Beer Store Shinanigans

Today was the day. That dreaded day that we have been putting off since....October. The garage is so full that I can't get to my car without knocking over a case or two of wine or beer bottles. That and the fact that we're out of beer coming into Superbowl Sunday means only one thing ; its time to take a trip in to the beer store and take back our empties.

This is no small feat considering we have had a collection mounting since before Christmas AND had 20 people at our house for NYE, all of whom started drinking at 1pm in the afternoon. And apparently, according to Rob, "Its my turn". So I loaded the car up- - we filled the entire trunk AND backseat and I drove into town praying that a) I wouldn't get stopped by a cop and b) that there wouldn't be anyone else in the beer store today.

I have to admit, taking back an excessive number of empties to the beer store is an efficient person's worst nightmare. And I'm efficient to a fault. I'm one of those people who walks BRISKLY from my car to the store whenever there are other people around because I can't stand waiting in line behind someone who walked in with me or the whole time I think, "if only I'd gotten here 2 seconds earlier or walked a LITTLE bit faster I would be NEXT in line and not BEHIND this person" Because INEVITABLY, that person, who just barely got in line before me is ALWAYS the person who wants to file a complaint, or use an expired mastercard, or pay with pennies or something extremely time consuming-ly obnoxious like that. Its Murphy's law.

So today it was AGONY because as fast as I was, it still took me 10 trips from the car to the store and back again to get all of my bottles in. So everytime I got in there I had to let people go ahead of me and watch as the line got longer. And longer. And longer.

And THEN because I'm not only efficient, but am plagued by a guilty conscience, by the time I got to the front of the line I felt BADLY that I had 1 Million bottles that needed to be counted and sorted, so I let everyone who was in line behind me go ahead until the store was empty. And even then, the poor cashier heaved a big sigh of annoyance when I pushed my load forward.

But don't worry! My trip into town didn't ruin EVERYONE's day -- as I meekly ducked out of the beer store, 30 minutes later and $25 richer with a replenished supply of beer under my arms, the homeless man on the corner popped up from behind the snowbank. And waving his giant bottle of "something" in the brown bag around he gave me a HUGE toothless grin and TWO THUMBS UP!!!