Common Sense Shortage

Are you picky about how something gets done? Even if you are a generally laid back person, I bet there is something you are anal about. Do you like your dishwasher loaded a certain way? Do you absolutely have to have stripes in your carpet from your vacuum (so you know it's clean)? Do you insist on all your canned food in order and lined up just right like that freaky dude from Sleeping with the Enemy?

I have a few of those nitpicky things that I want done just right. For example, I'm very particular about how the laundry is sorted and what clothes get washed together. Just separating out two piles-- one for colors and one for whites-- is not good enough. Some people may call me crazy, but yes, in my house laundry is separated into seven different categories. Just one of my little quirks.

Well, another one of my little picky obsessions is how my groceries are bagged. It's a remnant from my days long ago as a "courtesy clerk" (which is just a fancy name for a bagger). When I was being trained they actually made us sit down and watch a video about how you bag the cold stuff together, the cleaning supplies separately, don't bag all the glass bottles together-- you know, pretty straightforward, common sense stuff. I like to think I was pretty good at keeping things where they should be, even with random stuff flying down the conveyor in huge masses. (A few unusually opinionated old people would disagree with that though-- one guy yelled at me for putting his pastries on top of his eggs. Apparently, he thought it was better that his eggs squish his pastries. Ah well, can't get it all right!) During this time I developed an obsession for having my own groceries bagged appropriately.

Of course, most of my grocery shopping is done at Walmart nowadays, and Walmart has no baggers. I'm not so unreasonable as to expect the cashier to somehow manage to sort through random grocery craziness while ringing up my order, so I always line up my stuff on the conveyor belt to make it easy. Heavy stuff first, cold stuff together, cleaning or household goods separate, produce at the back, and my fragile stuff like chips or bread at the very, very end. I figure even if the cashier is lacking in common sense, the right stuff should still end up mostly together anyway.

So how is it that nearly every week I come home with my popsicles mixed in with macaroni and apples? Or my laundry detergent with my soy milk? Or four jars together with the frozen peas lying on top? Seriously, I have seen the cashier reach across my neatly ordered lineup to grab something utterly unrelated to scan and drop in the bag.

I know I'm insanely picky about this, but for pete's sake, people!!! If you just scan the stuff in the order it comes, we'll all be happier! Sheesh!

(I feel better now that I've got this off my chest. Now I can survive the next ten years of finding my eggs stashed sideways next to a row of canned beans.)