One CRAZY Shopping Stop

by Allison

This story has nothing to do with anything, but it’s too good not to tell. I’m starting to wonder if this kind of stuff only happens to me.

I spent the weekend in Chapel Hill (you know, to watch NC State get stomped by the Carolina football team). Whoo-hoooo! On my way back to Raleigh last night, I decided to avoid the mess on I-40 and make a not-so-quick stop at Kohls. I had no idea when I walked through the doors that this trip would be even more of a mess than the interstate.

After browsing for a while, I happily made my way to the dressing room with both arms full of clothes. I could hear a strung-out mother and grandmother outside the dressing room as they struggled to get control of three extra-wild children and I was immediately thankful that I was alone on my trip. Not for long.

The family soon joined me in the dressing room. As the mom sifted through a few outfits in the stall beside me, I patiently said “hello” to the three little heads poking under the wall between us. Mom and Grandma didn’t seem to notice until the smallest of the three (who had just stopped crying after a nosebleed in the Junior’s section) asked, “Hey! Who is that lady that said hello to us?!” This went on for way too long, and while I was a little irritated, I had to bite my lip so I wouldn’t laugh out loud before they left. But no, that’s not all.

The family was gone and I had one dress left to try on. I was alone in the dressing room again until a Kohls employee came in to clean. The dress was way cute and it fit perfectly. I didn’t notice that the zipper was broken until I heard the cleaning lady say to another customer, “I’ll be closing this dressing room for cleaning as soon as it’s empty. You are welcome to use the one on the other side.”

There I was, struggling to unzip this stupid dress (but really only making it worse) so that this nice woman could come in and do her job. After three or four minutes of ruining my chances of getting out of this dress, I finally had to ask her for help. At this point, I was standing (half stuck, half exposed) in the middle of the dressing room with my new friend as she yanked and pulled without success. Ten minutes later, after three women attempted to set me free at the same time, one of them finally cut the thing off of me. WHAT a trip!

Not to worry though. On my way out of the store I was stopped by my hero, the cleaning lady. She wanted to tell me that she believed I had been stuck in that dress for a reason. She gave me an unbelievable speech about race and how the world would be a better place if all black people and white people could work together and laugh with each other like the four of us had just done.

I didn’t buy the dress, but I did come away with one heck of a story. I didn’t even need 40 after that fiasco.

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