One for the road

I suppose insomnia pays off if I have time to write a blog spot before I head off into parts unknown. Well not so much unknown, but we are hitting a new shopping town on this trip. It's time again for our yearly shopping expedition to the states. My 2nd run, and I think the 7th for the rest of the ladies. A week of hotels, restaurants and shopping awaits. And hopefully a good number of bookstores to keep my crankiness and antisocial tendencies in check.

So I was at the bus stop the other day, standing way off to the side having a smoke (terrible habit!) away from everyone else and this older lady comes down next to me to light hers saying the girl up there had just asked her "You're not going to light that here are you?". So she moved. She said she didn't have a problem moving away, but felt the girl had been rude about it. Now i don't blame the girl for asking the lady to move because smoke is pretty gross, but i don't really think she had to be rude about it. Anyway that's not really the point of this story, it's just how the story starts. So I chat with the lady for a minute and then move on to the stop when i finish and think I see my bus coming. She tells me to have a nice day, and that it was nice to meet a nice person. This is funny because I'm not exactly known for being chatty and friendly at bus stops. Or anywhere else for that matter.

As it turns out, it wasn't my bus, but the lady had headed up to the stop beside me because she was waiting for the same bus. At this point I'm mostly hoping she doesn't try and sit with me when the bus does show up. She has a few bags with her and points out a pot of flowers in an NSLC bag. I say they're pretty and she tells me she got them at Wal-Mart. The conversation went something like this:

"Aren't these nice flowers, i just got them over at Wal-Mart"
Me: "Yeah, they're nice"
"I was walking outside Wal-mart and I saw them all outside so I picked them up and looked around, but I couldn't see anywhere to pay."
Me: "I think you have to bring them inside to pay."
"Yeah, well i didn't see anyone to pay so I just walked away with them."
Me ".........oh"
"They weren't in the bag at first, but I put them in here when I came over to the bus stop."
Me "Oh yeah?"
"I'm glad no one saw me taking the flowers. It would have been really embarrassing to have been chased down."
Me "Yes, i would have. Oh look! There's the bus, have a nice day".

You never know what you're going to encounter on the bus.

That's all for now, trip updates to come!