This Actually Happened – October 22nd, 2011

Phenomenal Woman

The title might suggest this entry is about one of the many remarkable females in my life; nothing could be further from the truth. I am writing about an extraordinary woman; she is extraordinarily ridiculous! One of the advantages of a family business is the ability to help others; after all, what would Jesus do? We often allow customers to take goods, with nothing more than a promise to make the payment at a later time. The down side of this type of generosity happens when people expect help, instead of asking and being grateful. A couple days ago, I decided to prepare a delectable tuna fish sandwich for lunch. We sell pickles which come in a large jar, and I wanted to chop one up for the sandwich. Instead of using the tongs, I grabbed a plastic fork to fish out the pickle. (Don’t ever do this; it’s idiotic!) I walked behind the counter to retrieve my final ingredient. My sister was helping a customer and I stood beside her, struggling mightily to remove a pickle from the jar. Every time I thought I was about to achieve my goal, the pickle would fall back into the juice. (It was quite challenging!) A woman walked in and said, “hello.” I looked up and returned the “hello,” and quickly refocused on the task at hand. Instead of waiting behind the customer in line, she said, “hello,” again. I stopped what I was doing and said, “hi.” She then asked me, “You don’t know me, do you?” I looked her in the eye and said, “No,” and once again returned to my mission. She was determined in her cause and asked me, “Do you guys sell cream for coffee?” It was a simple question and I quickly replied, “Yes.” My answer was positive, but not to her satisfaction; she continued. “Not the powdered cream; I want the liquid kind.” Again, not a challenging request. “Yes, you will find the cream in the refrigerator, next to the milk.” I said, before returning to my increasingly difficult task. I was under the impression that our exchange was over, but I was wrong; she had more information for me. “I want to take six cartons and I’ll bring back the money another day.” I took a second to think over her statement and before I could respond, my sister said, “sorry, we can’t; you have to wait for my aunt to come back. She’ll be here in a few minutes.” The truth of the matter is, we could have allowed her to take the items, but we didn’t know this lady. She looked at my sister and asked, “don’t you trust me?” My sister simply replied, “I can’t give anything out without asking my aunt.” The lady would not give up without a fight. “I came under the impression that I would be able to do this!” She said confidently. I was too focused on attempting to retrieve a pickle to waste anymore of my time on this woman’s request, so I didn’t even bother lifting my head. She saw that I wasn’t paying her any mind and said the magic words which sealed her fate, “hurry! If you don’t hurry up, I will go somewhere else!” Her insanity literally made me COL! Finally, after a minute, she realized that she was fighting a losing battle and left without uttering another word! I eventually accomplished my goal and captured my pickle; the sandwich was amazing! (My sandwiches usually are! TOOT!) Allow me to translate what this lady actually said. “If you don’t let me borrow some goods, I will go buy them somewhere else!” You have to be kidding me! BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

The Gators have the week off, but Georgia is going down next week!

This Sunday will mark the dawn of a new era; IT’S TEBOW TIME!

Be sure to check back tomorrow for a preview of next week’s posts!

@PeteTeix617