man. Had he come a bit later, and interrupted my nap, I'm not sure I would have been nice about it.

Text © copyright 2000-2003 Becky