A Lesson Learned

Many years ago, I was shopping at Target minding my own business, gliding from aisle to aisle conquering my "list". List is in quotes because it would apparently ruin my life to actually make one and/or if I did make one, the world might come to an end if I actually managed to bring it with me. Needless to say, the "list" was inside my head. On one particular aisle, there was a lady who was "parked" on an angle with her kid sitting in it. Now granted, I could have said "excuse me" and hoped she would be kind enough to move her cart to an easier-to-pass location OR I could have just waited her out. Of course, I didn't do either of these things. Instead, I simply gingerly tried to maneuver my cart past her cart. In the process, I apparently nicked her cart. I mumbled an apology and continued down the aisle. The next thing I knew, she rushed up along side me and rammed her cart into mine. Did you get the part above where I typed that her kid was seated inside the cart? Yeah. My first thought was to say, "This is not Walmart, lady." Instead, I just stood there with my mouth agape because honestly...who acts like that? What's worse...she is teaching her kid to act like that!

Okay, but enough about that...I only mentioned that story because it was fresh on my mind and had to do with a retail establishment similar to the setting of my next story. So, here goes...

On Thursday, during lunch, I went to Walmart to grab some groceries and a few supplies. This is pretty much routine for me. It isn't that I particularly enjoy going to Walmart, BUT it is VERY close to work and they really do have much better prices on a lot of things, though their selection isn't always the greatest. I often joke (though I'm not so certain it's really joking) that Walmart gives me two reactions....either A. it makes me want to commit suicide or B. it makes me feel better about myself. It usually can go either way depending on the day/experience. Today was a suicidal day and it had nothing to do with Walmart, ironically...OR DID IT?

After doing my shopping, I walked my cart to my car, rearranged some things, and piled my groceries in. I put the cart in the cart rack, got into my car, went to put the key in the ignition and HOLY RUSTED METAL, BATMAN - THE KEY IS MISSING! Um...we know I had it when I got there since I clearly drove to Walmart. So...what could have happened? All I can guess is that the black plastic on the key must have broken. I searched the car. I searched my purse. I searched the area around my car. I searched the path to the cart. I searched the parking lot. I went to the customer service booth. All of this searching, but to no avail. I called the Chevy dealership and they told me all that I needed to bring to them as proof of ownership (everything just short of my soul) and they could make me a key. You are probably wondering where my own personal spare key is, right? Yeah...um...that's been M.I.A. since the first year I bought the car. I've searched high and low in mi casa for that puppy and gave up on it a long long time ago. So, then I called my dad and explained to him how I managed to pull a "Kim" yet again. He sent over one of our drivers, James, to come get me and take me to the dealership to get the key made.

I had decided on the way over to Chevy that if it wasn't too expensive, I should get two keys made. Once I got there, I found out it's $50 to get the code from GM and then $16.50 for each key. Sold for 2 keys, please! So, I had to wait about 15 to 20 minutes and then voila! James took me back to my Tahoe and then he headed back to the warehouse. I got in the car, put the key in and...NOTHING. I tried the other key and the same thing happened...neither key would turn. Oye! I called James back to come get me. I called the Parts Department back and told them the problem and the dude told me he would make me another set for free (ya think?!). He said he would have them ready for me when I got there. Great! So we headed back over there. Once we got there, guess what?! The keys were not ready. Apparently the manager wanted to make the keys himself this time and he wanted to have the keys that were already made so he could see if there was a difference before they sent me all the way back again. Okay, well that I appreciate. Thankfully, he saw the problem...one of the grooves was not cut deep enough. Phew! So then James took me back to the Tahoe and this time he waited for me to make sure the car would start and....IT DID! This whole process took almost 2 hours! Ugh!

The funny thing is that later that day I was telling Linda (younger sister) the story and she started laughing because a couple of years ago the same thing happened to her at...WALMART! Can you believe it? What are the chances? She just had to call my parents to get her spare from them though, since it wasn't a lost little lamb like my spare.

The lesson here: Shop at Target because clearly your key would never ever fall off the chain at Target. Your only concern there is people ramming your cart with their kid inside....