The People In Your Supermarket

This week I am not working, which gives me the opportunity to do things like go to the supermarket during off times. Oh. The rush-hours of supermarkets are rush hour on weekdays (like 5-7pm) and Saturday and Sundays (times will vary - towns where people go to church on Sunday mornings will have empty supermarkets then, though they may not sell you alcohol until after 12pm).

Anyway. My point is that I went to the supermarket today around 4pm thinking it wouldn't be crowded but I was wrong and wound up in a very long express line. In front of me was a guy who looked like a recovering junkie. Behind me was a chinese guy who initially stepped into my dance space until I looked at him, and then he apologized and moved back. When I smiled at him, he gestured at the In Touch magazine in front of us with Angelina Jolie on the cover and asked me what postpartum means.

I stumbled through some words involving "hormones" and "after being pregnant" and he nodded. "That's the one everyone takes Prozac for, yeah?" Uhhh.... I don't know. "What does Prozac do?" I don't know. He continues to ask me questions about hormones and Prozac and I continue to make noises indicating I know nothing about this.

Luckily for the friendly chinese guy, the friendly junkie was all to happy to share his wife's experiences with needing a hysterectomy and then going through early menopause (the junkie was in his late 30's to early 40's) and hormone replacement therapy.

Now we've got the two guys talking with each other around me, who does not want to be listening to this at all. Finally the junkie leaves and it's my turn. The chinese guy was really friendly to the cashier, asking him "How much more time?"

The cashier had no idea what he was being asked, so I explained, "He is asking how much longer your shift is." I bagged my shit and got the hell out of there.

While I was waiting for my bus I saw the junkie and chinese guy exchanging phone numbers. I bet they'll have a nice talk about hormones later this week.