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I read another post in the "Off Topic" section that was similar to this incident but had a different outcome. Honest to God this happened yesterday. My wife and I were heading back from Seattle and dropped in at the Ikea in Renton Wa for the sole purpose of grabbing lunch. It was obviously her idea because for me this is akin to a trip through Hell to grab a cheeseburger. After perusing the parking lots for a spot to park my car I started to question the effect of the all these cars on the health of our planet and determined that if an atomic bomb landed on the parking lot at that very moment the hole in the Ozone would miraculously close....and it would put a smile on my face as a parking spot would suddenly become available.
We finally found a parking spot only 4 miles away a made a bee line for the gates of Hell, er, I mean the store entrance. Of course all those car were carrying people. I didn't realize they were all clown cars but judging from the number of people in the store, each super sub compact eco friendly car in the parking was designed to carry at least 12 people. After spending three days in Seattle checking out less crowded venues like Pike Place on a Saturday afternoon during a three day weekend, this was a little overwhelming.
We first passed the kiddy area where regretful parents drop their kids off so they can spend the poor child's college fund on cheap furniture. First thought was no way would I allow some stranger to supervise my child while he crawled around on plastic toys covered in piss and play in a ball room where could kids could anonymously unload their diapers, hidden from view buried 3 feet deep in plastic orbs. The smell of sour milk, candy, and bubblegumty diapers filled my nose but brought back fond memories of my childhood. We found a map of the store. Great. The problem problem that I was never invited to join MENSA due to my ineptness at math and horrible English skills so reading this map was completely pointless. Only 2 floors of zig zagging through fat ladies, old people, and suburban mom's who were too hung over to realize they could have ditched their kids in the ball room. Oh yeah, besides my wife really wanting meat balls (how's that diet going honey?) she failed to mention that she also wanted to purchase some of the cheap plastic crap this Swedish Wal-Mart was peddling.
After 3 hours of dodging the dumb founded and starting to suffer from hypoglycemic shock we made it to the food line. All sorts of dried out pastries, bad fish and meatballs out of a bag awaited us. This made my mouth water. Winding our way through the line was going surprisingly smooth. I was loading up my my tray and looking forward to a nutritious meal when I noticed the guy, all by himself in line behind me. His head was shaved, his face was not. He stocky and wearing a black leather jacket. He was not carrying a food tray like the rest of us. He had his hands shoved in his pocket and his face was expressionless. This immediately put me on edge. He was a rough looking dude, obviously out of place. He looked like he belonged more in the club house of the Gypsy Jokers than in this play house of soccer moms. I re-positioned myself so that my wife was now walking through the line in front of me and re-positioned myself so that I could keep an eye on him and the food in front of me at the same time. I waited for him to grab any sort of food but he remained facing forward not doing anything but following us through the line. I pulled my wallet out at the check out, pulled out a twenty and quickly tucked my wallet back in my front pocket. I was worried because this guy saw my wad of cash. Took a few steps forward to the fill up my fountain cup when I heard the guy finally spoke. He turned to the cashier and said "The guy back there gave me 5 extra meat balls. I came back to pay for them". This guy's action at that moment completely changed my mood. I wish there were more Ikea shoppers like him.
We finally found a parking spot only 4 miles away a made a bee line for the gates of Hell, er, I mean the store entrance. Of course all those car were carrying people. I didn't realize they were all clown cars but judging from the number of people in the store, each super sub compact eco friendly car in the parking was designed to carry at least 12 people. After spending three days in Seattle checking out less crowded venues like Pike Place on a Saturday afternoon during a three day weekend, this was a little overwhelming.
We first passed the kiddy area where regretful parents drop their kids off so they can spend the poor child's college fund on cheap furniture. First thought was no way would I allow some stranger to supervise my child while he crawled around on plastic toys covered in piss and play in a ball room where could kids could anonymously unload their diapers, hidden from view buried 3 feet deep in plastic orbs. The smell of sour milk, candy, and bubblegumty diapers filled my nose but brought back fond memories of my childhood. We found a map of the store. Great. The problem problem that I was never invited to join MENSA due to my ineptness at math and horrible English skills so reading this map was completely pointless. Only 2 floors of zig zagging through fat ladies, old people, and suburban mom's who were too hung over to realize they could have ditched their kids in the ball room. Oh yeah, besides my wife really wanting meat balls (how's that diet going honey?) she failed to mention that she also wanted to purchase some of the cheap plastic crap this Swedish Wal-Mart was peddling.
After 3 hours of dodging the dumb founded and starting to suffer from hypoglycemic shock we made it to the food line. All sorts of dried out pastries, bad fish and meatballs out of a bag awaited us. This made my mouth water. Winding our way through the line was going surprisingly smooth. I was loading up my my tray and looking forward to a nutritious meal when I noticed the guy, all by himself in line behind me. His head was shaved, his face was not. He stocky and wearing a black leather jacket. He was not carrying a food tray like the rest of us. He had his hands shoved in his pocket and his face was expressionless. This immediately put me on edge. He was a rough looking dude, obviously out of place. He looked like he belonged more in the club house of the Gypsy Jokers than in this play house of soccer moms. I re-positioned myself so that my wife was now walking through the line in front of me and re-positioned myself so that I could keep an eye on him and the food in front of me at the same time. I waited for him to grab any sort of food but he remained facing forward not doing anything but following us through the line. I pulled my wallet out at the check out, pulled out a twenty and quickly tucked my wallet back in my front pocket. I was worried because this guy saw my wad of cash. Took a few steps forward to the fill up my fountain cup when I heard the guy finally spoke. He turned to the cashier and said "The guy back there gave me 5 extra meat balls. I came back to pay for them". This guy's action at that moment completely changed my mood. I wish there were more Ikea shoppers like him.
in them.
