Ah, the Rocker!

So today Natalie and I took the kiddoes and drove through Sonic for lunch as we were both uninspired and the kids really love Sonic food so you can count on them eating well. The girl brought the order out and as she handed it to us, we discovered there had been a mistake made on a drink. She was very sweet -- said she'd take it back in and get the right drink back out.

As she was doing that, I started rummaging through my purse to see if I had a dollar I could give her (we paid via the fabulous Sonic 'pay-in-your-car' PIN pad) as a tip. What I discovered was that I only had a $10 bill and wasn't going to give her that. So I scrounged around some more and found I had plenty of quarters and could give her a dollar that way. I asked Natalie if she thought it would be dumb to give her the change. We giggled about it a little bit as we waited.

At that point, I had this most ridiculous memory pop into my head so I told Natalie that I could give her a tin of popcorn -- and we both burst into hysterical laughter that went on long enough that it eventually caused Maya to tell us to knock it off. (it makes her annoyed when she doesn't get the joke and there was no way she could get this one.).

Years ago, in December of 1996, we were still in Nashville, but packing to move to Reno immediately after Christmas. Natie and I were at a Cracker Barrel and I decided I wanted to buy Mark one of their signature rocking chairs as our memory of Tennessee. You can probably picture them - they are always all lined up on their big front porch, and you can sit in them and rock while you wait for dinner, or you can play a game of checkers -- well, you get the picture.

So we went inside, told someone I wanted to buy a rocking chair, paid for it and then realized we were driving a Nissan Sentra and didn't know how we'd get it home. There was a nice young guy working there as a clerk who came out with us and tried to jam it into that teeny little car to no avail (duh) and then offered to put it in his car and follow us home and drop it off. We thought that was the nicest thing ever, cleared it with his boss, and away we went. *(the above rocker is 'ready to assemble' -- ours was already assembled! If only!)

We took a roundabout route, trying to keep him off the busy roads, and I know at times he had to be wondering where the heck we were going. (it really wasn't that far but it sure seemed like it that night!) Eventually we made it home -- I'm even thinking it was snowing and icy (correct me if my memory is wrong, Nan!) and the poor guy hauled that heavy oak rocker out of his car/truck and into our living room. While he was doing that, it hit me that I should give him a tip for helping us -- and dug around in my purse (see, I am getting to the connection to the Sonic girl) to see what I had.

What I had was 3 lousy dollars. Yes. Three dollars. Which was really almost insulting. So I hurriedly looked around to see what the heck else I could give him and my eyes lit on a --- huge Christmas tin of popcorn!

So after he finished hauling that dang rocker into the house, I thanked him, (with Natalie having hysterics over in the corner of the living room) and gave him three dollars and a tin of popcorn. Feeling really really lame. Which I was.

But it sure prompted a gale of laughter at Sonic today!