My trip to the $1 store

I don’t get embarrassed by much. Usually, I am all too eager to share my foibles and failures on my blog for all to see. But there is one story I almost didn’t share. One which I felt truly embarrassed by, until I told it out loud a few times and decided it wasn’t all that bad.

A few days before Christmas, I had Ellie shake out the contents of her piggy bank so we could go to the dollar store and buy a present from her for Jack and Tom. She poured about $4 in change into her little pink purse and off we went. Because I had just finished feeding Jack, I knew I only had a 3 hour window and I didn’t want to waste any time getting myself ready. Meaning that I walked out my front door in sweats, no makeup, and straggly hair. It’s like your pride goes out the window the minute the doctor slices your belly open. Anyway, back to my story. While in the car, I vaguely remember Ellie saying she spilled some of her money. I told her to pick it up, but was too distracted by something shiny to give it much thought. We pull up to the dollar store and the place is packed. It is insane how many people were frantically shopping for low quality goods. Ellie picked out a gigantic pencil for Tom and a blanket for Jack along with gift bags to put them in. I had a dollar in my purse so I picked up some tape.

The line at the register was crazy long, but instead of getting the money out and ready like a normal person, I busied myself with reinserting Jack’s pacifier into his mouth multiple times and making funny faces at him. When it was our turn to pay, what do you know, but Ellie only has like $1.78 in her purse! I can only assume the rest of her change was rolling around on the floor of my car. I frantically dig through my wallet, counting out pennies, nickels, and dimes while the people in the line behind me start getting restless. And, of course, the cashier insists on recounting everything after I have already counted it. By this time, people are actually making comments to each other about how rude I am. In the end, I am told that I am 36 cents short. I stand there for a second debating whether or not to put 36 cents on my debit card when a man in line throws down a dollar and says somewhat angrily, “Here. Just take it.” I thanked him profusely and mumbled something about how much Ellie had wanted to buy these presents herself. I can only imagine what I looked like to all those people in line. This poor, unkempt mother with two small children who could not even afford $5 worth of merchandise from the dollar store.

I sure hope Tom appreciates his pencil.