Rude or Incompetent? You Be the Judge

Today's rant is entitled: Seriously? Ten more steps is too far for you to walk pushing that completely empty grocery cart?

The title pretty much says it all, but I don't think one sentence constitutes a rant, so I'm just going to get it off my chest. People who are too lazy to walk their shopping carts to the cart corral and who leave them instead tucked on the lines that separate the parking spaces in the lot drive me crazy. You've just walked all over the entire grocery super store. Is it really that hard to spend thirty seconds walking to the nearest available cart corral? (And yes, you would get a pass if you get to park in the disabled section. But since I just saw you sashay out of the store and walk to the very far end of the row where you'd parked your shiny new car so no one would ding it, I know you can walk just fine.)

And also: If I bring in enough grocery totes to hold all my groceries, do you really think I want you to fill them half-full and then hand me a bunch of disposable plastic bags from your store, each containing no more than three items?

I realize that the flimsy plastic totes with the store logo on them can only hold three cans, but my bags are heavy-duty, with proper, sewn-on handles. They are large so that you can fill them with stuff. Two cans of soup, one head of lettuce and a loaf of bread does not constitute full. All of my vegetables could fit into that one bag that you stuffed with only five grapefruits, six apples, and one head of broccoli.

And, yes, I do care if you put my raw meat in with my fresh vegetables. Just because you can put a lot in each bag doesn't mean you have to be all food-poisoning-stupid about doing so. Here's a thought: fresh produce in one; cold and frozen goods in another; raw foods in a third; and cans in a the last one (like, maybe in that one that's got internal dividers separating it into columns that--shockingly!--are about the right size to hold cans). I even tried to help you out by separating my groceries into those clusters as I was putting them onto the belt and then leaving all the really light stuff for the end to tuck on top of the bags. So why did you put my bananas and tomatoes in with my cans of soup again?

And also: If I arrive at 9:30 for my 9:30 appointment, and I sit in a not-fully-closing sack of a gown for forty-five minutes on an exam table waiting for you to come in to see me, and you walk in at 10:20, I expect some kind of acknowledgment that you are running late. Especially since it's hard to imagine precisely what would constitutes a dermatological emergency that could make you run that late.

You check moles all day, dude. What could you possibly be doing in your first two appointments that would force you to need an extra forty-five minutes before getting to me?

I could have done all my grocery shopping in that amount of time.

With a preschooler in tow.

And bagged it myself. Just the way I like it.