Day 63 Trader Joe’s Cashiers

I have a friend; let’s call him Rob, who is a cashier at Trader Joes.  Rob and I went to both graduate school and undergrad although we only met in the former.  We are periphery friends – we had a close mutual friend and there was a season where we hung out fairly frequently.  However, once the mutual friend moved away our connection ebbed. 

However, we do see each other occasionally at Trader Joes.  If I see that Rob is working, I will always get in his line, even it is the longest.  These check outs are the only times we catch up on one another’s life.  We have talked about voting (I came in on election day and he asked me how I voted on prop 8), jobs or in my case lack thereof, him trying to get into law school, Lucky Baldwin’s, who is still around from the old days,  but always in the few minutes it takes for him to ring me up. 

Last night, I waited in his line, like always, and he was quick to say that he was in a foul mood as he had just been rejected from yet another law school.  I told him it is because he needs to start applying to local law schools instead of ones on the eastern seaboard.  I also encouraged him with my story of getting turned down when I applied to wait tables – I mean really what is worse law school or a humble anonymous establishment in Old Town?  I told him about my new job while punching in my PIN number.  As he was handing me my receipt, he told me the flowers were on the house.  How nice is that and after all it is not everyday someone buys me flowers, right? 

A few years back at another Trader Joes I had gone to right after working out the cashier did the same.  This time, I had never met the guy but after having shared that I was in a bit of a sad mood for whatever reason he handed me a bouquet of flowers again on the house to cheer me up. 

I must confess one of my first real first date was with a grocery store cashier (Alpha Beta circa 1991) who did bring me flowers a few different times.  Perhaps I have a way with men at the grocery store?