By Kathy Miele
I had just finished an afternoon of errand running and as I dropped the bags on the kitchen counter I looked over at my husband Steven, “Well, I had an interesting moment in the drugstore today.”
“What happened?” Steven asked as he began unloading the grocery bags.
“A woman followed me in the door singing a Bon Jovi song.” I took the box of cereal from him and put it in the cabinet. “Not just humming the tune, mind you, but singing it at the top of her lungs.”
“Did she realize she was that loud?”
“I don’t think she cared how loud she was.” I began handing him cans of soup to stack on the shelf.
“Did anyone say anything to her?” Steven asked.
“What was anyone going to say? Stop singing, you sound too happy? At first I was embarrassed for her. I thought maybe she was so involved listening to the song on her IPod that she had no idea she was singing out loud.”
“So what made you change your mind?”
”She was following me through the store.” I complained as I handed Steven the lunchmeat to put in the refrigerator.
“She followed you?”
“I had to stop twice in two different aisles to give her my-you’ve-got-to-be-kidding look.”
“Oh, I know that look,” Steven said.
“Of course you do!” I was happy he understood me. “Who wouldn’t recognize that look?”
“She still didn’t stop?” Steven began rinsing the bunch of grapes that he’d pulled out of the bag.
“She stared right back at me.” I stopped unpacking and looked over at Steven. “She never missed a beat. She just kept singing loud and proud.”
“Maybe there was something wrong with her?”
“I thought about that.” I leaned against the counter thinking again about the blissful look on the woman’s face. “She was just enjoying the song and her day.”
Steven handed me a bag of frozen vegetables for me to put in the freezer. “She sounds annoying.”
“I thought the same thing at first,” I admitted. “But by the time I left the store I kind of envied her.”
“You envied someone being annoying?” Steven sounded confused.
“As I was leaving she didn’t seem that annoying anymore,” I said. “She just seemed like someone who was enjoying her day. She didn’t care what she sounded like. She just wanted to sing along with the song that she had playing.”
As I put the rest of the groceries away I began humming that same Bon Jovi song that she’d been singing. She was right. It made me smile.
