Don’t hassle me, I’m local

Yesterday, Caroline and I went to the grocery store. Now y’all know how I feel about the store and to top it off I waited until the afternoon to make the trip. I don’t want to exaggerate because I want to be credible, so I will be completely honest and tell you that it was 140 degrees outside.

As we made our way up and down the aisles, Dwayne (the H.E.B. manager) saw us and came bearing the dreaded Buddy Buck. He gave Caroline THREE Buddy Bucks and the news that they have a whole NEW Buddy Buck machine. You can imagine my excitement.

Our whole trip turned into a barrage of questions such as “When are we going to be done? Where’s the new Buddy Buck machine? When are we going to pay?” At one point I was putting something in the cart when I heard Caroline say “Oh no, Mama! I dropped my beautiful thing.” I had no idea what she was talking about until I turned and realized she had dropped the Buddy Buck. She has lost her mind over these things.

Finally, we check out and begin the beating that is the Buddy Buck machine. Keep in mind we get THREE turns because we have THREE Buddy Bucks. I’m trying to help her as much as she’ll let me, when all of a sudden I hear myself being heckled by some 8 year old boy in a private school uniform. He’s shouting “Not that way, you need to pick it up there. Move it this way, no this way!” Are you kidding me?

Finally we get our treasured stickers and it’s a good thing because our milk was beginning to boil and so was my temper. Heckled by an 8 year old? Seriously.

I called Gulley on the way home from the store to tell her about my experience and she said “Oh I know, they gave us FOUR Buddy Bucks this morning because they want everyone to use the new machine. But the good news is that we got Number 20, so we almost have enough stickers to get our FREE stuffed Buddy Buck keychain!” Apparently, Caroline isn’t the only one who has lost perspective on the Buddy Buck. Of course, me being the savvy mom I am, I didn’t even realize the stickers served any other purpose besides just being stickers. And you know what? I’m keeping that piece of information to myself.

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