Liver spots

Saturday was a busy day for us at home. Packing had been put off for quite a while and Noe was getting impatient. So we spent most of the morning getting that out of the way. And then I got into a tussle with the doctors office about a prescription medication that a needs more than a 30 day supply of, and insurance was balking..when do they willingly pay for anything, by the way?

Anyway, I managed to get the prescription and drop it off at the nearby Safeway and was asked to pick it up in an hour.

I coerced Noe into coming along for the return trip and so we go back and find 4 people in line ahead of us. Not too bad!

And there we were staring at the butter aisle near us( did you know they sell Amish rolled butter in 2 lb packages??),  when an old white guy, definitely in his late seventies or early eighties walk past us, staring at the line. He whipped his phone out, a look of displeasure on his face and proceeded to call someone and let them know that he absolutely hated the store and that the line was too long..seven people ahead of him( no, it was five, Noe and I were together,as were a couple ahead of us), and that the place was too crowded and the demographics was all different...huh?? Say whaaat?

I quickly looked at the people ahead of me and they were all Caucasian. The guy didn't seem to have done any shopping so I wasn't sure he'd run into ' other' ethnicities to be that riled. 

Was it Noe and me? Hmmm....tough luck I thought to myself.  

He even proceeded to tell the person that he would not fill prescriptions at this Safeway ever again and would go back to some place( the name of which he couldn't come up with) on 23rd..which I assumed was the well known Trendythird street in Portland..fufu if you know what I mean..name dropping huh....

I was amused but also irritated that someone could be that blatantly loud and annoying and daring about their attitude which needed major correction. Be Xenophobic, but in the privacy of your house is my take. Or better yet,  don't be Xenophobic at all!!

I just finished up and walked out shaking my head at people's attitude and forgot about it all in an hour.

The very next day I went off to Walmart to return something and at the return counter was a very old white lady helping another very old white lady..whoa...I remembered the experience from Safeway and was internally prepared to grit my teeth and get it over with.

While explaining to her why I was returning whatever I was returning, I just mentioned that it was a mistake and I probably was thinking of something else while ordering it online. By then Noe had already asked me a couple of things and I saw the lady give him curious looks.  She was kind of assessing him and had this look of ' I know what this is' in her eyes. 

Just then Noe asked me what I had been thinking of and before I could open mouth and say something inane, she told him in the sweetest voice possible , " I'm sure your Mom was thinking of you!!". 

Wow!! The soft endearing tone, the amusement and care that shone in her eyes, the look she gave me that said, she knew what the circumstances were and she was on my side...I was so touched. 

And then came my shame, I had been weirdly Xenophobic too..I had remembered one bad experience and looked at her skin color and had clumped her with an old, disgruntled guy. 

What I had thought of him with such disdain, I had become that which I detested.

People are the same everywhere.  It is nature and nurture that decided how they function here on earth. The color of their skin, their sexual orientation, their religious belief,  political leaning, education, none of these things matter..none.