And the cycle continues...

Does this ever happen to you?

You're having a pleasant afternoon, watching tv programs you've recorded from the previous week and enjoying a snack of chips and salsa. Suddenly the salsa runs out but you have several chips left in your bowl. So you get more salsa. But then...you run out of chips but you have a lot of salsa left. You can't pour it back in, that's like a total Seinfeld faux pas – practically double dipping, so you have to get more chips. And the cycle continues until you're out of both salsa and chips and you've gained about 10 pounds from your 'snack'.

I hate when that happens.

So I'm going vent and see if I can drop a couple pounds of salsa and chips off.

I went to the store today and, of course, brought my bags. I was going to use the self checkout but they only had 1 (of 10) lanes available and a hottie was already using it. I was going to stand in line after him but being a Monday afternoon it was awfully slow the lady at 12 items or less said she'd help me even though I had more than 12.

So I said, I have my own bags and I can bag my stuff, thanks. She starts scanning everything and when she gets to the chicken I reach for it but she swings it into a (egads!) plastic bag. I literally gasped and groaned out loud, “Ohhhhhh, I didn't want that in a plastic bag.” And she looked at me as if I was insane and I was forced to take it because she had already used the bag and to take the chicken out and reuse the bag for someone else would be a bigger double-dipping-faux pas so I was ticked the rest of the time I was there.

And I still am, obviously.

I know, I know, that it's their job, and I know that not everyone can be as cool and hip as I am (she says tongue in cheek and eyes rolling). But here's my bigger beef: Why can't they just ask? It's a simple thing to do, “Would you like your scrumptious, already plastic-wrapped chicken in a separate bag?” “Why, no, thank you! It will be quite lovely in my fabulous reusable bags I have with me right here.” (read that out loud with an English accent...it's much more fun.)

I mean, seriously. They already ask you how the weather is, and how you're doing, and if you found everything okay. Why can't they add one more to their repertoire and ask if I'd like my chicken in a separate bag? Or are 4 too many questions to memorize amongst coupon codes and scanning items?