It all began easily enough. Marilyn and I were to go to Which Wich to get sandwiches for the Cool People Care crew. We almost made it - we grabbed the eleven requested sandwich bags, marked the preparation details, added the names, and turned them in to the check-out clerk. She tallied the total and waited for our remuneration. I promptly handed her my Visa, which she swiped. And swiped again. Apparently the card was declined, so she swiped another few times, only to find it was still declined.
Undeterred, I gave her the Master Card. Again with the swiping and declining. I gave her my Regions debit card. Swipe, decline, repeat. Apparently I had not only completely run out of money, I no longer had a credit line.
Enter big sister to the rescue. She flashed her credit card, only to be swiped and declined. She produced another card that was not only swipable, but also declinable. The 12-year-old who was also the store manager decided to test the machine, and his employee purchase of a $1.27 bag of chips was accepted. He smiled his boyish grin, shrugged his shoulders, and went back to putting brownies in paper bags.
The clerk and the sandwich cooks and Marilyn and I all stared at each other, obviously at an impasse with no clear path to follow. I had my customary $7.42 in change in my billfold. I asked Marilyn if she had any cash, to which she contributed her travel monies of $24.72. The combined booty was not quite enough to cover the total of the food purchase. More staring ensued.
Finally someone, probably the Vanderbilt students waiting in line behind me, suggested we go to the nearest ATM. Marilyn scurried out the door, down the block to the money machine, and returned to the store with the needed ransom for the sandwiches, which had been prepared at that point and were ready to be devoured. With money tightly clenched in my chubby little fist, I returned to the cash register, turned it in to the check out girl, and triumphantly strode out the door, nearly tripping over the sidewalk in the process.
One would think our morning adventure would be enough adventure for one day. But now, in an effort to save time, the following is a summary of the remainder of our day:
After delivering our rescued sandwich order to the CPCers at Earth Day at Centennial Park, we drove around for at least an hour looking for some catfish place in which to dine for lunch. We rejected one because we couldn't see in the windows, another place because the only catfish came in sandwiches, and several others because they were closed. We continued to drive around for an hour, searching for just the right spot to eat, which finally ended up about a mile from the park ... which we had left two hours earlier.
After eating our catfish and shrimp po-boys, we finally arrived back home. Marilyn decided to take her new running shoes for a test walk. While she was gone, I noticed that Lynnette's (who was jogging in the neighborhood) car had a flat tire. Soon a time dilemma presented itself because we had a massage scheduled and the walker/jogger were nowhere to be seen. Finally they return and we took Lynnette home, stopping on the way for a Subway (first trying to order from a take-out window that wasn't) then racing to Massage Envy for an hour with the massage men.
After that blissful fifty minutes, we stopped at Target to get some Fix A Flat to inflate Lynnette's tire in order to make it to Firestone to get new tires before her existing albeit rotting ones blew out completely. We were going to reward ourselves with drinks at Sonic, only to find it torn up and getting retrofitted. Instead we went to Starbucks for frapps, followed by a trip to Walgreen's to see Maribeth at work.
There we were instructed to get some lip balm for $2.99 in order to earn a $2.00 refund for a future purchase which we immediately did for two cokes which meant we got two free candy bars. We also got a pack of cherry tomato seeds - I know, random. Anyhoo, reeling from the money we saved, we went back home and lay on the couch for an hour trying to decide on our dinner menu. In the interim, Sam dropped by and we decided to follow him to his house to return Lynnette's car which was completed successfully.
On our final trip back home, we finally decided on our supper menu and got chicken noodle soup at Walgreen's and three DVDs from Redbox which we didn't watch, preferring to watch "Grey Gardens" on cable.
Tomorrow Marilyn will return to Baltimore unscathed if we manage to get through breakfast and the trip to the airport. The gas tank is full, the GPS is ready, and I have my banker on call. I think we're ready for Sunday!
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