AND THE GOLD MEDAL IN RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS GOES TO ...

My favorite gas station is directly across the street from a street-side CVS store.  The store is right on Main Street, and the sidewalk in front of the store is a major thoroughfare for walkers, runners, students (public schools, private schools, and college), and tourists.  You can pretty much see anything and everything just by watching the sidewalks that bisect the center of town, and today, anything and everything is exactly what transpires.

Today I see what truly wonderful things can happen when karma mixes together a woman, a CVS receipt, and the wind.

Anyone who shops at CVS knows that the receipts are longer than Yao Ming is tall.  The other day I bought four items at CVS and the receipt was taller than I am, so I know exactly what I am seeing as soon as I see it from my vantage point at the front gas pump at the Gulf station.  I see a woman leave CVS from the front door, walk about six feet in a southerly direction, stop at the fancy open-air trash receptacle, and attempt to throw away her CVS receipt.

She takes the receipt out of the bag, and the wind immediately flutters the multi-foot paper behind her and around her.  With one hand firmly holding her CVS bag full of purchases, she reaches up and begins waving both arms to rein the paper back in.  The paper ribbons around her like it's trying to tie her up like a Christmas package.

When she finally gets control over the flapping receipt, she tries to stuff it into the trash can then has second thoughts.  Oh, coupons!  There must be something she needs.  She begins scrolling through the paper-tape, rolling it around her arms and hands like our grandmothers used to do with skeins of yarn.  She tries to tear off a couple of the coupons, but they are in the middle area of the receipt and the wind is raising havoc with her good intentions.  Round and round and round the paper flies, and her little arms are pinwheeling trying to contain the paper that now looks like Mary Poppins on her way out of London.

Finally, she gives up, stuffs the entire receipt into the trash can, and tries to walk away.  But her hand is caught in one end of the paper.  The wind picks up the other end and the CVS receipt rises out of the trash can like a cobra from a snake charmer's basket.  Eventually, she extricates herself, starts to walk away, and looks around to make sure no one on the sidewalk is watching.

No, perhaps nobody street-side.  However, I am across the street, just finishing up getting twenty dollars of regular gas pumped into my car, and I have been lucky enough to witness the entire routine.  After I drive away, I realize that I should've clapped for her.  I mean, my window had been down.  I look around briefly to see if she is anywhere nearby, but I cannot see her anymore.  Perhaps I just don't recognize her with her Olympic-sized CVS ribbon receipt, which is a shame.  I want to award her a gold medal for her rhythmic gymnastic CVS receipt routine.  It truly was, and still is, memorable.