who cries at costco?!

made out the costco list BEFORE we went to costco,

because anyone who knows what costco is, knows that it is a deadly combination to go there unprepared and with an undisclosed amount of readily available funds....

when you walk through this store, EVERYTHING (especially the samples) are a must have, must purchase....

and before you know it, what you originally came for (baby formula) has now turned into a 297 dollar shopping cart....

soooooo, our costco list went something like this:

-pick up the pictures that were ordered online a few days ago

-baby formula

so we go to the photo counter and pick up our pictures and pay for them.

check. done.

then we casually browse every possible food section for any and EVERY possible food sample given (which usually end up with me grabbing 2, taking a tiny taste, not liking whatever it is i ate and handing my helping over to jason, along with his sample)....

so we are browsing, no.... more like grazing, up and down the aisles....

"mmmmm. teriyaki chicken samples.... mmmm, it's so good!" i say to jason, who tries it and agrees.

"we should get that to make with the bag of rice we just bought last week," i say.

he agrees....

when i walk back towards the glass door it's behind, he says, "we don't have any extra money for this week ashley."

doh! DANG IT! i was thaaaaaaat close to slipping away from our budget....

thankfully he was there, because if he wasn't, i probably would have "found" the funds in one of the other accounts and got the dang teriyaki chicken.... lewie liked it too. he bit my finger.... TWICE trying to get more of it out of my hand...

THEN.... dun dun dun....

we walk over to the formula section, which just so happens to be by the diapers, for both the young.... AND the old....

i HATE going into this section, because i kid you not, the past ohhhhhhh 5 to 7 times that i have gone to costco for baby formula, there has been a lovely old man, (not the same one), standing slightly hunched over his cart, staring at the men's depends.... and EVERY single time i walk past them, it seems as if they are almost embarrassed to be standing there in front of these large boxes of "MEN DIAPERS."

and they are seriously just staring at the boxes....

and i get the formula, put it in my cart, and begin to walk back towards the register and the guy is stillllll standing there staring at the boxes....

i'm not even joking, i cry everytime.

my eyes WELL UP with tears for the man (or men) who are standing here, once probably star football players.... homecoming kings.... pro golfers.... athletic swimmers.... taking his girlfriend to make out on a cliff overlooking some city's lights.... and here they are, some number of years later, staring at the men's depends in a costco, because they can get a larger number of them for a much more decent price than from somewhere like walgreens....

it made me SO sad today.... i saw the guy standing there at the box of S/M which just so happened to be under ALL the boxes of L/XL.... his face looked as if he were asking himself, "self, now how in the hell are you going to get that box of S/M out from underneath ALL these other damn boxes of ones that are much too large?" ....

i didn't say anything to him.... i didn't want to hurt his pride....

we walked and got in line and from the register, i could see him slowly walk away from his cart and begin moving the L/XL boxes onto the women's depends side.... one box at a time....

i totally started crying at the register....

i'm certain everyone in costco who saw me crying thought that i just had a really mean husband who was probably calling me really mean names and then laughing about it....

yes.

jason was laughing at me....

"ohhh honey, we are so different," he says.... as he's rubbing my back....

i'm watching the guy, SLOWLY moving one box after the other....

i say to jason, "his poor pride.... i'm sure he never imagined he'd be standing here moving boxes so he could get just the right size of depends for himself...."

jason's staring at the guy and looking at me, ALMOST ready to walk over there and help him.... i lip said to him "go help him."

he says, "ashley, talk about hurting his pride.... that would hurt it more than what he's doing right now."

i guess he was right....

maybe....

all i know is that i wanted to rush over there and move all the boxes for the guy so that he could get his size....

walking out of the line, i was still crying.... wiping my eyes....

and jason asks, "and you want to go back to nursing?"

of course i do....