Profiled!

So I went in and did the thing all day.  My boss was thrilled.  No one likes to do the thing.  I do.  I guess it's the left brain.  My teacher did a survey on the kids and I came back very left brained.  Which is interesting as I am very extroverted as well.  

So I left on a good note, came home.  Talked to my parents, went to bed.  

This morning I decided I would run to the grocery store and buy some more candy.  It appeared to be sold out, but someone had hidden 2 bags under a bag of the spicy assorted mix.  I took one and put the spicy back.  It was obviously "stashing" someone was coming back for it.  

The store itself was mayhem.  I got there about 8:30 and it was packed.  I had a small hand cart.  

I did not want to start using a hand cart as they are very heavily associated with mentally ill, homeless women.  They are not clean and they take their hoard everywhere they go.  I get critical glances and people move away from me like I'll poison them.  Even if I have an empty cart, clean and presentable.  

So I have started using it (I have 2 a bigger one and a smaller one).  I use the bigger one for big grocery trips and Bible Handouts.  It really shines on a Bible Handout.  I took the smaller one today as I only really wanted pasta, cheese, bleach, and the candy.  

About 3/4 of the registers were open, more cashiers were coming in, and each line had about 20 people in it.  This was my view when I got in line.  

You get the idea.  

It was crazy.  

Now, I live in a nice middle class neighborhood.  It is very quiet and well kept.  I wouldn't call it fancy, there are a lot of families doubled up, adult kids living with their parents, multi generational things, but overall nice and quiet.  Nice 1 and 2 story brick homes.  I have a smaller home with wood siding, one story, on a bigger lot than average in my neighborhood.  It's valued about half what the other homes are; it was built as a model home years before the rest of the neighborhood was developed.  

We have what I call the "ghetto" street in the middle of the neighborhood.  It was built by the same builder who built my home.  They are very basic (like mine) no frills starter homes, clapboard siding instead of brick (brick homes are the most desirable ones in Houston but I lived for too long in earthquake country to ever want one even if I could afford it).  I like my floor plan, it has a lot of light and an open design.  

A woman turns off the street driving a very fancy SUV that probably cost 3-4 times my yearly pay.  She stops, sneers at me.  I smiled back and waved her forward.  She went.  That was the first time I got profiled.  It was obvious she thought I was some kind of homeless hoarder.  

I just scoffed and kept rolling to the bus stop.  If she'd done what Ron called "probability estimating" she would have realized a clean, well-kept woman with tidy, clean, hair, wearing a clean white jacket and jeans, with an empty cart, at eight-thirty in the morning, would have realized I am probably a resident.  

She has a mortgage, I don't.  Who's the "loser'?  And what does she owe on that tank?  

Anyway I did my shopping.  I had my cart sitting upright in the shopping cart.  I waited a very long time, paid, and then left.  

I won't get into reasons but I did buy some instant coffee "singles".  The little tube, like the Crystal Light, you put in one serving of hot water.  They had rolled under my cart and I didn't spot them until I pulled my cart off the store shopping cart.  

Crap.  I just shoplifted.  I can't do that.  So I put all my purchases in my buggy and went back into the store.  

I work retail.  I have for many years, pretty much my entire adult life.  I knew security would be watching me as I exactly fit the profile for a shoplifter, which, to be honest, I was for about 10 minutes (I had to wait in the self check line).  I got to the terminal.  I bought a water, a Dr Pepper, and the coffee singles.  The terminal kept freezing and "calling for assistance" as I rang my items and the clerk got pretty tired of it.  I kept apologizing.  I didn't say I had accidentally stolen the coffee, I just said "I'm sorry, I really need this and I forgot..." (it was under my cart).  Security must have been convinced I was up to no good because they held me up another 10 minutes.  I finally took out my first (rather long, $60) receipt and waved it around and then they let me go.  I didn't want to go back in the store but I need the coffee and I won't steal.  I even feel bad if I use the bathroom before I clock out.  

Then I came home.  The driver was happy to see his snack.  I had an uneventful trip home.  

The cat let me know his name is Flame.  After the Gospel Rapper.  Whenever I say "Flame?" he comes running over and meowing.  He didn't do that with any of the other names.  

That's it for now!