I’ve been trying to limit the amount of “complaining about my personal life” here, but today i had two things happen within a hour that just deserve to be talked about.
Today is what I like to call errand day. It’s where I hit all the places that we need little things, things that we need during the week that can’t wait until our weekly trip to the grocery store, but also things that are just out of the way from said shopping trip. Today’s agenda was quick and easy. First, a half hour drive to Barnes and Noble to take advantage of their sale on book club books (that beat out Amazon by a damn mile) and then to Target for an personal item for Mom. Simple enough.
The Barnes and Noble I go to isn’t technically the closest one to my apartment, but I like it because it usually isn’t too crowded. It’s where I went to the YA Book Club back in 2019 and early 2020. I got along with everyone there, until the pandemic. I didn’t actually go back until about a month, when Mom and I went together as our celebration of me finally getting my second vaccine and clearing the ten days.
I had a list (which is a requirement for me) and started my browsing pretty quickly. Found three of the books that were immediately on my list (Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and Sword Art Online Vol 21), then went in for the last, One Last Stand by Casey McQuiston, which was shelved in Romance. Once I found it, I found myself face to face with the former leader of the YA Book Club at this store.
I quickly said hi, asked how she was, the whole nine yards. It was quickly clear, however, that she didn’t recognize me, and didn’t care to even try. She barely looked at me before shrugging and walking away. I wanted the floor to open up and eat me. It was a humiliating feeling.
Later on, after I got to Target and dealt with probably the newest employee at the in-store CVS, I decided to make myself feel better by potentially picking up Spider-Man: Miles Morales. So I headed over to the electronic counter to ask if they had any in stock. (This Target, which is not my favorite, has been known to just put pictures of games in the shelves, and the stock in back, so you always have to ask at the counter.) The female employee started to answer, but the male employee cut in and brought me over to the games where they finally had restocked.
But of course, asking for the game had to be trouble. He proceeded to question if it was for me, and if so, I really needed to play Spider-Man first, because it was a much better game for “beginners”. And he gave me that look, you know, the mansplaining “I know I’m right” look. I was not in the mood for playing that game and just snapped out that it’s 2021, get over the fact that girls play games. Give me Spider-Man: Miles Morales please and thank you. I got another “you should really play the first game before you touch this one, it might be hard” and I damn near lost it. I beat Spider-Man in a week, would have been faster if I didn’t have to work, get out of my face.
Once the game was in my hand, I did an about-face and stormed back to the electronic counter and asked for the manager, or at least the number to corporate if there wasn’t a manager readily available. The female employee was happy to hand over the number with an apology for her mansplaining colleague.
I know that both events were just tiny things that shouldn’t bother me all that much, but I just wasn’t in the right headspace. It threw it off completely today.
We’ll be back to our normal posting tomorrow. I just needed to get this off my chest.
Until next time!
