Anyway, I went to Walmart because, according to their online in-store stock listings, both of the Walmarts by me (there are two within a ten minutes in either direction) had paper towels in stock. Having a cat who occasionally eats too fast and throws up his breakfast means I need paper towels. So I decided to brave Walmart, get paper towels and pick up a few cleaning items I needed if they had them. I also ended up with Blue Bell ice cream; whatever deity is guiding us must have known what was going to happen at the end of my trip so she made sure Walmart was fully stocked with my favorite brand of ice cream.
My Walmart experience was actually better than the other stores I've been to. They have tape on the floor every six feet for you to stand at when waiting in line, aisles have directional arrows, and they're limiting the number of people inside. Walmart is also larger so it didn't feel like I was cramped in with people. They were fairly well stocked; some of the usual suspects were out, but what can we do with people unnecessarily hoarding flour and yeast? I walked to the checkout lines feeling like this was the best trip to Walmart of my entire life. And then I got into the line. It wasn't the waiting in line that got me. It was what happened while I was in line.
In front of me was a couple; I'm not sure what their relationship to one another was. With everyone wearing masks, it's harder to tell age, but they were either a young mother and her older son or maybe nephew or a couple couple. My guess is mother and son; I think he was in his late teens and she was a younger mom. In front of them was a woman by herself, probably a few years older than me. When I got in the line they were exchanging some heated words, and it escalated from there. The couple was standing within their six feet distanced box, but she asked him to move back more. He did, but it wasn't good enough for her. She started yelling at them, calling them all sorts of obscenities, including the c-word. Loudly, in line at Walmart. The guy said something back, but I couldn't hear it clearly with the mask, and that set her off even more. No one did anything, so of course, I had to say something. I asked them both to ignore each other and stay in their lane (literally). The single woman told me to eff off and stay out it. I told her it's hard to stay out of something when you're yelling loudly at people who aren't doing anything wrong. She called me a bitch. The guy started to say something to her, and she responded by taking things from his cart and throwing them at him. A Walmart employee finally stopped, asking me what was going on. I explained, he got another employee (maybe a manager?) who asked me some questions. By the time, he showed up, the woman stopped and the couple was quiet. The two Walmart guys stayed in the aisles nearby until the woman checked out (buying cigarettes and one of those customizable light boxes people use for motivational sayings). I finally got through the line and drove home, having spent two hours of my life at Walmart getting yelled at by a stranger.
When this week started, I was determined to have a good week. The week prior had been my week of feeling like I was failing at everything and accomplishing nothing. Everyone has probably had this exact week or day since staying at home. I wanted to start the week off strong, focusing on getting some tough work tasks completed, and finding something fun to do that wasn't binge watching past seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race (although I really enjoyed re-watching Season 6). I considered a few things: taking up long distance walks (the weather didn't really cooperate this week), reorganizing my craft room, going through my CDs again. None of these things seemed right. What I realized is that they were all about me, and what I was craving was something that would be about connecting with other people.
I decided to send postcards.
I have just over 100 postcards that I've purchased and saved over the years. Whenever I travel, I buy a few cards to send immediately and a few to bring home. The cards have been sitting in a box for years, taking up space and without purpose. So I decided to send postcards to people. I love sending and receiving mail. I've kept every postcards I've ever received since my dad sent me my first postcard in 1987. The Postal Museum is one of my favorite museums. And of course, the US Postal Service is in danger of closing. The 45 will bail out cruise lines, but not an essential service like the Post Office, which is actually in the Constitution. It just shows you how little the 45 knows about the governing document of this country.
But let's not ruin things by talking about him.
After I settled on the idea of sending postcards, my mind started to work as it does. In addition to the 100 travel postcards, I found over 40 plain brown cards I use for Groundhog Day cards. I decided to make some unique cards to send to people as well. Since Monday, I've made six embroidered cards (something I've been wanting to do forever), some stamped cards, cards with stuff I didn't use for Nyx purses, and I'm in the process of making glitter cards. Some of these cards were designed with specific people in mind; most were not. My plan is to send at least one card to everyone in my address book. Once I've gone through everyone, I'll start again until I run out of cards to send.Since announcing this plan, I've gotten addresses from people I only really talk to online (friends from high school and college, a former coworker I haven't spoken to in four years), and requests from people who don't want a card for themselves, but for someone in their life who could use a little cheering up during this time. Other people have decided to send cards too, placing online orders for stamps and helping to support the Post Office one card at a time. I got my first card in the mail yesterday, from Anita, who also loves sending postcards.
As I recounted the Walmart story during to my friends during our virtual wine and crafts day yesterday, I worked on these handmade cards. Each stitch and shake of glitter is a way of erasing a little bit of the ugly of my Walmart encounter. We all have to make a lot of choices right now. It's a choice to yell at people and throw paper towels at them in the middle of a Walmart. It's a choice to call a stranger who was only trying to help a bitch. It's a choice to protest stay at home orders that are meant to keep people safe, and not seeing the irony in wearing masks while doing so. It's a choice to follow the physical distancing guidelines and wear masks in public places. It's a choice to be angry at a person for having a tantrum in public. It's a choice to let it go and realize you don't know what's going on in their life right now and being angry at them isn't going to solve anything. It's a choice to send a postcard to a friend or a stranger to let them know someone is thinking about them.
I'm choosing to send postcards.
Question for loyal Island readers: I participated in National Novel Writing Month for the last time in 2016. I finished my novel Transient Suburbia, and have worked on it on and off since finishing. I let a few friends read the entire novel, but haven't really done much with it since mid-2017. I shared a few chapters here on the Island during NaNoWriMo. My question is: would you want to read the entire novel, a chapter or two at a time over the next several weeks? I want to do something with this novel. I love it very much, but have been hesitant to do anything with it outside of sharing it with friends. Sharing it here, a few chapters at a time, feels like a fun way for us to pass the time together and you can let me know if you like it or not. Share you thoughts in the comments!
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