le mie avventure in H.E.B.

JANUARY 28, 2008 entry taken from my previous blog

My household was in dire need of groceries and as much as I hate crowded areas; I love my H.E.B. It's ethnic, there are people that look just like me and there are people that stick out like sore thumbs. Folks either approach me speaking Spanish and others in English. As you venture in the place, you have your produce and bread on the right, the frozen foods towards the middle left and random, non-food products on the left. The meat section covers the backside while the seafood area is barely noticeable.

Most of the time, I make my way around at a leisurely pace tuned into my iPod. Today's choice of music was Oasis becos I was feeling nostalgic. There was nothing out of the ordinary today. There was an African American lady who kept on swatting around her face in the baking area. She was trying to get away from a moth and we chuckled together becos she realized how crazy she looked. Then in the alcohol aisle I spent a good while trying to pick a decent red and white. Well, in the midst of this, an older man was doing the same and at the check out line, we discussed our picks. I mentioned that I wanted the Coppola Rosso & Bianco, becos I absolutely love his red, but it's $15 and this one was only $7. It's a steal.

Well, after seeing that other lines were shorter, one of the staff members moved me to another line and I met an unhappy lady. First off, there was a crackhead who dragged the cashier to the tobacco wall to get some snuff. When they came back, he scanned it at $3.99 and the crackhead only had $.69. WTF???!!?!?!?! How are you gonna go to the store without enough money? He was nice enough to purchase the rest of it for her. Meanwhile the grumpy lady is talking to me in Spanish and saying, "He's taking too long." I smiled back and said, "At this time of the day, I expect to have a wait." She just frowned and said, "No, he's taking too long."

Ugh…

So that lady left and it was my turn. I smiled, made small talk, and tried to put out some positive energy to make up for that negative woman. Once we were done, both the cashier and bagging person asked if I needed help to the car. "I'm fine. I got it," I said. That's when the guy bagging my groceries looked me straight in the eye and said, "I just had to say you have such a beautiful smile."

I blushed.

"And you have pretty eyes, too."

I'm sure I turned red. But I said "thank you" and walked to my car.

It was a good day and that comment made it even greater. So I came home and cooked penne pasta with alfredo sauce mixed w/ ground beef and spinach. We enjoyed salad and a nice little dessert concoction of cake, vanilla ice cream, and a berry mix with whipped cream on top. I was feeling extremely productive today.