Update: The Grocery Store Incident

After posting about my run-in at the grocery store last week, a couple people took objection, saying I sounded terrible and I should take it down immediately.  Suffice it to say, it made me feel like shit.  I put a lot of effort into writing the post and felt I learned something from my less than shining behaviour.  I didn't expect that the only thing that would be gleaned from my post was that I yelled/swore at an old person.  One person wrote me and said: 

 Cute things I might have said if I were "Shakey McTurd"/"Shakey
 McFuckin' Shakeson" annoyed at you, instead of the dramatics of
 head shaking ..
 1.  ( Pointing to sign reading "Express 1-16 items" and then to 27
      items in your cart. )
    "What's the matter, lady, can't count, or can't read, or both ?
 2.  ( After you had dissed me.  Approach cashier ..)
    " Excuse me, is there a book section ?  I would like to purchase
      something on anger management as a gift for this young woman. "


They clearly missed the point.  If I was informed that it was an express line in the first place, instead of suffering through all the ensuing histrionics, there would be no reason to purchase a book on anger management as there would have been no angry confrontation to begin with.  Sigh.



Wanting the opinion of an objective third party, I asked my friend Lena to check out the post.  Lena runs a very popular blog, Listen to Lena, which has been named the Best Blog and Best Family Blog at the Canadian Blog Awards for the past two years.  Not only did she seem to be the perfect candidate as a busy mother of two and successful blogger, a recent story of hers, A Lesson in Humility, got me to thinking about my own lesson as I was driving home from the grocery store the night of the incident with Shakey.

Not only was Lena gracious enough to take the time to read my long-winded post, she told me she actually laughed her head off and asked if she could share my story with her readers.  Even though my post was embarrassing and certainly didn't paint me in a flattering light, a bunch of moms who have no affiliation to me whatsoever would have no qualms about reading me the riot act if they found my actions untenable, right?  I agreed immediately and prepared for the blowback.  A few days later Lena posted my story on her blog and I received over 500 hits on my blog.  We both received many comments on our respective posts.  Not only were the majority of responses positive, many women mentioned how much my story them laugh.  Whew.  Did it exonerate my behaviour with Shakey?  No.  But I feel better knowing I shared my tale.  I owned up to it, took responsibility and hopefully learned from my mistake.  In so doing, I also provided a few readers with some comic relief and perhaps a little bit of grocery store protocol.  Perhaps a few more people, who considered themselves "Shakeys" might be more inclined to speak up if they see someone taking advantage at an express line in the future.  One thing's for sure.  I'll always look twice to check to see if I'm in an express lane from now on.