So, the other night, I'm coming home from working up at the school, and I decide that since I have nothing to drink in the house, I'll stop by United.

I do. And I pick up three things to drink: a twelve-pack of coke, a gallon of milk, and a twenty-ounce orange drink to have right away. I check out, and as I'm checking out, the cashier asks if I want to donate something to the Katrina reliefe efforts. That gets me to thinking, because I had been planning to donate something, though I hadn't decided where yet. Anyway, I was distracted, thinking, and I walk out of the store.

The thing is, something was wrong the whole walk out to my car. Something just felt funny. But right before I realized what it was, I saw a nail. It was on the sidewalk, and I walked right past it. Then, I was distracted from my already distracted thoughts, and the rest of the walk to the car, I thought of that nail sitting on the sidewalk. I kept thinking that if I didn't pick it up, it would end up in the parking lot and in somebody's tire. So, I walked back across the parking lot, and searched around in the dark and finally found it, and I went home.

When I got home, I talked to my roommate for a bit. Then, I went to put my groceries up in the fridge. And that's when it hit me. Of course, this was yet another instance in which the Pierce curse had struck. That's what I had been distracted from--I had forgotten my groceries at the store.

So, I find the receipt. I tell my roommate where I'm headed (he who laughs mercilessly shall receive no mercy), and I go back to the store. But first, I make one look around the house to make sure I hadn't just left them laying somewhere random (believe me, such happens frequently). I hadn't. So, I left.

And I walk back into the store, and I start to dig in my pocket to pull out the receipt, and of course, it's not there now. I go and search in my car and find about fifteen receipts, but none of them is this particular one from United. When I did that last little look around the house, I had evidently set it down. I drove back home (about seven blocks), and searched all over the house. I found it. And my roommate laughed at me again.

And then I went back to the store. The cashier laughed at me too. She especially thought it was funny that I had left such large items. I didn't tell her about the receipt stuff.

And then I went home, and drank my lukewarm orange drink. It tasted good.