I've had a relatively good month. Nothing to rest on, but it was enough to make me want to splurge a little on treats I normally space out during more meager times.So first I went to Borders, picked up two books for myself, a set of "cupcake" cards for a neighbor, and two journals for two friends. Then I went to the beauty supply store next and got three pricey little tubes of conditioner and humectant for my thick and often dry hair. A small spin in Trader Joe's for a quart of ripe blackberries, a box of heritage tomatoes, some frozen waffles and pancakes as breakfast treats, some dried mango slices, and imported Italian pesto gnocchi.
Last was a lengthy Safeway trip, where I jinxed myself, sort of, by deciding not to do a full shop, since I was coming and going via cab, but limited myself to one of their new sandwiches, some deli meats, dark rye bread, half and half, whipping cream, gourmet cream cheese, marscapone, ladyfingers, Ghiradelli ground sweet chocolate (because all I have is unsweetened in the house), 2 pounds of regular and "black velvet" apricots (in photo above), paper towels, and butter.
All in all, a venture of almost $200... stolen out from under my nose! I'd gone outside to sit at the large tables where you can snack or wait for a cab, and waited... and waited. The first cab company apparently had two drivers that took my call and then blew me off. Now, if I was a mean person and lousy tipper, I'd sort of figure I had it coming. But I'm a "regular rider" in their system and I tip 20 percent or more. They suggested I call another company, so I did. That driver called me back to say he'd be there in two minutes. I put the cell phone away, looked down at my book, read half a page, looked up, and my shopping cart was gone. Gone.
Now, it's mostly my fault. I had moved over to the next table because a truck was blocking my view of the mall egress, so I couldn't see the cab when it arrived. But the cart was only 7 feet away and had already been sitting there, with me, for an hour. Safeway's security was useless... they only work inside the front door, not watch at the door from outside. And their personnel was less than concerned about my frantic panic, because they took their damn time getting a manager over to me and then the manager took like five minutes to call mall security. And then mall security took 5 minutes to show up. So we're talking I had to wait 15 minutes to basically get some help trying to find my cart. Which by now was even more gone than it was before.
No offer to reimburse me. VISA won't repay my debits, since it was a check card. I'd have to claim on my homeowner's insurance... which I'm not even sure would cover something like this. "Hi, I'm calling to report a theft of a shopping cart that included everything I needed to make tiramisu from scratch." Oh, and if I want to examine any video tapes, if there is one, to see if we can even figure out who took the cart and where they went, I'd have to file a report first with the police. And then hope the film isn't grainy, I guess.
Anyway... hey you, thief... I hope you were really disappointed when you opened the bags and found hair cream, nonsense gifts, and a lot of fruit and high end frou frou stuff! No steaks, no staples, no 10 pounds of potatoes! Enjoy trying to figure out what the heck you can do with all those ingredients!
