I suppose it's time for a true confession

By Friday evening, I'm usually having troubles and sometimes I don't realize it.  Like too many early mornings in a row causing absent-minded fuzzy brain and an urge to cry at around 5:09 for no reason at all.  I am more tired than I feel, so I try to do things and sometimes, it's a bad idea.

Such as trying to buy something at Target.  Grace needed a birthday present for a party tomorrow, so we ran to Target after work and school.  We found a gift fairly easily and proceeded to check out.  Everything was fine and smooth until my debit card asked if I wanted cash back.

I puzzled over it for a moment and pressed YES because the girls need allowance - easy-peasey.  My $13.71 bill now became $23.71.  No problem.

"Do I want my entire amount on my debit card?" the machine asked.  "Nope," I said.  "I only want $13.71 on my card, and I want the rest in cash."  I panicked a little because when I pressed "no" on the machine, everything kind of fell apart.

So I explained my predicament again to the checker.  "Do you understand what I'm saying?  I only want to pay the amount for my bill, $13.71, with my card, and then I need the other $10 in cash."   I think I repeated a different version of this about 3 times with people waiting in line pretty close behind me.

She had NO response to that,  She was NOT helping me at all.  This was kind of hard, and I felt confused and a little angry.

And then it hit me.

And it was one of those moments you absolutely can't fix.  Inside, I was screaming, "I am a smart person.  I just got a 97.3 in a college statistics class.  I have daughters who scored REALLY high on their SATs..."

But I just quietly said, "I'm really sorry."  And I kind of whispered, "yes, I want all $23.71 on the card and then you'll give me $10 back."  Like I just had to play along with my Friday alter ego and talk this through to let this poor girl see that indeed, I had connected my own dots.  Everything was ok, because now I understood this difficult thing.

She smiled one of the most relieved smiles I've seen in a long time and sweetly said, "I really like to help people when they have questions, because I want to do everything I can to help people, but I just didn't know how to help you."

There was nothing I could do.  I grabbed my bag, forcing a genuine-looking appreciative grin...
"Thank you," I mumbled on my race out of there, "it's just that it's Friday."