Sunday, January 23, 2005

Yesterday, at the 7-11...

Observations from my two trips to the 7-11 Convenience Store (while waiting on my daughter to finish the S.A.T. test, and I had 4 hours to enjoy):

I took some time to clean out my van. I parked at the trash can farthest from the door of the store. It was a gesture of both practicality and embarrasment avoidance. I feel guilty using gas station trash cans for "bulk trash" dumping and I don't know why. I can't imagine they care.

They have an amazing variety of coffees to choose from, as well as an "additive bar" that included cinnamon, caramel, honey and a wide assortment of creamers and sugars. I thought "Poor Man's Starbucks" and felt as if I was in the right place. This particular store had an plastic faux-mahogony wine shelf with a broad selection, too. I can understand the coffee, but who would want to do fine-wine browsing at a 7-11?

The college student working there was extremely courteous and "by the book." She had excellent grammar: "I'm doing WELL, and you?" as well as "May I please see some identification to verify your credit card usage? On my return trip, she was cleaning the coffee "additive bar" within an inch of it's life, singing to the music playing in the store. "Happy, productive, educated member of the Mosaic generation," I thought. Definitely not a slacker.

On this second trip, a car arrived in the space next to me as I was getting out. I noted she left her 5-year-old daughter in the backseat while she went in the store. In the time I used the restroom, washed my hands, grabbed a bottled water and got in line to pay, the driver-lady had only now gotten behind me in line and only had a 12-pack of Miller Lite. I tried to think of why a grown woman would leave a child unattended for that long and came up with everything from a poor parent to simply ignorant of the dangers of society and about 8 things in-between (most of them negative).

My 7th grade daughter came out of the S.A.T.'s after 4-hours of my listening to 3 sermons, preparing two Bible studies, reading a couple of articles and chapters and journaling a bit. She said she thought it would be harder. I have no idea how to read that statement. We then had a "sit down" lunch and didn't discuss anything hard.

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