Midwest Adventures

Walking to Walmart in order to procure today's food, and some bathroom supplies, it's hard not to notice the wind, for there certainly is a lot of it. Being in the sun would provide warmth if only it were a calm day. Instead, we cover up in jeans, a long top and a wool sweater. It's a otherwise perfect fall day.

The route from home brings me to the back of the store, and I walk around to the front, I decide to treat myself by having someone else cook my food, so I continue trekking across the parking lot, through a field, another parking lot, and finally to Taco Bell.

There's no one at the front counter. I'm in no hurry. Finally a young man comes up to the counter and asks for my order.

"A grilled stuffed burrito please, no meat & fresco style."

Freso-style is their code word for either "healthy" or "vegan" depending on your outlook. What it means is add salsa fresca, but remove all cheese and dairy-based sauces. You know, all the fattening, non-nutritional stuff? Their codeword revolutionized my ordering at Taco Bell; I could finally order from the menu and just add one word (two actually) and get what I want with no fuss.

He's having trouble figuring out how to make the order. A supervisor comes over to assist.

"What kind of meat did you want?"

"No meat, fresco-style please." If you say fresco-style first, it confuses them. They want meat first. Or in my case, no meat first.

The manager helps him and walks away.

"Anything else?"

"A Mt. Dew Baja Blast please, and that's all."

He punches away at his register.

I notice there's water dripping from his elbows. His hairy arms are quite obviously wet.

I'm curious. "How's your day?"

He laughs and for a second, relaxes into a comfortable grin. "It's a good day. How are you?"

"Great! The sun's shining, it's wonderfully warm fall day."

"Yeah, I get off work here soon; I want to go fishing."

I can't resist. "Oooh, gonna catch some dinner?"

"Yeah."

OMG, he going to eat what he catches! "Where do you fish around here?"

"Oh, I live up by Moresville, and there's lots of little ponds around there."

He hands me a receipt and starts to head to the back of the store.

"Good luck fishing!" I remind him I'm still there.

"Thanks. Enjoy your food."

And I am, when I notice a woman coming in with her young son. He looks immersed in his own world and she's definitely in her own world. They sit down across from me and I quickly feel sympathy for the boy, for I remember being in his shoes. His mother is being quite negative. "I don't want to sit here," was her response to where he wanted to sit. "Don't you want to look out the window instead?" she said as he picked a seat in the booth she desired. "Don't get that out now, it's time to eat." was her response when she saw him get out a book. Just after that, she got on the phone, ignoring her meal. I never had much respect for "do as I say, not as I do," and I could tell this kid was not oblivious to the hypocrisy by the look of frustration that fell across his face.

A few minutes into the conversation, I hear her say (well, the whole store could have heard it, but just I was there) that she was really mad because she asked for extra cheese and there's hardly any on there.

If you know me and my struggles to get cheese-free products from fast food stores, then you can appreciate the smile across my face as I imagine a food product that is so overwhelmed with cheese that it might as well be called cheese with X. I imaged her still being upset at this, wanting essentially a dinner of nothing but cheese.

Evidently, the boy had similar thoughts! Upon hearing his mother's comments, I watched him look over his food at her dinner and his face was priceless! His eyes bugged out and his jaw dropped. LOL. I couldn't help but giggle as he looked up to see if anyone else was in on the joke. I was, so I flashed a wide smile to him and just for a moment, we connected. We laughed together in silence before going back to our meals.

A young girl stares me down as I'm leaving. I think she thinks I'm cute. Either that or she thinks I'm a boy... it's hard to tell sometimes, except that the latter hasn't happened in a while. As I go by, return the gaze. She's pretty. I smile and catch her eye, and her eyes smile back. Her face smiles too, and like a guy, her head turns watching me leave.

Lookit me, turning heads! Teehee.

Walmart was considerably less exciting. A cute young girl, maybe 2 or 3 comes up to me and says hi as I'm looking for a red pepper. She was adorable! Just after, a lady saddles her cart next to mine and exclaims there must be a celery shortage. I point her eyes to the sorry state of the peppers and fruit and suggest that perhaps Meyers might have fresher produce. "Will you please take me and give me a ride home?" I don't ask. "Thanks, I'll try there!"

It's a simple life here in Waldeniana.