A friend of mine asked me how the cruise on Saturday went.

I wasn’t going to blog about this, because it’s quite embarrassing, but then I thought, why not? I’ve written lots of embarrassing stuff on my blog, what’s one more. And maybe someone can get something positive out of it. I know at the end of it, I did.

This is basically what I told my friend:

The cruise was lovely, but somehow I was in a grumpy mood on the way back and I made a huge fool of myself!

What happened was when we got to the cruise we wanted to go on in Gravenhurst, they were having this silly pirate festival and the normal 2 hour sightseeing cruise was suspended for one hour excursions that just went out into lake Muskoka a bit and turned around in an hour, enough for the little crazy kids all dressed up as pirates to enjoy but nothing that the three of us adults would like!

This was the same cruise we’d tried to go on before, but they hadn’t been running! So this was the second time we’d driven two and a half hours to be disappointed.

 Hubby decided to check out this old museum but I didn’t feel like perusing local history so I asked the clerk if there were any other cruises nearby. She said there was one in Bracebridge, which was ten minutes north on the highway, it was leaving at 12 noon. We’d been on the cruise already, but we thought, heck, it would be better than the silly piratefest!

So we scooted up the highway and caught the cruise in just enough time.

It was actually much nicer than I remembered it! And it was pretty packed.

 The weather was fantastic, hot but a nice cool breeze that took the edge off.

 Then we had to get into the hot car and drive back, and hubby and son had spied a t-shirt place that said 3 t-shirts for $10 so they wanted to check it out.

 I didn’t. I sat in the car and sweated. Then when they came back in I remembered that I actually did need some t-shirts, my pyjama t-shirts were getting too worn and ragged at the hems, so hubby said I should have gone in with them, and I said, “I know, I know.” So I went in.

 But I’m a lousy shopper at the best of times, and this was not the best of times! I was hot and grumpy and tired, and I just wanted to get the t-shirts and go.

I of course assumed ALL the t-shirts in the store were 3 for $10, so I went to a rack with oversize t-shirts on it and picked up a 4x and even a 5x, that would be pretty roomy, but son came in and said, “No, get the 6x.” And I thought, what the heck, too hot and tired to even put the 6 x up to me to see if it was too big.

 Got to the counter and the lady said that each t-shirt was $16.95! The 3 for $10 t-shirts were in a tiny box at the back!

I said, “So that’s your gimmick to get people in!”

 Apparently the t-shirts went up by $2 for each x!  So the 3 6x t-shirts I’d picked up came to around $50 not including tax.

 Then the lady said, “Oh but there’s a coupon at the bottom of your son’s receipt.”

“How much discount with the coupon?”

“$1.22”

“On each t-shirt?”

“Nope. $1.22 total.”

 I was so mad!

 I just paid and was very short with the clerks, grabbed my stuff, didn’t bother to take the receipt, and I stormed out of there.

 By the time I was almost at the highway turn off, I thought, “Wait a minute! What if 6 x is too big.”

 Hubby scolded me for not trying them on. And I thought we’re two hours out of Toronto, when will I ever go back?

So with hubby and son complaining I turned around and went back.

 When I parked the car, hubby said, “At least try on one of the t-shirts before you go in to see how big it is!” He said, “Go to the front of the car and pull it on. We’ll honk once if it’s okay, twice if you look like an idiot.”

 Well I went in front of the car and pulled the darn thing over my head. Honestly, it was so huge, that it was long-sleeved on me!  And there’s my hubby and son cracking up in the car and honking twice!

 So I went inside. And this time I felt like a real heel for being so short with the ladies. I’d have to eat some humble pie, and I knew it.

 The lady I’d bought the t-shirts from asked me for the receipt. I told her I hadn’t taken it. Then I checked the bag, they checked the trash, I went back and checked the car, couldn’t find the receipt anywhere! She was sure she’d given it to me, I was sure she hadn’t.

 Very kindly they looked up the inventory numbers in their book and gave me a refund. I got the 3x sizes, and received a refund of $20!

 Thoroughly humbled, I said, “I’m sorry for being short with you. I’m just hot and tired.”

 And the lady I’d been so short with said, “Oh that’s okay. We all get like that sometime.”

 In the car, on the way home, we were talking with my son and he said his biggest fear is failing.

 Hubby had told him, “News flash son, you’re going to fail. No doubt about it. You’re bound to fail at one thing or another you just can’t let that stop  you.”

Then I said, “Don’t you see what just happened to me? That whole t-shirt thing was a fail. But I learned something from it.”

 “What did you learn?” asked my son.

 “I learned that I can’t get away with being short with people. I need to be more patient and less grumpy. Because whenever I’m grumpy, I get humiliated.”

Then my sonny boy laughed.

And I said, “What’s so funny?”

He said, “I’m just remembering the way you looked in that 6x t-shirt!”

Yup. Humiliating!

(By the way, the fluffy blanket of serenity descended on me after this incident!)