I Should Be Studying

Lauren handed down a shirt to Erica that says, "Santa thinks I'm studying." I wish I could fool Santa. I started my masters on September 2, and have had my first night of classes. I have two classes on Tuesday evenings. The first one, Professional, Legal and Ethical Issues in Counseling, starts at 4:30 followed by Human Development Over the Lifespan at 7:15. Fortunately we have a few breaks in that time period because we don't get out of the second class until 9:45 p.m. At which time I am feeling totally overwhelmed about everything that I need to get done for the next week.

This evening, instead of reading, the girls and I went to Wal-mart in Beech Grove. We needed groceries desperately and Lauren has started reading the Twilight series and wanted to get the next book in the series. Well, we spent a lot of time getting food and deciding on what the girls might want to put in their lunchboxes, if they decide to pack their lunch.

We saw Marilyn Haun. She could hardly believe how much the girls have grown. We reminisced about old times at IUMC. She mentioned the summer reading club that Lauren and Meghan were involved in. It was a great little visit.

After getting all of our purchases, we found a place in line, and the cashier says, "Are you feeding an army or what?" and I replied as nicely as possible that we were really low on food in our house. Then, when she saw Erica with her adorable short haircut, she looked at me and said, "Why did you chop her hair off?" I know, can you believe that. I was shocked and said, for lack of anything more clever to say, "She likes it that way." The cashier looked at Erica and asked, "You do? You don't like long hair? Why not?" Then she proceeded to harass Lauren for not smiling. Well, Lauren wasn't smiling because she had just offended our family by saying we were eating enough to feed an army and that her sister was stupid for liking short hair. So, the cashier, maybe 20 years old, continued to try to get Lauren to smile and tell us how she never has trouble making people smile when they come through her line.

After we left and were driving home, complaining about her, I got more and more upset about the conversation. I tried my best to be polite to her even when she continued to pester Lauren about not smiling, and after her comment about Erica's hair. It crossed my mind that maybe I should not have been polite to her. Maybe her unintentional rudeness needed to be confronted. Maybe I should have taken a stand and said, "You know, my daughter doesn't feel like smiling because you just insulted her sister and our family." But then would that have made me rude or just an individual standing up for myself? Lauren was so shocked and outraged by the interaction. I tried to explain that some people are just lacking in social skills, which I believe was the case with this young girl, who is also a mother by the way. By the time we got home, we were a little less outraged and actually were laughing about how oblivious she was to how her comments might make someone feel.

Well, it is late and I have been putting off doing my reading. I just had to tell you about this interesting Saturday. Today, September 13, would have been my dad's 65th birthday. Funny, it didn't even occur to me until Lauren asked me the date. Now that I think about dates, tomorrow is the 17th anniversary of Steve asking me to marry him.