Speaking Up

I was at the local shopping center today to get a few things for dinner. I had my heart set on grilled salmon.

My heart was set so that even the price of QFC's wild caught King Salmon did not deter me. It made me pause and consider that I could serve Hamburger Helper every night for two weeks for the same price, but it ultimately did not deter me.

I swallowed, gathered my courage and asked for two pounds of King Salmon. Luckily, the slab that was in front, that I thought would probably feed our family, was 1.73 pounds and I quickly told the meat and seafood guy it would be just perfect.

I noticed the read-out on the scale said the salmon was $6.99 a pound. Was there some extra sale I was not aware of? At this point, I might as well tell you that the salmon was on sale at $14.99 a pound. The original price...$22.99 a pound!

He handed me my wrapped up slab of king salmon and I checked the sticker and it said I'd bought just over $12 worth of salmon. Well, I was thrilled, but a bit curious.

"I have a question," I said. "Is there a special sale going on that isn't advertised, because I thought the salmon was $14.99 a pound?"

The meat and seafood guy checked the sticker, then checked the little price thing under the glass and said, "Oh, wow! You are right."

At this point I was feeling honest, but incredibly stupid. In fact, "stupid" had just beat "honest" in a horribly mismatched arm-wrestling contest.

You would think this guy could have cut me a break for speaking up and given me the salmon for the lower price. It was his mistake after all. Maybe he could have offered to split the difference? At the very least he could have praised my honesty and acted like he'd never met anyone who would do such a noble thing. It would have made me feel a little better.

All he said was, "You probably would have felt guilty after you left here if you didn't say anything."

(Jerk!)

On the way back to the car, I passed the tanning salon. (Why those places are still in business I do not know. Do the people who walk in and out of there not ever read or watch the news?)

There was a sign in front of the tanning salon that read, "Please bare with us during our renovation. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you, but hope that the upgrades we are making will help us serve you better."

"Bare?" As in "take your clothes off?"

It had to be a mistake, even though it was kind of a funny one, for a tanning salon. The rest of the message was so serious that I was sure they meant "bear" instead of "bare."

I was still stewing over the $25.63 worth of salmon I was carrying that I felt just snotty enough to go in and give them a vocabulary lesson. This was some "speaking-up" I could get right.

I told myself I deserved to feel a little smug. I realized that the tanning employees would probably make fun of me after I left and say I was a geek for pointing out their vocabulary gaffe (but they wouldn't know what the word "gaffe" meant.)

I was so close to going in. I peered inside the front window and saw 2 people standing at the front desk chatting and laughing with the receptionist.

I chickened out.

The moral of the story is: Just have Hamburger Helper.

(This better be the best salmon dinner ever!)