I will probably end up addicted to drugs...

Yep. I can see it happening. No matter how I carefully I try to plan my days to avoid submitting myself to undue frustration there is always something. Always. I have purposefully put off going to our grocery store on the compound - and have been taking cabs downtown to shop or have my DH take me to grocery stores outside of our compound because of my growing dissatisfaction with what is available here - both in terms of products and service [complete lack of it, service, that is!].

My intention this morning was to get to the store as early as possible so that I could wear my "walking uniform" [bike shorts, tank top and "cute" sneakers] because it is just too hot and humid to put jeans on - we are not supposed to have to wear an abeya on the compound and I won't and don't wear it unless I absolutely positively have to - and I wanted to be there before it got crowded - it is our "Saturday" morning, here, after all. But more importantly I knew if I went today instead of yesterday that I the part-timers would all be working instead of the usual weekly full-time staff and I would not have to deal with young women who are far more interested in being on their cell phones than actually working.

I got to the store at twenty past nine, which was later than I had wanted to be there - but things come up - oh well... I wore my walking uniform. If the sight of someone in shorts when it is a hundred degrees outside offends you, don't look. That all of you "local" women want to be out and about covered in your head-to-toe black while ON the compound is YOUR choice. I was pretty lucky in getting most of what I needed - I could NEVER be lucky enough to get everything on my list. That does NOT happen, but I know this and am prepared to be disappointed.

Yet, once again, I was held up at the register checkout for almost half an hour! Unbelievable. All I wanted was to pay for three cases of water and five cases of Diet 7-Up to be delivered later. We are lucky we have this service available to us - that you can pay for a weeks worth of water and soda and have it delivered to you, instead of having to schlep it home and then carry it from the truck to the house yourself. I'm going to be very spoiled in many regards by the time we finally leave here to return home to the States. But I am also going to be addicted to Valium or Xanax or some derivative of that pharmacological sort. My patience level wanes a little bit more every single day. How long should it take for someone to fill out a simple form for three cases of water and five cases of soda?!? A minute? Two or three, perhaps? But not twenty! Yes. I was in line - holding up the shoppers behind me - for no less than twenty minutes to get a simple form showing that I wanted three cases of water and five cases of soda delivered to me.

The young woman manning my check-out register did the form the first time - she put down the water BUT didn't put the 7-Up on it - and then she drew a line down the form to the bottom. "Wait. What are you doing? Where's the soda?" "Oh." She'd already charged me for it - you have to pay for it in advance to have it delivered - and we'd already discussed it... Instead of simply adding the soda to the form she tears it in two! WTF?!? She begins to painstakingly fill out another form and she puts the WRONG water on it!. I am so glad I was paying attention...


There is a reason that I drink Evian - because it is the lowest sodium water available - all of the bottled water, here, has salt added to it and some brands have a lot more added than others - the salt makes me swell up so that my wedding ring hurts if I drink more than a couple bottles of some of the less expensive water that is available - and I drink a lot of water. Other than the sodium content I could care less what brand of water I drink, but I pay the extra for Evian ONLY because of this, the sodium, and now she's going to have charged me the 98 Riyals - EACH - for a case of some other kind of water. No. I don't think so. Does she cross out the wrong water and put in the right water? The water that I want? NO SHE DOESN'T!!! She rips the form in half, AGAIN! Why? Why? Why MUST I HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS KIND OF INEPTITUDE ALL OF THE TIME?!? See? This, is precisely why large quantities of drugs that induce calm and patience are required!

The young man bagging my groceries grabs the order book from her to do it himself. He can see that putting TWO items on ONE single form is, obviously, far beyond her capabilities. It is a major problem for her. You'd think that I was asking her to come up a solution to the world's most difficult calculus problem when all I simply want is to get three cases of water and five cases of Diet 7-Up delivered. For a quarter of a nanosecond I almost felt sorry for her - almost - but not quite. Everyone in the line behind me, at this point, is opting for other check-out lines. They are upset that I am holding up the line. Hey - wait a second - it is hardly MY fault that this woman can't put two separate beverages on a simple form! Can't say that I blame them, though. I'd have been pissed off too, if it was me behind someone else holding the line up like this on a "Saturday" morning.

Thankfully the grocery bagger DID know what he was doing and was able to get my form mostly correct, even if he can't spell. I give him credit for getting as much of it right as he did! If it wasn't for him, I'd probably still be there waiting.


Apparently I wasn't paying quite enough attention to the details as I thought I was, because it wasn't until I got home that I realized that they have the wrong size water on my form - the correct price is there, the quantity is right, and it is Evian. Doesn't it just figure... I called the grocery store to tell them that I want the .50 size bottles - not the .65 size. This necessitated talking with no less than three different people and now I am waiting for a call back. Am I going to get what I ordered and what I paid for delivered this evening? Let's hope so...