Today I dealt with a situation at work where a customer signed a customer acceptance for all of the items they purchased, but a few months later called to say that they didn't get 2 of the items. The company policy is that if you signed for it but didn't check to make sure it was actually there then that is on you, but we'd be happy to sell you another one! (my tongue is totally in my cheek here).

This got me to thinking- how does that normally work in other places? We sell big ticket items like fireplaces and hot tubs, but what if your purchase is just your weekly groceries, and your receipt says your grapes where paid for but you get home and they're not in your bags? Then I wondered about, say, a fast food place. Do you have to say, "Hey, wait, where are my onion rings?" on the spot, or can you get five minutes away and come back?

Then I remembered that this happened to me once- I bought (too much) food at a Hardee's (that's Carl's Jr. out west, for my friends not familiar with east coast cuisine in the form of fast food), got about halfway home on the 20 minute drive, and realized that didn't get one of my items. I think it was a cheeseburger, but I can't really remember. I just called them from the number on the receipt, wrote a little number the manager gave me, and took the receipt back a few weeks later for my replacement cheeseburger.

All of this suddenly brought rushing back memories of how I would engorge on fast food when living in Carolina. I'd stop at either Hardee's or Burger King at least a few times a month. Some less-strict eaters might say, "Fast food only 3 times a month? That's not so bad". But I never just got a simple cheeseburger. I remember times where I'd order the biggest, fattiest burger, then upsize everything, then a chocolate shake, and usually at least one side, and sometimes other sandwiches, typically of the .99 cent variety.

It's so disgusting to remember. I was so ashamed at this huge fat lady ordering so much food that I would pretend to be on the phone with someone from home (a fake boyfriend if it was in the neighboring town where no one knew me, my real roommates if it was in the town where I worked so I wouldn't get caught, since I was well known and people knew that my significant other lived on the opposite side of the country) and I would have these "conversations" with them, while ordering, so that the person thought I was ordering for multiple people.

That is so shameful.

I am not really ashamed now that I did that- rather, I am relieved to be baring my soul- but I feel the shame of the woman who did that, who was so addicted to food that she lied to and manipulated even strangers simply to try and cover up her humiliation.

I actually see the providence of the Lord in Jas and I being a one car (actually, truck) family right now, and being on a SUPER tight budget at that. Frivolous fast food is nearly non-existent in our lives, and I can't act on any temptation to go buy nasty fast food that I don't need because if I'm in a vehicle, Jason is driving, and he loves me too much for us to get even just one .99 cent cheeseburger from McDonald's. That's quite wonderful, really.

Isn't it interesting how being so restricted by those constraints is actually quite liberating for me?