This time a RAVE!

I have recovered from the hair rant. Thank you for the kind and encouraging words. I do appreciate them all. Thought I would counter the Rant with a Rave...this one is for ALMA.

Alma is the elderly woman who gracefully masters the check-out line at my local Wal-Mart Super Center. She has single-handedly restored my hope for getting in and out of that place in under an hour. I should back up a bit and tell you how I fell in love with this sweet woman.

I met her nearly a year ago in the wee hours of the morning when I was obsessed with trying to beat the crazy Wal-Mart system and go to the store when I believed it to be less traveled. Was I ever wrong. Wal-Mart is really busy all the time. Just because my watch said 6:15am did not mean smooth and easy check out. No, still the line. Still the one checker. But, alas....this was no ordinary checker. (Music fades in....up comes ALMA's angelic face.) It was Alma.

This dear woman smiled and meticulously began her magic. She lifted and scanned with ease and wonder. She showed no signs of confusion or dismay over weighted items and codes. She knew exactly how to sack with all colds together and breads set apart. This woman seemed to flow with an ingenious competency not known to human hands. I watched in awe as customers were filing away in expediant manners and with pleasant dispositions. Before I knew it I was at the front of the line falling into her spell. Her proficient wizardry had me mesmerized. (It was early so it didn't take that much...but still!) She was good. Like no other I had ever observed. She did not dawdle, slump or complain, she did not frown or moan or call out for a price check. Her masterful hands moved with such competency and flair. It was then, that moment, that I found my love. My joy. My new friend. My Wal-Mart girl.

I knew it that day and kept it to myself, leaving the store a new woman. One with restored hope in the big box store with the low, low prices. Maybe they do care, maybe they do want me to return...they did hire ALMA. That has got to say something, right? I felt spring in my step as I left that day. Hopeful for my return, it is getting better here. Wal-Mart does care.

So, I think I may have been too optimistic as I returned a half dozen times in between and met the fate of my not so distant past, with the cruddy checkers who don't give a flip and they seemed to find me and ask me to be in their lines and I would wait and grow helpless and hopeless for her....until...

Last week I saw her again. She was down in lane twentysomething...so far away. My eyes scanned for short lines and somehow she was there. The sweet little woman with the gray tinted hair....I caught myself moving a brisk sort of pace. It wasn't too pretty, it wasn't a race, but I needed to see her to tell of my story how she is the reason I put up with this gory experience of pain and of suffering so real. But once I got to her lane my head was a flutter, she cast her kind spell and she started scanning my butter.

I couldn't contain my joy or affection ..."Alma, you dear one, do you feel our connection? Your technique is amazing your style perfection. I look for you always and hope you are here. When I see you are checking I run toward you and silently cheer!

I could tell she was flattered and taken aback as the bagger beside her giggled and laughed. I know checkers aren't celebs or famous or not...but ALMA to me is massively HOT>!

We closed down our time with a simple request, "Alma, tell me your schedule, I really must ask."

"I'm here on most days from 6-3." She smiled to herself and winked back at me.

So today is the day that I say with a Cheer, Give it up for ALMA and all who are dear! Tell them aloud, face to face, speak clear, be direct, that you value you and love them and give them respect.