day 59: assistance in aisle 8

It truly does not take much to make a hectic, stressful, can't-wait-till-I-am-back-in-my-own-bed kind of day light years better for me.

Case in point: me and my entourage went grocery shopping tonight (no, this is not the good part of my day....yet). One kid was wearing mismatched clothes, two were clad in their pjs, one looked disheveled with hair always in her face, two were barefoot (BIG shopping cart with a bench seat for them, and don't worry, shoes were in the cart), one child giving me an update about every five minutes exactly how long we'd been at the store, and there was, at any given moment, at least one child causing a problem.

Fast forward to about 90 minutes after we walked in the door (which I only know thanks to my self-appointed time keeping daughter) in the checkout lane. Self-checkout lane. Two of the girls were helping to stack the groceries at the end, and doing a fairly good job at it. In the midst of scanning and price checking, a man I used to teach with stopped to say high. Said I was brave for venturing to the store with the three girls in tow. I explained how ASC was deployed again, there was a minute or two of small talk, and then he left. It was nice of him to say hi, because he easily could've walked on by.

More scanning, price checking. Next thing I knew, he was back, joking around with my girls.....and bagging my groceries. One kid was telling him, "Um, my mom might not want those two things in the same bag," and another was asking him, "Do you know why I'm wearing my pajamas?" and the other was at my side, "Mom, who is that guy?"

By the time I had scanned all my coupons and paid, my groceries were all bagged. I didn't really care if the right things were bagged together (as long as my bread wasn't smushed and my strawberries still plump and my eggs still whole). His few minutes of help, without being asked or even expected, made the world of difference for me.

Thanks to you, Mr. Clark.