Sunday, February 8, 2009

It's not easy being green

I was at wal-mart on Saturday morning, sans children. It was nice to get out. I even stopped at a garage sale on my way there and got three pairs of shoes for Gwen for $5 total. It was really nice to have an hour to myself, and extra nice to not be pregnant. Grocery shopping with kids and a pregnant belly (w/accompanying aches and pains) has got to be one of my least favorite things.

Anyway, I was chatting with my sister via cellphone and trying to pick out some bathroom cleaner at the same time. And my brain completely stopped working. I could neither talk to my sister nor choose a cleaner. After stuttering for about five minutes I finally explained to my sister, "Sorry, just having a little bit of a hard time choosing a bathroom cleaner while talking to you".

The words had barely escaped my lips when a woman rushed to my side, took my bottle of wal-mart brand bathroom cleaner out of my hand and put in the new "green" product made by clorox, "That stuff will give you cancer" she assured me as she pried the wal-mart cleaner from my kung-fu grip.

I agreed with the lady, assuring her that I also believed that bathroom chemicals will give people cancer. I think she thought I was making fun of her. I wanted to explain that it was already too late, I've been using Comet and Clorox chemicals for my whole life and though I want to make the switch to be more "green" she couldn't have chosen a worse week to pry the cheap stuff out of my hand and replace it with the expensive green stuff (hello paycut!); and I may be better off, in the long term, if I take the money I would save by buying the cheap stuff and putting in our flex spending, to fight the damage that I have already caused by being a cheapskate for 27 years.

In the end I wound up just walking away and trying really hard to keep from cracking wise on the phone (speaking of, I am also a firm believer that cell phones cause cancer). I wound up buying the cleaner, mostly because I was afraid to go back into that aisle; those granolas who assault in the grocery store can be pretty intimidating.

I'll let you know what I think.

4 comments:

Jeannie said...

I think if it was all that natural, you should of sprayed her with it and told her to back off :)

Marcie said...

Eh...Fids, we're all going to die somehow. a little Clorox might be the less painful death LOL

Anonymous said...

Oh fids I can't believe she snatched it out of your hand! I talk to people in the store but I would never do that! I understand the whole going "green" thing but I also think sometimes you need a little bleach.
But if you want a cheap cleaner that works great look up charlie's soap and tell them I sent you if you decide to get it. I am telling you the stuff is great!

julianne orth said...

i would be scared too