Why having A Messy Purse Saved Me From Being Stuck In Long Line Hell

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, in fact I know I have but let me say this again, I LOVE COSTCO. Their produce rocks (and much of it is organic), they sell feta cheese by the brick, their bagels are fresh and they sell the huge bottles (1.75L) of Irish creme liqueur for $18, need I say more? Well the other day the girls and I went to stock up on the usual stuff and I maneuvered the extra large cart over to the checkout. I was even on the ball enough to remember to take the reusable grocery bags out of the car and into the store with me, most days I forget them on the front seat.

The cashier rings up all of my purchases and gives me the total. "$84.60 please" I quick scan my wallet, $46 in cash. I think to myself, Oh well Costco takes debit, so I rummage around my ridiculously disorganized purse, (just a warning, if you follow this link you will also see my hairy legs, sorry about that) locate my debit card and swipe it through the card thingy. No dice. I look at the cashier like "should I try it again?" She gets this frustrated look on her face and says to me "debit cards aren't working right now, why don't you go stand in that line while we try to fix it." The line she was pointing to was about 8 super-sized Costco carts long filled with women who look as if they hate standing in lines. At the very front of the line is an employee huddled around the now dismantled ATM kiosk, on the phone that is apparently the main line to the bank, and she's stuck on hold. I frantically look at my cart trying to decide which items I will sacrifice in order to pay cash and not stand in the line to nowhere. (By the way, the only credit card Costco accepts is AmEx and I don't have one of those.) Mind you my kids lost their patience way back at the second free food sample and want nothing more than to get the hell out of the store. The cashier then asks kind of sheepishly, "you don't happen to have your checkbook along do you?" Ding, ding, ding!

More rummaging through my purse but eventually I come up with it, pay for my stuff and waltz right past that ungodly long line and say under my breath, "Suckas!" Score one for the disorganized woman with the 2 bored children!

*I have been meaning to stop carrying my checkbook around in my purse because I almost never use it and I'm sure it wouldn't be fun if I accidentally lost it, but I think I'll keep it around for a while longer.