Monday, October 09, 2006

A Beautiful, Alternate Universe

I have just had two lovely experiences commuting to work and picking up Miss Kitty's prescriptions at Costco. Yeah, that's right, I said it--commuting and Costco just made me want to weep with pleasure. I am going to have to savor the experience as long as I can for I know it won't last.

Today is Columbus Day and I was one of eleven people in the Bay Area that didn't have the day off. Initially I had some bitterness when I kissed Honey's sleeping head goodbye this morning. Honey works in Berkeley, which does NOT celebrate Eurocentric/Murderer/Raper of the Land (that's Columbus to the rest of us) Day but Indigenous People's Day instead. But when I got on the freeway and realized that everyone else was also still at home sleeping and I would be able to drive 70 the whole way and get to work in half the time I quickly got over it.

Work sort of sucked today but who cares? I got there fast and as a result could leave early. Proceeded to Costco to pick up the expensive old man medicine keeping my cat alive and ... no one was waiting at the pharmacy. The clerk waved at me while I was still walking up to the yellow-do-not-cross-me-line and had the meds ready before I even had my wallet out. I was downright cheerful about forking over $75--I simply had no time to simmer and seethe as I usually do about having to wait 20 minutes for the pleasure of being ripped off by greedy pharmaceutical companies etc.

Buoyed by my good luck, I picked up some fast and delicious salmon burgers and a box of cherry tomatoes and as I was scanning the check out for the shortest line, a clerk waved her arms at me and yelled "No waiting here!" Here I entered a bit of a confused/dreamy state. Am I not in the steaming core of hell otherwise known as Costco at dinnertime, where you risk being mowed down by mobs of hungry people clutching rotisserie chickens to their chests?

I almost couldn't bear the bounty of that experience. It nearly made me want to stay and shop for all kinds of things Costco has no shortage of like fleece throw blankets, buckets of Metamucil and plasma televisions but I jolted myself back to reality and sped home.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know if the google ad changes constantly, but when I read your flinstone feet blog, the ad was for "softspots shoe sale".

Your blog made me sad...I hate the hard shopping (that's any shopping for me) but the coincidental ad made me laugh.

Mama

Professional Critic said...

It's true, the Google ads on their own are pretty hilarious. I loved that for a really long time they were all about detoxing from drugs. Not too sure why that was, but I always look forward to seeing what Google wants to sell us.