Shopping Excursion

The associate blew off a team meeting today, so the boss, much to my surprise, offered to take me shopping for the last few things I need for my programming this month to save me going on my own by public transit later this week. We piled into his car and I directed him to a major super center nearby. He pushed the cart for me, pausing only briefly to pick up some mint jelly (yuck) for his confrere, and allowed me to pile in whatever I wanted. Except Oreos: I said I wanted some for the kids and he informed me that he had bought some but his confreres told him in no uncertain terms, "We do not eat Oreos," so he said he would donate the unopened package to me. He added a little sadly, "I like Oreos."

When we got to a very long checkout line he recalled an earlier comment I made about wanting to get some gift cards as prizes and started looking through all of the options there. I couldn't find a low enough denomination of the ones I wanted, so I told him I would go to a store closer to us in the coming days and get what I wanted. He wasn't satisfied and went through nearly every card on the display, straightening up the display, moving misplaced cards back to their original spots and otherwise cleaning up the store for them, much to the amusement of the woman behind us in line. He never did find me what I wanted.

On the way back to the rectory he seemed to have a little more edge than usual, raising his voice very uncharacteristically at one driver who didn't move at a green light, "Hello?! Quit texting!" During our conversation I said that sometimes I have a way of breaking things, and he advised in a very serious tone, "Breaking things is not bad. Fixing them again is what is really important." It was an amusing excursion, as most of our shopping trips turn out to be.

When the associate returned later in the afternoon, he was completely unapologetic for missing the meeting. The pastor and I compared calendars and discovered we can't find a time to meet again until the last week of the month, so I got the pressing stuff off my mind and hopefully that will do until then.