1. On day one a child is screaming at the top of his lungs in Fareway. Mom does nothing. It goes on and on and on. I was standing in line at the register and didn't even realize I said aloud, "Have things changed that much when I was out of the country?" A guy ahead of me replied, "No, this is pretty unbelievable." The woman behind me said, "My parents would have yanked me out of here long before now." I agreed and was grateful that that type of behavior had not become the norm.2. On Saturday there was a woman at Bushwood who... well, I have no desire to recount the affair but "fucking rude" would be an understatement.3. Today I had an early dinner with my friend Peter at the Hamburg Inn in Iowa City. Nobody else was dining. In walks a mentally ill guy who sits two seats away from us and doesn't stop talking. Sometimes he seems like he is talking to us, the waiter, people walking on the street or his imaginary friends.
You could be in Iowa for a year and not encounter any of the above. To get it all in five days? Wow.
At least the weather is what I expected.
Hmmmm, I wonder if it was the same woman that I saw a few months ago. *ponders*
ReplyDeleteI would do my best to get a screaming child out of a store, but I just wanted to say that no one knows what was really going on. I do know of situations (for instance if a child has autism) where there is no good way to anticipate a child's meltdown and then it may be difficult to actually get the child out of the store if the meltdown occurs. Obviously, I wasn't there and I don't know the circumstances. I have had that experience as a parent and like I said - I have gotten said child out of the public eye as soon as humanly possible.
ReplyDeleteBUT, I just wanted to point that out. Sorry that you've had some "interesting" experiences your first few days back!