interlude

my husband needed to change out his flat tire this afternoon so i agreed to accompany him to walmart since we needed to do some shopping anyway.  we dropped off his car and were told it would be an hour and a half tops, so we leisurely shopped and then waited outside until the car would be ready.  we chatted freely, bringing up different subjects, discussing random topics.  since neither of us had remembered our phones, we had no concept of time, but we gradually realized that it was taking longer than expected.

at some point, one of the technicians walked by and we overheard the current time, realizing that we had been waiting for nearly 3 hours.  since evening had set in and the air had grown cooler, we moved inside to wait.  and wait.  and wait.  and we weren't the only ones waiting.  the girl in front of us had brought her car in for a new battery and her tires had been changed out instead.  (we suspected her work order had been swapped with ours accidentally).  she waited an additional 45 minutes to check out, so we knew what we were in for when it would be our turn.  while we were waiting, my husband and i started cracking jokes about our situation, laughing it off like we always do in frustrating situations where there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

after another 30 minutes passed, i decided to walk myself over to customer service to speak to the manager.  we were given a discount, but check-out still took 45 minutes (like expected, i guess), so all in all we had waited for over 4 hours.  an entire afternoon to wait for tires to be changed!  luckily, every time i was about to give someone a piece of my mind, my husband would calm me down by trying to get me to smile, and i would attempt to do the same for him whenever it was his turn to almost lose it.

so would i recommend walmart's tire and lube express?  no.  but would i recommend finding someone to laugh with when you're stuck in annoying situations?  always.