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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

To Hell & Back

Today was one of THOSE days. It started out okay and then went steadily downhill from there.

I had to go to the big city of Aberdeen to pick up some new prescriptions for my wife plus do a little grocery shopping. Though we could certainly get our prescriptions filled at our local pharmacy, poverty has caused us to use the wretched Walmart (very poor labor and unionization record) because they offer steep discounts for many medicines.

I had not set foot inside a Walmart store for nearly a decade. Part of it has to do my great dislike for the discount giant, but the larger reason is that Walmart attracts a lot of shoppers and, as I've chronicled here, I don't do crowds. Unfortunately, I had to make an exception today due to circumstances.

When my wife has gone to the Walmart pharmacy, she's usually in and out in around 5 - 20 minutes. I was hoping that I could follow this pattern as I thought that 20 minutes max would be as much time as I could be in there without having to deal with a meltdown (sort of like a panic attack, but not quite the same thing).

Of course, since I was counting on this, that's not the way it went at all. I arrived early in the day -- about 10:15 a.m. -- in the hope I would miss the main shopping thrust. There was only 1 pick up window open as the other two were experiencing computer problems. So, I got in line behind a baker's dozen of other customers.

It took over 30 minutes until it was my turn at the window. I was really antsy by the time I told the clerk what I was there to pick up. I kept telling myself, "Only another minute or two and I can get the hell out of here."

But wait!! Instead of ringing up my order -- as had been done with the 13 customers before me -- the clerk discovered that some of the prescriptions had been miscoded. She took the sack of drugs to another person and came back to tell me I had to wait a little longer before the issue could be resolved. This was the last stinking thing I wanted to hear!!!

Reluctantly, I had to go sit in the waiting area for, what I was initially told, would be no more than 5 or 10 minutes. Well, that measly 5 or 10 minutes became 15, then 20, then 30. All the while more and more shoppers were milling about around me. When a small child lost his balance and fell against me, I practically jumped out of my skin. His mother gave me an odd look and told her son to stay away from me.

As the time dragged on, I started melting down. When I realized I was about ready to start bawling my eyes out, I summoned the courage to go up to one of the pharmacists to explain that I was about to lose it and the situation needed to be remedied right now!

Since I didn't go into great detail, maybe they thought I meant I was about ready to go postal! Whatever the reason, they jumped through hoops and I was able to flee the store with drugs in hand in less than 5 minutes.

At my next stop -- thankfully one with very few people around -- a woman asked me if I was alright. Why, I asked. Because you're shaking all over, she responded. I told her I'd be fine as soon as I got on the road and out of Aberdeen. That was a bit of a white lie because here I am -- hours later -- and I still feel quite discombobulated.

I'm going to go hide under my covers now.

4 comments:

  1. Hey RT? Thanks for sharing this.

    Will you let us know how the hiding out under the covers worked for you? Seriously. I'm really wanting to know if that is a good coping mechanism....

    And, by the way, you and your honesty rock.

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  2. Val,
    Here's the scoop. It's a great coping mechanism, but only for a very short time. After awhile, the air gets a bit stagnant which can lead to its own type of panic attack. :)

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  3. My wife has banned me from Wal-Mart.

    I freak out all the time in there. Wal-Mart is hell on earth!

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  4. You'll get no argument from me on that, Robert!!

    ReplyDelete

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