A Message to the Maine Dude That Bagged My Groceries Last Weekend

Dear Bagging Dude,

Actually, I don't know why I'm referring to you as "dude" or "bagging dude," because I remember your name -- it's Christian.

Let me clear the air real quick before you, Christian, or anyone reading this message, gets the wrong idea -- this isn't going to be a negative letter. And if it gets negative, it's going to be about myself and how I handled this whole situation.

Because clearly, the fact that I remember your name and this whole incident four days after it happened means it's stuck out to me for a reason -- both how you behaved and even moreso, how I did.

Because I've been in my head about how I came off since the second I walked out the door of the grocery store.

Honestly, the whole interaction threw me off just because it was the last thing I ever expected. Because after bagging a couple of my items when you saw me about to start bagging myself, you excused yourself and said you'd be right back.

I assumed you were going to be a while or possibly not back until the next customer, except that you were back in about 15 seconds, and when I apologized for getting all up in your space because I thought you'd be longer, that's when you dropped the question that completely caught me off-guard.

I recognize that voice...

Honestly, that's never happened while I've been doing radio here in Maine. Not once. So it was the last thing I expected, especially in the checkout line of the grocery store. But I also wanted to punch myself in the throat for my response.

No, you don't!

No lie, Christian, as soon as I said that, I immediately started having inner dialogue with myself, because I was worried I came off like an absolute jerk with my tone. Truthfully, I'm the worst at taking compliments, which is why I got super awkward and responded with that.

But I got so deep in my head that the tone I had came off horribly and reeked of "DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO ME, NOW KEEP BAGGING MY GROCERIES, PEASANT!"

Because I definitely didn't mean it that way. And based on the fact that you were super complimentary of me and the show, I assumed that you probably didn't take my tone as being sucknugget snippy. But, as a dude that lives with a paranoid/guilty conscience, I was definitely still in my head about it.

Anyway, now for the message to you, Christian, about this whole interaction:

Thank you. Seriously. I'd be lying if I denied the fact that every now and then, I get deep inside my head and wonder if anyone listens, if anyone cares, or if anyone even realizes I exist.

And that's probably very much a "me" problem, but at least on a random Saturday afternoon while running a simple errand, I discovered that there's at least one person that's somewhat entertained by whatever random stuff comes out of my mouth every day.