27 Is Making Me Surly

My husband left today for Men's Camp. This means that all the murderers in my neighborhood should choose tonight to break into my house and kill me. I'll be keeping our trusty sword on the pillow next to me but I'm not terribly good at wielding it. Side note: Yes, my husband actually keeps a sword under the bed. It's incredibly dull but he figures if he hits someone on the head hard enough, it will do some damage. This has a small chance of working provided the perpetrator isn't carrying a gun. In the case that he is, my sword swinging husband stands no chance at all.

After my husband and one of my favorite guys, Pastor Ed Hearn, left for camp I took my kiddo for a walk. We went over to The District (a shopping area just around the corner). We used my gift card to get a Jamba Juice and then we walked through Petco, one of Garrett's favorite hangouts. I decided to pick up a terrarium heater for Hiss who, by the way, is growing like a rotten little weed and has shed his skin already. I walked up to the counter and stood there for a good five minutes. Then I started wandering around looking for someone. Then I went back and stood there some more. Finally I went over to Reptile & Fish Girl. Now, I am not a big fan of Reptile & Fish Girl. There used to be someone else who worked there who was always really nice to Garrett and I liked her. New Reptile & Fish Girl is not my personal favorite. This is because of the fact that when we went to pick up the terrarium for Hiss she was less than helpful.

Me: We just caught a little tiny garter snake. Should I just give it tiny feeder fish and meal worms?
Her: Um. Well. Uh. (Now I don't expect her to know everything but she could have asked someone or looked it up or something). I don't even think we have meal worms right now.
Me: (thinking about how that was so not my question) Ooookay. Can you just fish out three of your smallest feeders for me? (I say as I point to the feeder fish aquarium and chuckle to myself about my hilarious play on words. HILARIOUS. Are you laughing?)

At this point she seems really annoyed at having to locate small ones. I kind of wanted to say something along the lines of "I'm really sorry for inconveniencing you, what with all the other customers waiting for your help." The place was dead. What I said instead was, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience." And I said it nicely because I don't have a single confrontational bone in my body. Well, maybe my incus is confrontational but being that it's very, very small I think it hardly counts.

So today, after waiting for well over five minutes but not quite ten, I walked over to her. She was helping someone else but I said, "Do you know if there is anyone else here who can help me check out?" I just realized that it sounded kind of like I wanted to buy drugs and then have myself a nice little trip but I think she knew what I meant.

Her: (Gives me a look as if to say, "Can't you tell that it isn't your turn?") I'll help you when I'm done here.
Me: Oh. Okay. Thanks. No rush. I just thought maybe someone else was around.

I went back and stood at the counter for another few minutes. Then she appeared, walked into their little office, reappeared, looked at me, and snipped, "I'll be with you in a few minutes." At that point Garrett was getting really bored and starting to grab candy bars and push buttons on things and I was trying to corral him. Why, might I ask, do they have candy bars in Petco? Now I'd been waiting for a really long time and I'd pretty much had it. She never said anything like, "Hey, I'm sorry. I'm the only person working right now." Instead she just acted extremely perturbed with me and I know she wasn't the only one working because I saw another worker walk through and disappear behind a mysterious door. I looked down at my terrarium heater, considered the fact that I might be able to find it cheaper at WalMart, and walked out the door. Without it, that is. I didn't shop lift.

I never do that. What's wrong with me? Am I getting surly now that I've turned 27? On the walk home I had imaginary dialogue with myself about how it was only a twenty dollar purchase but it was twenty dollars they'll never see simply because of the fact that their employee, Reptile & Fish Girl, doesn't know the meaning of the word customer service.