In Which I Am Not Mindful While Shopping In The Grocery Store

April 2, 2013January 28, 2021 / Ally Bean / 20 Comments

I found myself with an hour of free time late in the afternoon. As I was already out & about I decided to run into Kroger to pick up a few things. Because I wasn’t planning on going there, I didn’t have my shopping list with me.

I knew that I needed 6 items to make what I had in mind for dinner, so I decided to assign each ingredient to a finger/thumb. The result of this impromptu shopping list was that I looked like a child counting on my fingers as I shopped. Goofy as it was, my finger list did work. BUT it also meant that I started pushing my cart, a large one, with one hand.

And if there is anything that you must remember about me, it is that I am not too coordinated. Clumsy, even.

Thus, it will come as no surprise when I tell you that while counting on one hand and pushing the cart with my other hand I managed to block a produce aisle with my catty-wampus, slightly out-of-control cart.

I knew immediately that I was in the way. Pretty much because I heard the metal clank of my cart bumping another cart head-on. It’s a sound one recognizes even while staring at one’s fingers and thumb.

I looked up ready to offer an apology when I realized that the woman who I’d inconvenienced was Lilias Folan. As in someone famous. As in someone with a nationally syndicated PBS TV show. As in the woman who is sometimes credited with introducing yoga to the USA.

Yep, that’s who I bashed into in the grocery produce department. Good job, Ms. Bean.

But here’s the thing, Lilias was just standing there with a kind smile on her face waiting for the crazy lady [moi] to get out of her way. She had no where to back up to, so her choice was to be patient OR to get angry. And because she was living her life off the mat as she did on the mat, she chose the former.

Of course, me being me, after I said that I was sorry I tried to explain myself by babbling about fingers and no shopping list and dinner– et cetera, et cetera. And my dithery explanation, I’m happy to report, got Lilias laughing.

This made me feel better about my screw-up and got me thinking that it’s time for me to get back into yoga because I want to be that older woman with perfect posture, a calm aura & the ability to laugh when things go wrong.

And who better to emulate than Lilias? The bumpee in my ~~brush~~ bump with greatness.

Two Nice Guys With The Same Name

February 7, 2013February 7, 2013 / Ally Bean / 21 Comments

My Zen-Den rented a car. While either in the rental office or while driving the car, my Zen-Den’s black leather business card organizer wallet fell out of his computer bag. He did not know that this had happened.

This wallet holds about 40 plastic cards that my Zen-Den uses at hotels & airlines & car rental kiosks when he travels for work. Also, once upon a time my Zen-Den stuck a receipt for a car service visit in the back of this wallet.

[It would be at this point in the story that I could go off on a snarky tangent about paying attention to what’s going on around you… don’t adopt an absent-minded professor persona… zip the sides of you computer bag. But I won’t.]

• • •

Last Tuesday morning we received at the house an overnight package. On it was the oddest address label. The label said that Zen-Den in MI had sent Zen-Den in OH this package. I figured that it was work related, so I didn’t open it.

[I could have opened the package immediately but:

It wasn’t addressed to me, which technically means that I shouldn’t open it– like that’s ever stopped me before; &

I live in fear of anthrax dust because I’ve watched a gazillion times that NCIS episode where Tony gets the bubonic plague. Hey, don’t judge. It could happen.]

• • •

When my Zen-Den came home from work I handed him the package. He had no idea what was in it, so we both watched as he opened it. And there was his black leather business card organizer wallet.

There wasn’t a note in the package with the wallet, so we had no idea how the other Zen-Den came to have my Zen-Den’s black leather business card organizer wallet. There was only the address label with the other Zen-Den’s business address/phone number on it.

[Again, I could make a big issue of the fact that a stranger had information about my Z-D’s vehicle and license plate number and credit card, but that would make me sound churlish, so I won’t mention it here.]

• • •

So the next day my Zen-Den phoned the other Zen-Den and they talked. Come to find out someone at the car rental company had found the wallet. When the car rental company went through their records, they found the other Zen-Den’s name/address & sent him my Zen-Den’s black leather business card organizer wallet.

The other Zen-Den knew that it wasn’t his, but he took the time to look through it where he discovered the car service receipt with our home address on it. Then, because he was a nice older gentleman, he just mailed it to my Zen-Den. No big deal. Just did something nice.

My Zen-Den offered to reimburse the other Zen-Den for the cost of mailing, but the other Zen-Den said not to worry about it. He had it covered.

And that, gentle readers, is how it came to be that my Zen-Den got his black leather business card organizer wallet back. Amazing, huh? Who’d have thought that there’d be two nice guys with the same name? Just glad that there are.