Is it just me or do random people at the store stop you to talk and ask questions of you too? I’m talking total strangers that I have never seen before.

There was the lady who was determining what kind of cat food to get. I was there getting cans of cat food for my 15 year old cat who would eat nothing else. Little did I know that by entering the pet aisle that I would become her prime suspect. She saw the food I put into the cart and asked, “Do they like it?”. Umm, no I just buy this to stack around the house? Of course, I responded that yes, this was the only thing that Lacey the cat would eat. Then I got to hear a little about her cats.

Next I was asked about a number of other brands on the shelf. I had no experience with most of them. Then it was, “Do you think Brand X is good for them?” Umm, you really should discuss it with your vet if you think that your cat has special needs. I thought this would be my opportunity to make a break for it. I don’t mind helping people but I had already spent some time on this and I had to get home. Not to mention, this lady was in desperate need of a bath. Mercifully, I was not all that close to her but I didn’t need to be. I explained to her that I was on my way home from work so really needed to get going.

I should have been faster with my departure. “What kind of litter do you use”, was next on her agenda. She wanted to discuss the merits and my experience with the various cat litters. I gave her a few words of advice and moved to leave. She was still talking as I made my way down the aisle and I called have a nice day. I could still hear her as I left the aisle. I’ve always wondered if she was still standing there talking by the time the next unsuspecting soul came along.

Driving home I thought there went 15 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. I can only hope that this random shopper’s life was improved in some way by our discussion. Whether it be from some advice I gave her, or just that someone took 15 minutes out of their day to talk to her.

There was also the day that a friendly lady asked me about acorn squash in the produce department. She seemed nice and mercifully was well groomed.

Her: Do you know anything about acorn squash?
Me: Yes, it is delicious.
Her: (Picking up random squash) Does this one look good? How about this one” (And so on, until she had the appropriate squash.
Me: (Thinking she is all set now and we are done)
Her: Ok, what do I do with this?
Me: (Gave her various cooking methods)
Her: Well, what do you cook with it?

So I gave some more suggestions and made my get away.

These are the most notable instances but these types of encounters seem to happen to me from time to time. I went home one day and asked my husband, “Does it say Sucker or Has no life on my forehead? He said no, that he thinks people can sense that I am a kind and caring person. I like his answer better so that’s the one we are going with.