Murphy's Law 101

Don't you wonder sometimes about Murphy's Law, the way it manages to throw every obstacle possible in your path to hold you up when you are in a hurry?

Yesterday afternoon, my hubby arrived home early from work so once he took over watching our 3 1/2 year old, I was out the door for a little "Me Time" and to do a little shopping. Nothing unusual about that is there?

So I get most of my chores done and while picking up a few groceries notice that ice cream and popsicles are both on sale.  Really good sale too so I plunk down two cartons of ice cream (my hubby's favorite, I don't eat it) and 3 boxes of popsicles into my shopping cart.

While I'm puttering around the grocery store, I notice that there is hardly anyone around and when I get to the cash, I can see why.  Only about 6 cashes out of a possible 15 are open and the line ups are ridiculous.  Where is the manager when this happens?  On break?  Certainly not rounding up people to get their cash registers buzzing!

So I wait in line looking at the ice cream and popsicles hoping I can at least get through this long line before they start to melt.  After what seems like 30 minutes, it's finally my turn. Well, no wonder it took 30 minutes.  This cashier is examining everything she scans and then fumbling like crazy trying to fit everything like a tetris game into my cloth grocery bags (yes, I'm environmentally conscious but this is nuts!)

I finally get out of the grocery store with my ice cream and popsicles still intact. On my way home, I see our Dollar Store and think to myself, they are never busy, I'll just run in quickly and pick up some sketch pads for my daughter who draws endlessly.

I get a great parking spot, run in, it's not busy, I hurry down the stationery isle, grab 8 pads and run to the cash where they have 1 cashier working out of a possible 4 and there must be 12 people ahead of me. Where in Hell did they all come from?? The cash was empty I swear just 15 seconds ago!!

So I wait patiently all the while thinking of that ice cream and those popsicles out in the car. Finally an employee opens another cash and half of the people in front of me hurry over to her.  Good, well, not really.  I should have run over myself, they had all gone through and new people were lining up by the time I finally got to the front of my line. Instead of ringing me through though, she decides to total up her cash and make a deposit adding even more time to my wait. So I finally get out of there after what seems like a good half hour, jump into my truck feeling relieved that I can now get these frozen goodies home when I spot the gridlock ahead.

I swear, some idiot was parked in a non-parking space holding everyone up while still sitting behind the wheel acting totally oblivious to those of us who couldn't get by. I'm embarrassed to admit she was a woman. She sat there just as unconcerned as could be while the rest of were idling unable to go forward or back up because she was blocking the lanes. Finally someone crept through the blocked lane with probably less than 2" on either side and we were able to get out but she just sat there I'm sure wondering what all the fuss was about.

Thankfully that was my last hold up but after getting those groceries into the freezer, I had to laugh to myself at how so many things had held me up. You never know though, maybe it was just the Universe's way of making sure I didn't end up in the wrong place at the wrong time or maybe it just wanted a good laugh!