I was that pregnant lady...

I have a funny story to tell you. It happened two days ago and wasn’t very funny at the time, but today David and I have cracked up a few times while thinking about it. Here it goes…

So our lives have been crazy lately. Actually they have been crazy for about 2 1/2 years, but ever since we have gotten back from vacation we have had a lot of things to take care of before school starts. David is still working full time and was is in NKY for two days this week for his job up there, so it took some careful thought and planning to make sure I got the house cleaned, tuition paid, groceries, school supplies and books bought, etc. since I have been without a car for the past 48 hours or so.

We had a plan: on Tuesday (my last day with the car till Friday) I was going to make the big Walmart trip to get our weekly groceries, school supplies and much needed pet things (Rooney got some sand fleas while in Florida with us!). I really hate grocery shopping, but I try to do it weekly because it helps with our budget and I really, really hate Walmart. But again, it is cheap so I go there and brave the crowds, parking lot and long lines.

You know how they say, “when it rains, it pours”? I don’t like to use that phrase much because it seems to me to be overly dramatic and a bit pessimistic. However, on this particular day I said it. Because there were lots of little tiny things that played into the disaster in Walmart. It was kind of like a perfect storm.

Little thing #1: David’s credit card broke a few months back and we ordered him a new one.. which hadn’t come yet. So he had mine in his wallet.

Little thing #2: Literally the day before I had gotten a new debit card in the mail because mine expires at the end of this month. I had tried to activate it but apparently I don’t know my PIN..

Little thing #3: My pregnancy brain made me forget to get our grocery cash from the envelope before I left for the store.

I bet you know where this is going.

So I shop and shop. I put a lot of thought into getting the right colors and types of school supplies because I am OCD and picky about that kind of thing. I wander from one side of the HUGE store to the other since I have to buy everything from bread to dog shampoo to door locks. I wait in a LONG line. My stomach starts rumbling as I wait so I throw a small bag of peanut M&M’s on the belt along with a pack of my favorite gum. And then the nice lady scans everything in and places the groceries in my eco-friendly reusable shopping bags. Then I look in my wallet and realize that my only form of payment is my debit card. I scan it… it doesn’t work. I scan it again… still doesn’t work. The nice lady says, “try to run it as debit, sometimes that works.” I try even though I am confident that I don’t know the correct PIN number.

And then I realize… I can’t pay for any of these things. I have no cash, my hubby has the credit card, my debit card isn’t working probably because I tried to activate the new one. What do I do now??

I try to stay calm as I move to the side completely mortified. I am that pregnant lady… the one who can’t pay for her cart load of groceries. The one that forgot the cash. As I am painfully unloading all of things out of my reusable bags David calls. I think I would have been ok if he hadn’t called, but as soon as I hear his voice, I lose it. Now I am really that pregnant lady… the one who can’t pay for her cart load of groceries… and is crying in the middle of Walmart.

Once I get out of the store and bawl a bit to David in the car I compose myself and start driving away. My husband is wonderful and always knows how to calm me down so I just listen to his comforting and reassuring words while I drive. Then I reach into my purse for something… and feel the bag of M&M’s and the gum. The ones I put on the belt as I was waiting. The ones that the nice lady suggest I just put right in my purse… the ones I didn’t end up paying for. I start laughing and then explain to David that I accidentally stole some candy and he starts laughing too.

Then everything is much better and those M&M’s are some of the best candy I have ever tasted.

Everything worked out. In the moment my hormones and emotions were raging. I felt crazy and helpless and like I had just wasted SO much time. I definitely had no perspective. But later that night David and I went back out to the same Walmart with money in hand and got in and out in less than 20 minutes. No big deal.

It was pretty hilarious.