Double trouble

There's something weird about me that you don't know. You already know LOTS of weird stuff about me, but I have a secret that I have not shared with you yet. And, honestly, I kind of forgot about it until the past few days.

I HATE TO GET INTO TROUBLE!

In fact, if I had a personal motto that I live out (not consciously, of course) it is, Thou shall not disobey the rules.

I've always been like this. My mom has always said I could have been raised by wolves and I would have turned out ok. If I learned of a do or don't, I either did or didn't. One time when I was about 7 I was at a friend's birthday party and I lied to the mom. It haunts me to this day. One time in high school I got a demerit. I had boxer shorts under my uniform skirt (what can I say? It was the 80's and it was in style, I swear) and half way through the day they must have slipped down and I got a demerit. I was mortified.

There *was* this one little incident my senior year of high school when I got caught drinking. I can assure you, it was the first and last time THAT happened. (umm.. the getting caught part at least.)

Those are pretty much the highlights of my career in crime. I've never had a speeding ticket. I don't rock the boat. I like to follow the rules.

But on Saturday I got in trouble; and its still bothering me. We were at Steve's office most of the week and I had to find different ways to entertain the kids. There is a nice open space for them to run and in the middle of it, there is a gazebo. Nobody ever uses it. I was letting the kids use it like a fort. They were really having a ball. I was supervising. Olivia (who isn't exactly a dare devil) found that she could climb over the gazebo wall and Turner (who IS exactly a dare devil) soon found he could too.

Then, IT happened. A lady employed by the grounds yelled from across the way, "Hey! That is NOT a jungle gym." oops. So I gave her an "Okay" and a wave of the hand acknowledging I had heard her. I called the kids down from climbing. Then she yelled again, "It is NOT for climbing." So I gave her another, "OK." Then she followed up with another, "IF you want your kids to climb... there IS a playground over there!!!!"
"Thank you," was my response. From my mouth. I had another response in my head. Sheesh lady, give me a minute. I wasn't vandalizing the thing. My kids were just having a little fun. I couldn't decide if it was her tone or my shame of getting in trouble that was the real issue. You'd better believe my kids won't be climbing on ANYTHING at daddy's work from now on.

As if that didn't do it for me, I waltzed into Kroger yesterday, did my shopping, collected my coupons, handed them to the cashier and waited patiently while she had the bagger call the manager over. Oh, she must need to sign the freebies, went through my mind.

The manager looked very serious and seriously ready for a fight and said, "Excuse me ma'am, WHERE did you get this coupon?" I felt my face flush and I instantly felt like I had done something wrong. Then I realized my answer was going to sound so stupid. "I got it from a blogger event I went to." Then this look of utter disdain covered her face. "Yep, those are the ones. SOMEONE has been passing out counterfeit coupons all over town and that was reported. I can't take your coupon, ma'am."

FIRST OF ALL, I'm not a ma'am. I prefer to think of myself as a miss! And secondly, I don't appreciate your TONE either. I felt like I was being accused of being a coupon bandit! So I slinked out of Kroger, having paid more for a stupid thing of Go-Gurt than normal (since it wasn't on sale) and wondering who really has time to print up fake yogurt coupons?

I contacted my friend who hosted the event to let her know of the incident and she assures me they came straight from Yo plait's PR firm. So, I don't know *what the heck* is going on around here, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to hole up in my house for a few days and see if this trouble streak will break. In the meantime, watch what your kids climb and what your cashier suspects, unless, of course, you don't mind breaking the rules. Then go hog wild!