For the last week, I have been planning on purchasing fresh pappardelle pasta (my current favorite) from the local farmers market. Saturday morning, I arrived, coffee in hand, and headed straight to the booth. “Two bags of pappardelle please,” I told the young ‘farmer.’ “Would you like a bag?” “No, I’ll just take it,” I replied and began to walk away. Coffee in one hand, pilfered pappardelle pasta in the other. “Um, it’s five dollars,” the young farmer said to me in a confused and hesitant voice. “Like I said, I’m just taking it,” I joked – she didn’t see the humor. I apologized, paid, and walked away wondering to myself, “What the hell?” It’s not like I have a ‘farmers market tab,’ nor did I bring a chicken with which to barter. Clearly, I needed to consume more coffee before continuing with my plans for the day.
My next destination was work. The on-call job at the furniture store is a great way to make a little extra cash. Assuming, of course, that one doesn’t buy anything while working. So far, this job has cost me far more than I’ve made. Today was no exception. I asked about a bookcase I had been eyeing for some time and the sales associate advised me I had to have it – the price (marked down $500) was too good to not buy. “Fine, I’ll take it,” I told him. “Deal is, you’ve got to take it home today. I doubt it will fit in your car,” he advised. It would definitely fit in Dirk – everything fits in Dirk, but I didn’t have him. Sleepless and I had traded cars so she could use Dirk to move out of her apartment. Always one to take on a challenge, I told him I would put it in Sleepless’ car. He and the will call staff were convinced it wouldn’t fit. “We’ll hold it. You can come back another day,” they told me. “No way. It will work. I’ll just take it,” I stubbornly replied. Five minutes and a small section of twine later the bookcase was in the trunk of Sleepless’ car and I was heading home.
My pappardelle pasta, however, was still sitting in the refrigerator at the furniture store. In my attempt to prove others wrong about the book case, I forgot to just take my almost pilfered pappardelle pasta and go home.