Should’ve said.

Have you ever had an experience where something unpleasant happened to you and you said nothing.   Maybe it was because you were so appalled that you didn’t know what to say, or maybe you had to bite your tongue.

Yesterday, I had an experience at Sam’s club that has had me wishing I would have said something.

I was brought up to stand up for myself.  Not to be sassy or rude, but when someone is treating you rudely or unfairly, to stand up,  to speak up for yourself. 

I remember one time, one of those rare times we were out to eat at a fast food restaurant as a family, and the young woman who was taking our order was not acting like the happiest person on earth at the time.  It showed in her attitude toward us.

My mom wouldn’t stand for it.  She didn’t say anything to the young lady in front of us, she didn’t yell at her, she didn’t humiliate her.  After our order was taken, after we found our way to some tables, my mom went back up to this young woman, alone, and talked to her.  She simply told her that she was being rude, that no one deserved to be treated that way and she certainly didn’t appreciate it.  She got an apology.

Now it’s not that I am stewing about this, thinking of what I could have said that would have been mind-blowing, life-changing, instead it is the smart-alec comments that roll around in my head as to what I could have said.

But I try to be Christ-like, so maybe it is better that I said nothing.

I was also thankful that I was so appalled with the way I was being treated, that I knew not what to say.

I was on a good one yesterday evening as I was preparing dinner.  My allergies were bugging me so bad, it took a long two hours (seriously) to get Lynn’s two items of reading homework read, Ashley was pestering Peyton and crying about this one toy that she wants, but can’t have until she earns it, and Peyton had just woken up from a nap, and she was ornery with Ashley’s teasing her.

I was anticipating the reception dinner would have from 2/5ths of the family, the state of my stuffy head, itchy eyes, runny nose, and tiredness, not to mention my aforementioned trip to Sam’s club.

I really didn’t need to go, if I had only remembered where I put the allergy medicine at the end of the season last year..  they were in the food storage.  I found that out after the trip, when I had to go put the extra bottles of medicine away.  Duh.

I won’t go into specifics of my interactionS with the checker and the front end manager, I will just share the gem that I came up with, all too late.

I set my club card atop the lane divider as the gentleman in front of me wouldn’t move all the way up to the point where most people interact with the employees and later exchange money.  I did have a whole cart to unload, and wanted my card to be available for her to swipe as soon as this guy was on his way, with his ONE GALLON OF SKIM MILK.

As a result of the conveyer belt’s jolting, and my card being on top of a very unstable lane divider, my card fell off, and was nearly lost to the depths of the conveyer belt’s inner workings.

“Excuse me!”  she yelled.  I was kind of confused because this guy was still standing there holding out his cash, ready to pay for his ONE GALLON OF SKIM MILK, and I was wondering if she was talking to him or me.

It was me.

“Your card almost fell down there.” she said, pointing at the small gap between her scanner and the end of the belt.

“Oh!  Thanks for rescuing it for me.”  I smiled, and went back to unloading my CARTLOAD OF HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS OF GOODS.

“For future reference, just hand it to us.  I don't’ know if we would have been able to get it back.” 

What do you say to that?  Never mind the rest of my dealings at cash register number 8 that day..  what should I have said to that, maybe to nip her little attitude in the bud…?

I figured it out later.

Far too much later.

It is a real gem.

I usually don’t mind Sam’s club too much, but now that my world has been changed with my newly acquired Costco membership, and all the friendly people there,  I know too much.

I should have said, “Oh!  I am so relieved it wasn’t my Costco card..  I just don’t know what I would do without that!”