Where Shopping Is A Pleasure.

Today was a long, crappy day, putting the icing on the cake of a long, crappy week. I left work and sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic for 30 minutes. Then I arrived at the daycare to learn that my little angel has been anything BUT angelic. For like a week now.

He threw a big fat tantrum while two of his teachers talked to me about his behavior. He literally screamed the whole time. I hung on to his arm and ignored it, wondering if I should take him into the bathroom and *beat his ass, or if that was too rash … because after all, it had been a long, crappy day and I didn’t want to overreact.

Two year olds have a way of making you question your sanity.

Eventually we made it to the car. He pitched a fit the entire way to Publix. I dreaded going to the store, and would have avoided it altogether except we were completely out of diapers, toilet paper, milk, and bananas. I didn’t want to have to go first thing in the morning.

So we went.

This is the reason why I love Publix: they truly do make shopping a pleasure. In fact, when the Toddler saw the green sign up ahead he said “Pubbix!” and instantly stopped crying. He likes to ride in the cart that looks like a big green car. The employees smiled at us, oblivious to the chaos that had preceded our visit. They offered samplings of food and gave him a balloon.

As we checked out, another meltdown began. He was hungry. I told him we would have dinner as SOON as we got home. He insisted he wanted a snack. I said no, dinner was very soon. The bag boy witnessed it all and bless him, tried to distract my son into forgetting about his hunger. And then … then. That boy loaded my groceries for me.

I have never accepted the loading service at Publix. I just prefer to do it myself. Even when I was hugely pregnant, I said no thank you. I figured there were plenty of elderly patrons who needed to be loaded up instead. I have a pride issue. But today — today I accepted.

And it was AWESOME.

* for those of you who don’t know me personally, and may not understand that “beat his ass” is just a figure of speech, I wanted to let you know that I only mean popping his butt quickly three times and that is all. Just wanted to clear that up.