Chutes and Ladders

WCK has been begging for months for the game Chutes and Ladders. I don't think she even knew what it was, but she wanted it desperately. We needed to run some errands on Friday, so I told her that if she cooperated with the errands, she could cash in a Target gift card that one of her friends gave her for her birthday. Of course, she selected Chutes and Ladders, as well as a book about frogs, and her very own copy of Watch Out for Jabba the Hutt. You can imagine how excited I am that we now have our own copy of Watch Out for Jabba the Hutt.

Anyway. While we were paying for everything, I was very distracted by WCK's constant questions about everything. This is how I go though life now. I don't pay close attention to anything. Someday, we're going to get into a fiery wreck as I'm trying to merge onto the interstate while trying to answer the question, "Why don't bees take showers? Why, Mama? Why? WHY??!?!"

As we headed toward our car in the parking lot, I started thinking that the total I paid was really low, even with the gift card. I checked the receipt, and sure enough, they hadn't charged me for the Chutes and Ladders game. For a few moments, I thought, "Cool. Free game," and I kept walking. I knew, though, that I had to head back into the store because

1) It's important to be mature and set an example here, blah blah blah
2) If I shoplift, I am no better than those lowdown, dirty goose thieves
3) It's bad enough to shoplift anything; it's really, really low to shoplift Chutes and Ladders. I mean, shoplifting is even worse than any of the bad deeds depicted on the game, including pulling kitty's tail, eating all of the cookies, or skating when the sign clearly says, "NO SKATING." I could not play a Chutes and Ladders game day after day knowing that I really deserved the biggest chute of all.

So, I turned around and headed back into the store, where the lines were now enormous, and WCK was screaming that she wanted to go home. The checkout lady looked at me like I was insane, and she even seemed a little annoyed that she had to ring it up again. I felt much better, though. Now I'm headed up my ladder toward some great reward, instead of sliding down a giant chute into the fires of hell. Whew.