i'm in a hurry and don't know why.

You know that song? I'm in a hurry to get things done, I'm rushing rushing till life's no fun. I don't really like that song, maybe because it's my theme song these days.

I'm working a lot. Maybe it feels like more now because the days are so short and I don't like having it be dark outside when I get off work, and I've been spending a lot of Saturdays at work the past couple months. Anyway, not the point. I'm still having a lot of fun and getting most of the things done that I need to. But at times I feel like I do the exact same things every single day and I'm always doing them fast. I move the same piles of stuff over and over again, forget to do the same things over and over again, and run out of the same stuff over and over again.

A couple days ago was no different. I had to work and then run and buy tangerines and food coloring for a party. Weird combo, but that's what I needed. I ran to WinCo right from work and had one other stop to make after that and had about 20 minutes to do it in before I needed to get home and get ready. I grabbed what I needed and picked the shortest looking line. If you haven't been to WinCo yet, you should. But you bag your own groceries there. The cashier just slides your stuff down one of the black moving sidewalk looking things and you bag them at the end. Oh and each cashier has two slide things. So the customer before you can be bagging there stuff while your stuff slides down the other side. Confused yet?

So there was a grandma ahead of me with a lot of stuff and she was trying to run around and bag it up, and pay attention to what each item cost, and give coupons for some items, and exchange one bag of frozen chicken for the one that was on sale. I realized quickly that I'd picked the wrong line. The cashier finally had her total and was trying to get the grandmas attention so she could pay. She walked back around and started pulling bills and coins out, really slowly.... I was looking at her, hoping she would look up at me. I'm not sure what my face looked like but the look I was going for was, "Hey lady, hurry up and pay for your d@*n stuff so the rest of us can get on with our busy lives!" (I'm not proud, or right, I was just frustrated) She never looked up at me, (thankfully) until right after she paid and she realized her cart was blocking me from the debit machine. She moved it quickly and apologized. The cashier rang up my stuff, I quickly paid and grabbed my two items to run out of the store. But then, I had a thought. ...My grandma, would probably be just as frantic and overwhelmed with the self bagging, fast paced process... I put my items down at the end of the register and walked around to her side and began helping her bag her groceries. She'd barley begun and it took us a few minutes to get everything gathered up and packaged, oh and each bag tied shut. :) But we got it done. The whole time she was saying things like, "Oh thank you sweetheart!" "You don't know how much I appreciate you." "You are making my day right now." "When I realized this was how it worked I wished I would have brought one of my grandchildren to help me." "Thank you my dear." and "Bless you." She was so cute and kind.

And guess what? I got everything else done that I needed to, and even if I hadn't, I don't think my mean face and bad attitude would have helped me much. I taught myself a good lesson that day.

Slow down and be nice.