Coed Shopping

Welcome to another Life List Club Blog Hop! Today, I’m thrilled to be hosting David N. Walker.  While setting up his guest post for today, I realized that he and I have more in common than our love of writing – we shop the same way. Read on to see what David has to say before you decide if that’s a good thing, and then hop on over and see me at Jennie Bennett’s!

Take it away, David!

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My wife and I do our grocery shopping together. We started that when we first married and have continued ever since. She doesn’t want me to go by myself, because she looks up ads for Wal-Mart to match the prices of as well as every coupon there is, and she’s afraid I won’t present all of them.

Does this long experience shopping side by side mean we have adapted so much to each other we shop the same? Not so much .

The other day we needed three things in the health and beauty aids section. I needed razors and shaving cream, and she needed hair gel. That’s the first section of the store we go to, so I headed straight for the shaving products, picked up a can of Barbasol and placed it in the basket. Elapsed time probably nine seconds.

Razors took slightly longer, because I had to search for my brand, which they had naturally placed on a lower shelf. As I started to put them in the basket, Sharon stopped me.

“Wait a minute. I’ve got a two for one coupon.”

“Okay. I’ll get another one.”

“But what if that’s the wrong size package?”

“It’s the only size they have two of.”

“Well, I don’t know. . . .”

After about five minutes of pointless discussion, we left with the two packages I’d picked in the first place. Then we went to the hair products.

She wanted to see if they had the same L’Oreal product we’d been buying at Walgreen’s, but she didn’t see it, so she started looking for L.A. Looks.

“Oh, here it is. Let me read the label.”

She’s used the product before, but it would be unthinkable to buy it without reading the label again.

“Okay. I think this will work. Wait . . . let me look at this Dep.”

“Honey, if the L.A. Looks will work and you’ve used it before, why don’t we just take it and go on?”

“No. I want to read this label.”

After several more minutes of label reading, she handed the Dep to me to put into the basket.

“Wait. Here’s the L’Oreal. Let me look at it.”

“What’s to look at? It’s what you always use. Why do you need to look at it?”

“Just a minute.”

*Reads label*

“I don’t think I’ll get it. I think I’ll keep the Dep. Let me read it again.”

Fortunately, Wal-Mart is open 24/7, so we weren’t in danger of being run out, but I was in danger of having my patience run out. Finally she put the Dep in the basket and we headed over to the detergents.

We always end up buying Purex non-bleach detergent, so I started to pick up a bottle of it.

“Wait. I’ve got price matches. Let me look at Sun.” She told me what size bottle the ad specified, which was a size Wal-Mart didn’t carry, but Sharon has this theory that if she’ll stare at a display long enough whatever she’s looking for will suddenly appear.

As I got worn out with that, I suggested we just get the Purex and go on.

“Do they have All? I’ve got a price match for All, too.”

“Yes, honey, it’s right there.” *Points*

Again, a size Wal-Mart didn’t carry. After spending about ten minutes agonizing over all of this, she finally said, “Let’s just get the Purex.”

Good idea. Why didn’t I think of that?

It’s against all her principles to walk up to a display and pick whatever brand of a product she’s always used. She has to peruse each display as if she’d just arrived from Venus and never seen any of the products before.

Oh, and if she needs something over this way and I need something over that way, when I suggest the she get hers while I get mine, she always says no, she likes for us to stick together. Unless, of course, she sees something along the way that interests her. We’ll be walking along together heading for the next item on the list, and I’ll turn around to say something to her and discover she’s not there.

This past Monday, I posted a blog lauding women. I meant every word of it from the bottom of my heart—but you gals are sure weird. Or is it just Sharon?

David N. Walker is a Christian father and grandfather, a grounded pilot and a near-scratch golfer who had to give up the game because of shoulder problems. A graduate of Duke University, he spent 42 years as a health insurance agent. Most of that career was spent in Texas, but for a few years he traveled many other states. He started writing about 20 years ago, and has six unpublished novels to use as primers on how NOT to write fiction. Since his retirement from insurance a few years ago, he has devoted his time to helping Kristen Lamb start Warrior Writers’ Boot Camp and trying to learn to write a successful novel himself.

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Note: I hope you enjoyed David and Sharon’s shopping adventures as much as I did! I just wanted to remind you that this is the last Life List Club guest post exchange for 2011. Never fear, though, we’ll be back in full force next year! And on December 30th, we’re hosting our next Milestone Party, complete with more fun giveaways, so stay tuned!