Saturday, January 22, 2011

I cried in Home Depot today.  I don’t know about the rest of you but I can stay strong in the face of adversity but it’s when someone in the midst of adversity shows compassion that I let my emotions out.  I remember WAY back in the day when I was working for Ruttles, we were having one very busy night.  I was the shift supervisor and I had a brand new hostess working.  She had forgotten about a group and their wait had gotten a lot longer than it had to be.  Well I went to check on her and the guy asked me about the wait and that’s when I noticed that she had skipped them.  I was explaining to the man and he got in my face yelling and being rude and threatening, and walked out.  Well I stayed cool, calm and professional.  Then an older gentleman came up to check out, put his hand on mine and in a soft quite voice said, “You handled that very well. Mistakes happen and he was out of line.”  That is when I almost came to tears.  Yell at me all you want, I can handle it but the moments were humanity steps back in make me realize how much the yelling hurts.  Ok, now you are probably thinking, what the heck happened at Home Depot today;)  Well, I will tell you.  As you all know, Paul is overseas and we live in the Midwest, and it’s winter, we have lucked out and the snow hasn’t been anything like last year.  But it has snowed and some of it I have shoveled and some a very nice anonymous neighbor has snow blowed and some of it my bosses husband has helped with.  But as all of you also know, I pride myself in being a strong, self-sufficient woman and mother.  I honestly appreciate all the help that I can get, I just don’t want to have to ask for it.  I think that I have made the choice to fall in love and marry a wonderful man who I am proud of, who serves his country and because of that choice my life is harder.  Sometimes it’s just days or weeks but sometimes it’s years. Sometimes it’s big things, like being alone in the ER with Abby while she has to have stitches or taking a whole day off from work to have Connor seen by the specialists at Boys Town National Research Hospital for his speech and not being able to because our insurance has changed and I didn’t know that I had to have a referral from our PCP and being unable to get the referral and paperwork done instantly so now the paper work has to be done and the appointment has to be rescheduled and I have to take another day off work. Sometimes it’s little things like, I couldn’t rent a movie from Blockbuster the other day w/o creating my own account b/c Paul set up the other account and I didn’t have a card for it so they wouldn’t rent to me without the card or Paul’s NE drivers license number, which I do not have, his social security number on the other hand I can say in my sleep but who the heck knows what his drivers license number is?  But I made the choice to have this life and I think that it’s up to me to make it work so asking for help sometimes feel like I am failing.  I know, it’s not but that’s how it feels sometimes.  So in order to be more self-sufficient I went out and bought a snow blower today.  We woke up, had breakfast, took Connor to swim lessons and then went to Home Depot.  I was talking to Dad on the phone, getting some tips and ideas of what I needed.  Walked in and a sales associate came right over to offer some help and guidance.  I picked one out and he wheeled it up to customer service to have it rung up.  The rang it up and I said, “now lets see if we can get this in my car.”  You should have seen the look on the guys face!  Well, he grabbed some tools and a tape measure and another guy and out we went.  I got the kids all strapped in and the doors closed so they didn’t get too cold.  Then I was watching the guys b/c they were taking some of the parts off to try to get it to fit in my trunk.  Connor starting yelling, “I want to go home already!!” It was getting cold, they were getting hopeless.  Things started looking bleak and I started thinking, if Paul was here this wouldn’t be an issue.  We could probably find a guy from work or borrow a work truck or we wouldn’t even be buying on b/c we could take turns shoveling and having one of us inside with the kids. Grrrr  so one of the guys looks at me and says, “You might just have to rent one of the trucks for $19.99 an hour to get it home.”  I was thinking, REALLY???? You have got to be kidding!?!?!?!?  But, if that is what I have to do, then whatever, lets get this show on the road.  I unload the kids and off we go, back inside.  I get in there and the guys have already told the associate at customer service the situation.  He asks if I have my driver’s license and proof of insurance.  So BACK OUT OF THE STORE to my car with the kids to get my insurance, and back in.  I have everything and I am thinking about the fact that now I am going to have to move the car seats to the truck and haul the stuff home, unload the snow blower form the truck, take it back, move the car seats again and head back home.  I was really getting frustrated b/c if Paul were home this would be so much easier, ugh!  But I just stayed strong when all I wanted to do is sit down and cry and say, “why do things have to be this hard!!!!”  That is when the guy behind the counter looked at me and said, “Ma’am, I am just going to have a couple of the guys follow you home with one of the trucks.  That way you don’t have to worry about getting the kids in and out of the truck and unloading the snow blower by yourself.”  That is when I started tearing up.  I said, “Thank you!  That will be wonderful!”  Walked back out to the car and headed home.  Unloaded the kids and started making lunch.  Heard a truck pull up and went out.  They already had it unloaded and pushing it into the garage.  That was wonderful.  One of the guys turns around and says, “Keep shopping at Home Depot, stay away from Lowes.”  Funny, and they were cute to boot ;) 

3 comments:

Amy said...

That is awesome Sarah! So glad you ran into some kind and compassionate people at Home Depot today.

Sarah said...

It was very nice and we have a TON of wet heavy snow and I am almost looking forward to clearing it!

Tonya said...

What a great story! Thanks for sharing!