Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

So this happened.

I’ve been dealing with tremendous guilt for freaking out at being coughed on, frightening my little stalker. Pretty sure she was now too scared to knock on my door, but equally sure I’d see her around, I felt so guilty that I planned to apologize for scaring her and, when I popped into the market after yesterday’s workout, I picked up a little sumthin sumthin to go along with the apology.

Didn’t take long for me to "see her around" because, returning from the market, just as I pulled into my parking spot, she and Grandma Talker pulled into their spot next to mine.

Talker said they were returning from the doctor’s office, where granddaughter had gotten her allergy shot.

I guess this was Talker’s way of letting me know the coughing wasn’t cooties, but allergies, nothing I needed to worry about.

But tell me this … Are allergy sufferers given shots? I may have misunderstood, she may  have said "medicine" instead.

At any rate, granddaughter looked afraid of me, was kind of hiding behind a pillar, but came out when I said I was sorry I freaked out and asked, "Do you forgive me?"

She said yes, LOL.

I then asked that she follow me upstairs because I had something in one of the grocery bags for her.

Grandma Talker made her mask up (so I wouldn't freak out if she started coughing again???) and she followed me up the stairs where she seemed pleased, said "No way" and gave me a hug when she saw what I had for her.

I’m back to being hugged again.

Two steps forward, one step back, but at least my guilt has abated, my conscious is clear, and I think she does now understand, or at least will be hesitate, to continue with the knock knock knocking at my door.

Dressed for warm weather today, because that’s how the sunny weather made the day appear, I was halfway down the stairs, on my way to the college campus to test out the crazy glued trekking poles, when I realized I’d been duped. It was actually chilly and a little too windy to be out walking.

Since I was outside, I decided, though it’s nowhere near Easter, to go hunting for eggs because, when I’d popped into the market after yesterday’s workout, I’d found tons of eggs at the reasonable price of $4.99, but they were the cage free store brand and I’m spoiled. I prefer Eggland’s Best Organic.

First stop was the market in the opposite direction — the one I’ve been avoiding because the kid that works there, who doesn’t even know my name, refers to me as "The nice one" had gotten a little too friendly and invited me to a party at his house.

I lucked up. He wasn’t there … in fact, it didn’t look like any of the cashiers were there. I only saw one and the other stations had been converted to those self-checkouts.

Did they fire everyone else … lay them off?

I keep seeing on the news that there’s a hiring surge "U.S. adds 517,000 jobs, Unemployment Drops to 3.4%". I’m calling B.S. on that because, how can it be true when so many are being replaced by self-checkouts and even tech companies are laying off.

So, anyway, I did find Eggland’s Best. They only had 3 dozen at $8.99 in stock. That’s twice as much as the store brand at the other store, but the heart wants what the heart wants, so I took two of the three dozen.

Back at the complex, I spent the afternoon working on that needlepoint project while catching up on recorded TV programs.

I’d seen the finale of Worst Cooks in America, missed a few episodes in between, but this season had been the best season ever, the group of contestants so stupid hilarious that I watched the recorded episodes I’d missed.

While doing so, I noticed a shirt one of the contestants was wearing matched a 12x12 sheet of scrapbook paper I had in storage.

What do ya say?

I say it's a dead ringer.

If by some odd set of circumstances our paths should ever cross, I'll give him the sheet. He can use it as background and frame the photo of himself wearing that shirt.