What Happens in Walmart & The Kindness of Strangers (Part II of ‘Returning Nora to Ohio’)

I’m going back in time… well only by a month & a half… to finish chronicling my journey to and from Ohio to take my sister back to school.  The night we arrived we decided to get up early the next morning to get a lot accomplished, so unsurprisingly, we slept in.  I guess we now know one downside to not having the responsible parentals present.

I’ll cut out the details about getting ready, going back over to her apartment, checking in, getting her key so she could move her suitcases from the apartment hall into her actual room, and making a list of what NEEDED to come back with us from Walmart later that day. (Dad put us on a strict budget, which we almost successfully stuck to.)

So we arrived at Walmart without incident… almost.  There was a slight second in the parking lot where I may or may not have come close to not yielding to pedestrians.  Okay, there was, but it was good that I did end up yielding because the pedestrians turned out to be my sister’s roommate and her family. That could have been an awkward semester.

There we were, in Walmart, minding our business as we snaked through the aisles, picking up ONLY what was necessary. (just in case you’re reading this, Dad) Out of no where our eyes were irrevocably assaulted.  It is still painful to talk about so I’ll ask you to just see the photo below.

There was no sand, I didn't hear waves, this is NOT okay to wear... even to Walmart! I’ll just say this… a major strike 3 for humanity (see post Part I).

After hitting up the drive-through therapy center, ok not really, but wouldn’t that be a good idea?  I’d imagine it would improve the over all mood the of the general public on any given day.  We made it back to my sister’s apartment unloaded and put away groceries and other purchased supplies and hung out with her roommies.

I even got to meet a “little.”  Now you either know what this is… or you don’t.  I did not.  It is what the “little sisters” of a sorority are refereed to.  Those that take these little sisters under their wing are called “bigs.”  So yes, there are people roaming around out there constantly asking where their “bigs” and “littles” are.  But I digress.

Later that night I was wiped… On the plus side, I now know what goes into and will be prepared for taking my child to college.  I decided to stay in and head to bed early while my sister went out to catch up with her friends.  Upon making this decision however, I did not know there was a frat house behind the hotel.  Ergo I forwent any notion I had of sleeping and stayed up and read.  A little while later, the police came and broke up the party.  No, I am not the one who called, but I did take minor pleasure at the site below.

The next day we learned from our mistake and woke up early enough to catch the breakfast buffet in the hotel restaurant.  Since I would be staying my last night with my sister, we packed up, checked out, and headed to her apartment.  We ended the afternoon with a second, less traumatic, trip to (a different) Walmart.

Now pay attention because this is where it gets good and all of our faith in humanity can be restored.  We went to PF Changs for dinner and ended up sitting next to a really sweet couple.  After a few random ice breakers, curtesy of our waitress, we actually engaged in a nice conversation with the couple.  We chatted, we laughed, we even shared tofu.

It turned out their son had graduated from my sisters school and the couple lived near where my grandparents lived in Florida for the winter.  When it was time to pay the bill, my sister put in cash and I threw in my debit card.  When it came back, everything was still there with a note, “Your bill is paid in full, thank the couple next to you.”

Nora and I were both in shock and couldn’t say enough “thank you’s” to our knew friends.  They had paid for our dinner and didn’t even know our names!  As they stood to leave, we introduced ourselves, and then they headed out of the restaurant.

Once we left and were in the car we realized we didn’t even know their last name or how to contact them and probably wouldn't see them again.  So we just contented ourselves in being thankful for the random kindness of strangers that is not shown often enough in the world we live in.

The next morning I said goodbye to Nora as I dropped her off at class.  It probably would have been a more emotional goodbye if I hadn’t been desperately trying to avoid hitting the thousands of students I was surrounded by.  I only came close once, when I was backing out of Starbucks, with my Iced Caramel Macchiato for the road.  Thank goodness for the King Ranch and those little back-up beeps!

Xo,
Lauren

just because it’s illegal, doesn’t make it a bad idea!

Disclaimer #1: Don’t get to excited by the title, no jail worthy crimes were actually committed.

Disclaimer #2: This is only Part I, even if you don’t find it interesting you have now committed yourself to sticking around for Parts II & III.


So without further ado..

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote “This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it” and as they say, life is what you make of it. It can be enjoyable regardless of whether you’re at a private celebrity packed post Oscar party or a ten hour car ride with your sister.  In the interest of not hurting anyone’s feelings I am not going to reveal which one I’d secretly rather be in attendance for :)

Two weeks ago I drove my sister, Nora back to Ohio for her senior year of college. Wellll, technically SHE drove us :) The drive went by too quickly and we literally counted down, by the mile, to the official end of our summer vacation.  After a couple stops and a bit of traffic, our seven hour car ride quickly turned into ten and yet still seemed not quite long enough.

We headed out Friday around noon in the King Ranch (courtesy of our dad). Skies were blue, country tunes were playing on The Highway on Sirius XM, and the navigation system had our complete trust (but only after we realized it wasn’t taking us in a circle as we had originally thought).


After stocking up and spending five minutes wondering why a guy would need to bring a horse to a gas station, it was time to return to the open road.  “We” drove on for a couple hundred more miles and sang out of tune to a few dozen more songs before we hit stand still traffic. Solution: abandon the thruway for the back roads!

