A sad tale

It starts out happy.  I needed some various around-the-house items (a can of WD40, some screw anchors, that kinda thing) plus was low on some grooming stuff like deodorant, toothpaste, etc., AND needed some groceries, so I decided to take a trip to the Super Walmart in Chino Hills.  It's a pretty good haul--maybe 15 miles--but since I needed such a variety of things, I thought it might be a fun field trip.  And it was!  As I wandered through the store--it's big and I don't really know the layout, so I was drifting--I happened upon an aisle full of tiki and luau themed party goods.  Right before my eyes, two clerks were marking all sorts of things, leis made of little silky flowers, bead necklaces with tiny palm tree and parrot charms on them, Gilligan-style hats made of Hawaiian print fabric, sunglasses with tiny umbrellas on the sides, etc, down to either $.10 or $.25!  Yes, ALL of it was either a dime or a quarter.  

I immediately thought of the fifteen goodie bags I have to make for my choir kids for our upcoming end of the year party, and squealed with delight!  I grabbed 15 leis, 15 Hawaiian hats, 15 necklaces, 15 sunglasses, etc. etc. and threw them into my basket.  I also got all the luau themed paper goods and partyware I'd need to feed all 35 or so kids in our two elementary choirs.  I was SO pleased with myself!  They even had CD's of luau music for a dollar, so I grabbed one of those, too.

I quickly realized, looking at my full to the brim cart, that I would have nowhere to put my groceries and the other things that I'd actually come for unless I grabbed a second cart, and that seemed like a recipe for disaster ("clean-up in aisle 3, clean-up in aisle 3") so after thinking it through, I thought "OK, I will buy all this stuff and put the bags on the shelf under the basket of my cart, then go back through the store and get the other stuff I need and go back through the line to purchase it.  Which I did.  I paid for the stuff, carefully knotted the top of each of the plastic Walmart bags full of luau crap, lined them up in the area under the basket (which I think of as the kitty litter zone) and headed over to the grocery area of the store.  Once I had my whole list checked off, I went back through the checkout line for round two, then out to the car with my many, MANY purchases.

Here's where it gets sad.  I hauled it all in when I got home, put the groceries and household stuff up, and then decided to lay all my adorable goodie bag purchases on the dining room table where I could stand and gaze and marvel over their cuteness AND their astounding cheapness!

But when I laid it all out, there were no 15 adorable little Gilligan hats.  There were no 15 multicolored silky flower leis.  Two of the bags must've fallen off the bottom of my cart.  I was unreasonably upset.  I almost cried.  I called the Walmart and tremulously asked if anyone had turned in my bags.  They had not, of course.  I mean, it's Walmart, for crying out loud.

I told myself, "Calm down.  Easy come, easy go.  It was $3.00 worth of stuff, for heaven's sake."  But I just couldn't forget it.  I kept going out to my car and looking again, hoping I'd somehow overlooked the two bags.   I paced around and worried about it.

You know what I did, right?  I drove 15 miles back to Chino Hills, part of it involving going the wrong way during rush hour, to see if my lost goodies had been found, or if there were any more leis and hats.   They looked at me like I was nuts at Customer Service, but the most disheartening part was the luau aisle.  It was stripped completely clean.  NOTHING was left.  Nothing at all.   One sad, torn lei lay on the floor in front of the empty metal shelving.  

So back into my car I got to drive all 15 miles home, for the second time in a three hour period.

And that's my sad story.

All this bounty on my dining room table, but all I can think of is what I lost...