Wednesday, April 6, 2011

I believe there are angels among us...

I had the most unusual experience today.

I'd had a rough morning, but I needed to get to Target and pick up some things. We get there and trying to get Fuss to cooperate is like pulling teeth. She wasn't tantruming, but she was being difficult and kept walking in front of the cart, going off in the wrong direction, wouldn't make up her mind about things, etc. And then when we were in the absolute furthest place in the store from the bathroom, she informs me that she needs to go potty. Of course she does. So back we go to the front of the store to go to the potty. The family bathroom is under maintenance, so we have to go into the regular one. And I had tried the cart cover for the first time for Little Man, so I had to pull him out of the cart and carry him around, while also lifting her onto the toilet. Ugh. It wasn't fun.

We get back to our shopping, finish out what we need. Get in line - they have 3 open registers and one of them is blinking and there are like 10 people in line between the other two.

It's finally my turn and the lady rings me up. I put in my debit card for payment of the $75 bill and I'm dealing with a fussy baby and Fuss who keeps pulling the cart away from me and pulling it into the candy display... and the cashier says my card was rejected. So I think I put my PIN in wrong and I do it again. Still no go. No idea why it won't go through. So she's able to suspend my order so I can call the bank or my husband to get it sorted out.

And my phone dies. The baby had been playing with it, it had limited battery to begin with, and now I have no power at all.

The cashier directs me to the public phone at Guest Services. I call my husband and get him to look at the bank account and fix the problem. So then, while I'm standing there, I can't find the suspended slip. Which means I have to do the whole thing all over again. And the lines are still as busy as they were when I started the check out process, so I'm looking at another long wait with a fussy, hungry baby and an antsy toddler. The cashier walks up to me and hands me the receipt. She tells me it's done, taken care of. I ask if the payment went through. She says someone took care of it. I am a little shocked and tell her thank you. I'm amazed. As I walk to the car, I think about what just happened. Somebody - some stranger - paid $75 for my stuff.

I can't believe someone would do that. A $20 amount, maybe, but that much? A box of diapers for the young mom with 2 kids, maybe, but all my junk including a bunch of bubbles (Fuss is obsessed with bubbles these days) and a present for my husband's co-worker's 3-yr-old daughter included.

There are angels among us. And I thank them for helping me out of a rough situation and a crappy day.

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