Side note: When traffic started to slow down, we passed this ridiculous woman in the picture on the right.  She was texting like she was on the floor at the stock exchange handling millions of dollars, not driving her car on a jam-packed thruway!!!! The semi behind her kept having to hit his breaks, so of course I needed a few snapshots! Strike one for humanity.



Attempt one of "abandon thruway" failed as by the time we illegally rode the shoulder to the exit, traffic had picked back up and we changed our minds.  Unfortunately we were tricked and just on the other side of the overpass we hit worse traffic than before.  What to do? We just passed the only exit for the next several miles and we were moving at a rate of one five feet every ten minutes. Solution: Ride the other shoulder illegally to make an illegal u-turn through the grass, all the while keeping our fingers crossed that there were no cops lurking nearby.  And if there were, the car that did it ahead of us would be the one to get caught!

Operation “turn around” was successful and we finally had the opportunity to make Rodney Atkins proud by ditching the “backed-up traffic” to “tear down some two lane country" roads.

After miles of farms, charming no name towns, and several more strained vocal chords, we returned to the hustle and bustle of the thruway, with just a little over two hours left to go.

So back to my issues with humanity. I’m saddened the way people are trying to take God out of this country. Thank goodness He sticks around regardless :) My point is that humanity redeemed itself ever so slightly when we saw the below sign standing proud next to the thruway.

But as the saying goes, “The Lord giveth and He taketh away”... and humanity has some more work to do because this is what we saw next:

How is THAT not a seat-belt violation?  Strike Two!

This part of the story ends with us arriving safely at our destination, unpacking half of the car, and sharing a pizza before crashing in our hotel. Stay tuned for Part II which includes a retina damaging picture from Walmart...

Happy Labor Day!

Xo,
Lauren

"Pat-Down" Room

Glad to say I made it safely home to San Francisco yesterday, albeit a bit of a rocky start. After checking my bags and obtaining my boarding pass, I was relieved to see there was no one in line for security. This relief would be short lived. I took notice of the new scanners in place and different security measures that I was not yet used to. One of which was the hand swipe. At first, I did not completely understand the point of this, however I would soon find out as I failed the test and a little alarm went off.

Now, being a seasoned traveller, I thought I handled myself pretty well when this happened… but that didn’t keep the reel from playing in my head… me getting picked up by airport security, missing my plane, having to call my parents and tell them I was under suspicion of carrying chemical weapons on the plane… you get the idea. As much as it would have spiced up my blog, I was not looking forward to crossing “getting arrested by airport security” off my bucket list quite yet.

My luggage was scanned and then pulled apart.  I tried really hard not to laugh as the security man carefully examined the butt of my stuffed dog.  Eventually my luggage and I were taken into custody and I was informed they were taking me to a private room for the infamous “pat-down.” Oh joy.  I was escorted by two women to a small room off the side of the security section.  I’ll save you details but I will say it would have been a heck of a lot less awkward if the lady hadn’t been announcing the process. “I’m going to touch you here… now here… you’re going to feel my hand … here.” Seriously? I mean I get why they have to do that, but its all a little freaky.  Not to mention the “back-up” lady whose staring us down while all of this is taking place “to limit lawsuits of course.” I honestly can’t understand how anyone could ever be comfortable being in porn. Sheesh!

I was asked what I did for a living (upside: this meant I came across as employable) and what I had done all day.  Now my family can account for my awful memory, but to the average stranger it may have appeared as if I was making up my story.  They asked me if I had done anything unusual today. I said no, and preceded to recount my day.  Last minute packing, drive through at the bank, UPS (shoot, shouldn’t have said that, now they’re going to think I was shipping bombs), and picked up lunch (that they had to believe because it was still sitting wrapped up in my carry-on).

Then a light bulb went off and I may have said “Oh!” just a little too loudly for such a small room. I told them I had used my sister’s hair smoothing oil that morning.  Then I didn’t know if that was a mistake too.  While I know my sister isn’t carrying around chemical bomb ingredients(although there IS that suspicious black backpack she brings everywhere ;) I didn’t know if that was the real cause, and if not, I may have just unintentionally made my sister a person of interest. (I swear my thoughts sometimes travel at the speed of light).

I was thinking about how I would get her out of this (and how much fake passports would cost) when the voyeur, I mean the back up woman, left the room and came back and said I was clear and free to go.  They replied it was just my hands that had set off the alarm. I wanted to reply. “Well too bad I’m not going without them,” but alas my parent’s raised me right and I accepted this was neither the place or time to “get fresh.” I was content with their unofficial confirmation that it was my hands and the only thing of question they had come into contact with was my sister’s hair product!

Once I was cleared of harboring any kind of chemical bomb on my person or in my luggage I was free to go.  Nervous that this little delay would interfere with my boarding on time and selecting primo seating (Southwest all the way!) I quickly rushed for my gate.  I caused minimal hazard as I began checking text messages while I hurried through the airport (thank you moving sidewalks) however, I discovered my flight was delayed 35 minutes. Bummer (but not the end of the world). I preceded to grab some much needed plane necessities… bottled water, gum, and Excedrin which although a last minute decision, practically proved my prophetic abilities as the nonstop plane people chatter gave me a headache mid-trip.

My “let’s keep going” attitude almost left me when these purchases totaled exactly $9.11 (really??), but I managed to keep hold of it, continued on my way to the gate and settled in to wait for my plane.  If there was ever a day NOT to get on a plane…. but fortunately for me (and my parents who had already generously purchased my airfare) I don’t believe in coincidences or bad luck : )

Xo,
Lauren