The Pink Shoe Diaries

So, I went to the pet store earlier to pick up some food for the mouse. I figured this would be a short errand since it was the middle of the day on a rainy weekday.

The store was pretty much empty, so I grabbed the food and headed to the cashier. When I was about 3 feet from the register I was cut off by a youngish man who had a carriage overflowing with rabbit and dog paraphenalia.

How rude! I clearly have one little thing, and this man with a large amount of items swoops in and makes a little trip to the pet store into a huge ordeal. And of course he had a coupon for everything, and for the things he didn’t have coupons for, he had price questions.

At one point, he actually turned to me, as the cashier was trying to unfurl one of his crumpled coupons "Isn’t this annoying?".

"Actually, You’re annoying" I muttered, (which I only said because he was a young, badly dressed man I would (probably I think) never be that rude to an older person.)

He actually laughed, then gave me that seedy kind of look and said "well, you look nice!" as I hastily grabbed a hasty copy of "Cat Fancy" to make myself too busy to talk to him.
(and it should be noted that I did not look nice, I had on old pants, gross sneakers, no makeup and very messy hair in a bun on top of my head)

He then ventured to ask me what kind of food I was buying, and when I didn’t answer he asked me what my name was, as if someone who didn’t even want to tell him what kind of food her mouse eats would want to share more priveliged information like her name!

This, of course, prompted him to go into great detail about his dog and the dog’s eating habits, none of which I listened to or paid attention to.

And this whole time the cashier had to keep calling employees over the PA system for price checks/quality checks/sanity checks (in my case). And this man could easily have saved us all time by saying things like "oh, I found this can of food in this aisle" so that half the store wouldn’t have to tear the store apart looking for one that DID have a sku number on it.

He was definitely that kind of self-unaware men who can’t quite grasp the fact that just because a person is a women does not mean that person wants to speak with you. You know the type, men who assume that if you are alone, you are dying for them to make conversation with you, even when you are clearly otherwise engaged (albeit with a magazine with a title like "Burmese Kittens: Back in Black!")

I actually had to start reading parts of "Cat Fancy" out loud to myself quietly so that he would get the hint and cease and desist with the conversation attempts. And usually I am a very friendly person, but not towards someone who 1) cuts me in line in a VERY rude manner and 2) calls employees of the establishment in which he is shopping "annoying" when it is clear who is really annoying.

At times like this, I wish to invoke the spirit of my television hero, Ms Julia Sugarbaker from the series "Designing Women" who said so eloquently what I wish I could say

"There's no need for introductions…- we know who you are. You're the guy who is always wherever women gather or try to be alone. You want to eat with us when we're dining in hotels, you want to know if the book we're reading is any good, or if you can keep us company on the plane. And I want to thank you, on behalf of all the women in the world, for your unfailing attention and concern. But read my lips and remember, as hard as it is to believe, sometimes we like talking just to each other, and sometimes we like just being alone."