Last night my dad did the grocery shopping late, and got home around 10:30pm. While we were all putting away the groceries, he happened to mention in passing that my grapefruit juice had been on sale 40% off.
It was like one of those moments on tv when you can hear the screeching halt of a record, as everything comes to a standstill. FORTY PERCENT OFF??? And here's the rub: it was a Saturday night -- the night that all weekly sales END.
With scarcely 40 minutes until closing time and my grandmom's Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket, we sped off to the grocery store to buy up their remaining stock of grapefruit juice before it climbed back up to it's outrageous price of $4.99 per bottle. They only had six bottles left on the shelf, so we loaded those into the cart & got rain checks for 16 more. But that, my friends, was not enough.
With now 15 minutes until closing, we got in line at the store behind a lady with a jam-packed cart who wanted to pay for her order with two separate cards, but couldn't find either in her purse. When we finally got back in the car, we had a mere 10 minutes to get to the other grocery store down the street.
My dad pulled up in front of the store at 11:58PM, I hopped out, grabbed a cart and zoomed over to the doors, only to find they had locked them two minutes early! As I stood there, I stared in disbelief, recounting the small things I could have done differently to have made it in time. Getting in line BEFORE the slow lady, checking out on my own while my dad got the rain checks instead of standing there with him, even putting on the shoes that were laying near the front door instead of running upstairs to my room to grab my favorite pair .. any of these things could have guaranteed me more grapefruit juice.
Just as I was about to give up all hope, a man came out the store and let me squeeze my cart in through the exit door! I WAS IN! I rushed past the manager who yelled "we're closing in two minutes!", skidded into the juice aisle and threw nine more bottles into the cart before leaving, the last customer in the store.
If anyone has ever doubted my commitment to, and obsession with grapefruit juice, I dare you to continue your disbelief. DARE YOU! ;-D
ps. When you work from home and live in a boring suburban town, this is the height of adventure!