RESCUE
I can’t believe I’m writing a story about squeeze margarine, but I’ve learned to write what I live so …
My husband and I have different butter tastes. I use two: Spray butter and Squeeze butter.
He uses a Land O Lakes something that’s in a tub.
I am almost out of squeeze butter (and I know it’s really margarine but….), so there I was at Publix during my shopping, trying to get the ONE squeeze butter that was available. It was, of course, the one that was on the highest shelf, the farthest back.
Dear reader, rather than seeking someone with long arms to rescue me, I … wait for it …
… went home without the squeeze butter and decided to deal with my spray butter or use Wayne’s butter for the week.
I looked around for a Publix employee to help me (no luck — which is odd because Publix really does have helpful employees). I went to an entirely different aisle for something else while trying to muster up the courage to track down someone who could help me.
I thought about standing on the little lip of the cooler case to reach the squeeze butter, something I’ve done countless times before, but I couldn’t get the incident with another parent all those years ago when I let my son stand on the lip to look at the Lunchables out of my head and we had a confrontation (and I also didn’t want to actually injure myself doing something stupid and uncoordinated).
When I came back to the butter section, one very tall guy walked past me. I could have stopped him and asked for him and his exceptionally long arms to help me. Did I? No!
This will be one of those things I’ll probably overthink all week. Maybe Mr. Long Arms would have gotten some joy out of helping another human being.
If I could have just squeezed out the guts to ask.
Welcome to this week’s Five Minute Friday. Our instructions, via coordinator Kate Motaung: “Write for five minutes on the word of the week. This is meant to be a free write, which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation.” (But I can’t resist spell-checking, as you can imagine (and I’d be lying today if I said I did not go back and edit a thing or two.)
Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.
I love this 5 Minute Friday idea! And as a 4’11” woman, I can vouch for this exact (nonsensical) inability to ask for help when it’s so obviously needed.
Oh 5 Minute Friday is great!! As a weekly blogger, I have to say it has also saved me more than once when I wanted to fulfill my weekly commitment to myself and my readers but really didn’t have time to do a full-fledged post. And right?! I’m 5’3″ and it’s ridiculous to keep overthinking this. It’s truly just butter. I thought I had written a post about the confrontation when my son was little — I’m going to have to look again. It was an epic meltdown (by me, not him — ) that I’ll never forget ha ha!
The trials of a short person. I feel you.
Right? Another thing I’ve done in these situations is find something long (barbecue tongs or something?) and used that to pry my item down. But I wasn’t feeling that creative and didn’t want to make a spectacle of myself ha ha.
So funny, although I’d probably ask the tall guy who walked by. I have no shame.
I know! I don’t know why I felt so hesitant all of a sudden. He even looked approachable. Maybe I needed a blog post topic!
I would have done the same thing. Sigh.
Your title made me think of the frogs that ended up in the cream can. The one gave up and drowned. The other kept kicking until he had churned up a little island of butter which he then sat on until someone opened the can and let him out.
Which is funny, because it’s also about butter…
What a way to bring things full circle, Diane!
Oh how many times have I stood looking up at a grocery shelf with that thing I wanted just out of reach! As I get older, I’m far less likely to step up on a lower shelf, and far more likely to boldly ask a nearby “tall being” for help!
I’m going prepared next time, Kym. I’m going to muster up the courage to ask if necessary!
The best lessons are the ones we learn just in our every day life. Many times just simple day to day tasks and places we go. People just don’t stop to rescue anyone anymore! Good luck on your next time around (because I’m sure there will be one.)
You’re right! And to answer your comment on the Facebook page, Publix is actually GREAT about asking if you need any help when you’re at checkout. By that point, I didn’t want to hold anyone up though. Next time will be different!