Life is good. Or not bad, as it were. I did eat a bad batch of salsa the other day, so I'm on day two of "botulism watch" as I've decided to call it. Apparently, it can take up to ten days for symptoms to present, so I have eight more days before I'm out of the woods. So, since I might be spending my last days on this earth (because something like 65% of botulism victims die) I decided to enjoy them.
First on my list of things to do: buy cat food. Because if I'm gone, surely the cat will starve waiting for someone else to remember food.
So as I wandered through the aisles at the grocery store on my epic quest for cat food, I ran across this cute little girl and her mother. Let me back up for a minute. It's important to note, kids and animals like me. It's weird. Like I have these strange pied piper pheromones or something. I walk into the farm yard and the animals flock to me. I walk through a park, kids stop to say hi. And, it's also important to say, I don't encourage this. Ok, maybe I encourage the animals. I like animals. But other people's children? No. I mean, they're ok. I don't dislike kids. I would just prefer I didn't spend lots of time around someone else's kids. It's weird.
So back to my story...this little girl and her mom in the grocery store. She was twirling around the aisle, looking cute, like kids do. And she suddenly climbs on the end of my cart. As if she'd decided she was shopping with me. I immediately scope out the mom. I don't want anyone thinking I'm stealing their kid. And mom smiles as the little girl strikes up a conversation. She asks me about my pretty ring. And the sparkles on my shirt. Little girls like the shiny. And her mom, she seemed kind of embarrassed. She said her daughter never does this. And I know it's because of my creepy pheromones, so I just smile and say it's fine. She's a sweet little girl, and I'm not in a hurry. I needed cat food, that's it. Ok, I needed chocolate too. So what...I'm waiting to die of botulism, remember? I'm eating all the chocolate I can before it's too late. But I didn't tell the little girl about the botulism, because kids freak out about stuff like that.
Instead, the little girl asked me a million and one questions (I may have exaggerated the number, but it was a lot) and then I dug into my purse and pulled out one of my To Katie With Love bookmarks and gave it to her. (Yeah, shameless of me to market to kids, but she had a mom, and moms read.) Then we said our goodbyes and I rolled on out of the aisle to check out.
I ran into her in the checkout aisle and then again in the parking lot. It was cute, she was sweet, and I was honestly pretty flattered. That little girl acted as if I was a Disney princess, dressed in my denim capris and sparkly top. I don't get that kind of attention every day, so I basked in it while I could.
And the best part of the whole thing? The little girl's name was Autumn. As in my favorite season. So yeah, I might love autumn, but she likes me too.
Until the next time...I'll be dusting off my tiara for my next trip to the market.