I am participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge: A slice a day for all of March. You should do it too! Thank you, Two Writing Teachers! Readers, check out their site, and start slicing!
Yesterday I took the boys on a spring break trip to target. We are exciting around here, I know. They were hungry, so before we shopped, we sat down for the healthy lunch-snack called “Pretzels, mustard and Icees.” (And water for sugar-free me…)
As the boys ate, I noticed.
I noticed the way H took his Icee lid off to use his spoon. I took a deep breath and forced myself not to remind him that can get messy.
I noticed a boy, maybe 14, sitting by himself, in the cafe but with nothing to eat. I wanted to offer to buy him a pretzel, but that probably wouldn’t make sense. He was probably just waiting for his grown-up.
I noticed that E used a lot of mustard packets for his pretzel.
I noticed when the Target cafe worker left for quite a bit.
I noticed when the next customer came and waited. She must have been in a hurry. She waited for about 15 seconds, asked us if someone was working the counter, yelled “Hello?” and then walked off in a huff. She said as she left, “This is ridiculous! This is the second time they’ve done this to me.”
I noticed when the soda machine suddenly started spitting ice. The boys decided it must be haunted.
I noticed when the Icees were done, and the pretzels were suddenly leftovers. So we grabbed a cart and started our journey into the actual store… on the hunt for legos and books.
On a Thought 
Ordinary but not. Your post shows the impatience of people and the lack of work ethic that seems to be the ordinary. I love that your boys think the machine is haunted 🙂
Target is the best place to just go and do nothing. My boys love to walk the aisles and make wish lists in their minds. I love to look at the home goods and seasonal items and books and clothes and really, everything. Target is great for when you have nowhere to be and you can just be there. Thanks for sharing!
I love this! I have been having difficulty with thinking of these “big stories” to slice about during this challenge and have noticed that there are not “big” things happening every day…your post has reminded me that it’s okay to just “notice” what’s going on around me and to write about that. I was worried that if I wrote about something “mundane” (and by no means was this post mundane), people might not want to read it, but on the contrary! I really enjoyed reading this! It makes me wonder about all the things I might have missed out today because I wasn’t “noticing.” Thanks so much for sharing! You’ve definitely inspired my next post.
So glad! My slicing is so often about the things I notice… and it is surprisingly life-changing to start to just notice and write, and notice and write… 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and commenting! Can’t wait to read your slices.
I enjoyed reading about what you noticed. What a clever idea to write it down. The simplicity of it is lovely…and I agree that Target is a great place to people-watch and spend some time with kiddos.
I love the noticing…amazing what can be found in the ordinary and everyday! Thank you for sharing this slice!!
Love the focus on the moment here! And the fun that pretzels, mustard, and Icees can bring before a trip into Target for Legos and books. What could be a better reason for a Target run?