Got milk? Got coupons?

If you start thinking about non-detrimental worst case scenarios, countless may come to mind. Mine occured in the form of me realizing that I was out of milk at 9:30 pm on a Sunday night. Sunday nights have something against me. Every undone errand, every unmet necessity, every unkept commitment perpetually gives me a light bulb moment exactly at 9:30 pm on Sunday nights. No wonder I'm invariably late on Mondays. Mondays and rest of the days but Mondays specifically.

God only knows how miserable my day goes if it doesn't get off on a right start aka a refreshing cup of chai. So I run to a nearby grocery store, pick it up in a split sec and queue up in the only open cashier line. Just two peeps in front of me ain't bad, I note mentally. I pick up the latest issue of InStyle and start going through summer trends. Scanning a little and flipping a little, I kill time happily. Few pages later, I look up and the first person is still glued so I begin some more scanning and flipping. I make great progress and land up on the Fall preview section soon after. I begin to admire the hitch dresses and the military jackets and the accessories that Fall will be filled with. A tiny smile flashes on my face as I start sporting those looks in my imagination. I suddenly hear a woman barking and look up to realize that the same person is still glued where she was 15 minutes back and now arguing with the cashier about a coupon that didn't ring. I notice that she has almost 30 odd coupons in her hand. Another painful 5 minutes later, she gets done with a grand total of 300 bucks. It was remarkable that there was no alcohol (the only pricey item in a grocery store) amongst the gazillion things she bought.

Without sounding like ms. preachy, I have a few suggestions on the subject. If people are going to stock up stuff for 6 weeks or shop for a party (what else justifies 300 dollars worth of ingredients) shouldn't they should pick a better time like noon on a Sunday when the rest of the world is at church or watching a football game or doing laundry? Or may be midnight on a Sunday where no one but bums and guys picking up emergency alcohol or emergency sthng else will be around. And maybe there should be a rule for using coupons. Like an expense report... neatly cut, grouped by category and stapled on a white paper so you won't have to juggle countless coupons at once. If you think it's an overkill, have your kids do it. They'll love it. And those planning on using checks, please have mercy. Most cashiers (college kids doing their 3rd job for the day) don't even know how to process them. Heard of a cc? Trust me no one's gonna steal your identity.

Hopefully the bulb in my head will go off a few hours earlier next Sunday and I won't have to complain.