First Time for Everything

I went to Borders today. I have a Visa card through them, and after I spend a certain amount on my card, I get a $5 gift card. They aren't normal gift cards though; they're little paper things that have to be typed in manually, and one by one. Not a big deal you think? Well, today I brought in $85 in cards. For those of you who are a little slower at math, that's 17 individual gift cards. (I think. :) ) Anyway, I bought a CD for my dad, and Hope Floats for myself because I've been wanting to watch it lately, and I gave away all of my VHS tapes. I realized that there was something that I wanted to get for Mitch, but it was WAY expensive, and I had forgotten my 40% off coupon, so I waited. I went ahead and checked out the first time, buying only the CD and movie. Only one person in the store knew how to use the gift cards, and she seemed quite annoyed by that fact. It took about 5-7 minutes before she jumped in. No big deal. I stood there with a smile on my face, feeling sorry for the poor girl who got ME as a customer. 15 minutes, $2.00 out of pocket, and 3 cashiers later, I walked out of the door. I ran a few more errands, and then went to the church to eat lunch with my mom. She printed off the coupon for me, and I went back to borders. (The coupon was only good for one day, and it was 40% off of ANY box set in the store.)

I got back, had to get someone to unlock the case for me, picked out my box set, and then went back up to the front to check out. To my dismay, the girl who checked me out before, and had the gift card thing down by that point, must have been on break because she wasn't up there. The 2nd girl to try to help was though.

She got confused though because I was trying to use a gift card and a coupon. I assured her that what I had were gift cards (10 more to be exact) and they were not coupons, so they could be used with a coupon. She then asked to see my borders card, so I whipped out my teacher card. Well, you don't get those coupons with the teacher cards, and I don't carry my other one, so I had to give her my email address. Apparently I was speaking in some language other than English because she couldn't seem to figure out the word *interiors*, so I finally broke down and wrote my email address ON the coupon. She got that in, but could not remember how to do the gift certificates, so she had to call a manager.

He came, went through the process, and I walked out with the James Bond Box Set 2 for only $8.00 out of pocket. Now, don't think I'm a crazy cheap person who is not going to actually buy a gift. That one was a bonus because I couldn't pass up the deal.

When I was done, the girl turned to me and said something that I have never in my life heard. NEVER!!! She told me I must be really patient! What?!? Me?!? I didn't know what to say. I just stood there starring at her, trying to figure out what to say. I think I finally mumbled (I'd rather be here procrastinating the mess at home waiting for me to clean) and walked out of the building.

Now, I know you guys know me fairly well, so you can imagine why I was so surprised. Sharon Berry used to sing "Have Patience" to me, which really made me crazy! I don't know why I was so laid back today, but apparently it's a good look on me. I was like this before, post college through about my first year back from Africa. I wouldn't ever say that I was patient though.

Ok, I've bored you all enough for now.