strawberry, to the rescue!

So I have no idea what is going on with these Targets in the SoCal area, but I've only been living here for two weeks and my two most amazing moments thus far have occurred in Target stores. Maybe it's just chance, these things could have happened anywhere, but by freak accident happened at Target. Maybe it has to do with probability, I spend most of my free time in Target so of course I'm going to have most of my non-school experiences there. Maybe it's like that whole salmonella outbreak with tomatoes where restaurants stopped selling them and then they were super expensive in grocery stores and then reports came out that officials aren't even sure if it really was tomatoes that were the cause of the outbreaks and I don't really know where I'm going with that example but it was really annoying to not be able to find tomatoes anywhere. Who knows what it is, but last week I met a celebrity in the school-supply aisle, and this week I became a hero in cosmetics.

I was wandering aimlessly from section to section, as I tend to do in Target, before landing in the exercise aisle and trying out a few different free weights. I spent a few minutes there, trying to convince myself how much I need and will use a pair of pink 3 pounders. I was just about to put the weights in my cart but then got distracted when a woman, frantic, ran up to the Target associate a few feet away from me and started shrieking about losing her son. The associate acted very calm and proceeded through a series of questions and actions that much have been stressed during her training period because she had the system down pat, let me tell ya. Anyway, within 30 seconds the employee had been able to calm the mother down enough to get a physical description of her son, the child's last known location, and then the associate whipped out her walkie talkie and radioed everyone in the store that a "code yellow" was in process. I understand what it feels like to lose a child (dog, in my case) so the situation wasn't funny, per se, but I was sort of amused by the whole "code yellow" schpeal. I mean, I didn't laugh or anything, but I definitely could have laughed. If I wasn't four feet away from the distressed mom.

Suddenly a storm of red and khaki figures were descending on the scene from all angles, and after a quick pow wow they all went running off in different directions in search of the missing child. Normally, if someone's child were missing, I would chip in with the search, but there were so many people already looking I figured I would just get in the way. So I continued with my shopping, making sure to glance down each aisle as I passed, just in case I saw the boy.

Ten minutes had passed and I was on the opposite side of the store, debating which SPF would best suit my every day needs (see yesterday's post re: sunburn) when I heard a faint rumble rumble squeak rumble coming towards me. I looked up from the oil-free SPF 45 and toward the noise and saw a little boy, all by himself, riding a tricycle. He didn't look lost or scared, but I had a feeling it was the lost kid from earlier, so I leaned down and in my most non-threatening voice I said Hi little boy, I think your mommy is looking for you. His hand shot up from the tricycle immediately and grabbed mine, and, bending down closer to the tricycle, I pulled him on the bike to the nearest Target employee who was able to get him back to his mom. In other words, I saved the day. Unfortunately, there was far less fanfare and confetti than I would have liked, but it still felt pretty good.