karma baby.

tonight we went to kohl's to exchange some shirts i got paul for christmas. for some reason medium looked HUGE so i got him all smalls. every single shirt small. well, he tried them on today and whoa. he's not a small. we made our exchanges and checked out, and paid the difference put coats on the kids and headed out. as soon as i got karyssa in the car i said "you've got my wallet?" paul looked at me nuts and said "no!" that's when i realized something in the last 2 minutes had gone awry. i went through my kohl's bag. i checked in my seat. i checked all over around the car. i walked back into the store...correction...ran back into the store. i went up to the guy that checked us out and he said "no, if i'd seen it i would have told you." it seemed odd. i went back out to paul we searched the cart again. we searched under the car. we searched all the seats. paul went back in. again the guy wasn't incredibly helpful and we both began to suspect he knew exactly where my wallet was. he came back out and as we pulled away i looked at our spot one more time. no wallet. i said "did they take your number so they can at least call us?" and he realized no one had done that. he went back into the store and i could see from the car things were escalating. something wasn't right. i parked the car and hauled both kids back in side. at this point asher is screaming hungry. (he's not eaten well for days because he's getting teeth.) and by now i'm SURE our cashier knows full well what's going on. i said i'm about ready to call the police. i am getting more pissed by the second at this point. the manager (who was all of 19) watched the video and said he could see me pay and put the card back in my wallet then the wallet back in my left pocket. where i now have an empty cheerios container. why i put it in the only full pocket i have is beyond me. but lets get back to how it's all the cashier's fault. then he checks the video of the parking lot and paul watched it with him. all the way down the sidewalk i go with the wallet in my pocket. no one around me for steps. but then there's this blank spot over by the far doors that's not on the video. we searched and searched and searched. the bushes. the parking lot. the car. the kohl's bag. the shopping cart. the parking spot. everywhere. we finally had to come home and eat dinner. we called all the credit cards and bank cards and cancelled everything. then it dawned on me-at this point we know full well it is not the cashier's fault and we did not apologize. we walked in, he did his job, we shat upon his night and left. um. that's not good. so i pulled out the receipt and called the store to leave a message like a chicken. they gave me right to the cashier. ugh. now i've got to apologize "face to face". i told him in the tizzy of leaving we hadn't apologized and i was so sorry and he interrupted and said "ya and your whole family was watching me!" (we had bumped into some friends while leaving the store so they stood with us in a mob ready to bust some knee caps until we saw the video.) i said "i know! i realize-and they knew too that it was on the video. i apologize. i am so sorry! it was not your fault at all and i felt awful!" with that he chippered up. he was seriously still pissed at us - and, i must say, rightfully so. a few minutes later tatum started barking like a banshee. i took her outside to pee and a cop pulled up. um. this is not normal. i took tatum back inside and the cop said "are you sheri?" (i did not correct him-my name is pronounced cherie). "yes......did you find my wallet!!!!" a customer at kohl's had found it. "WHY DIDN'T SHE JUST GIVE IT TO KOHL'S!!??!!" "she didn't speak english...she took it home to her husband that did speak english and he called the police." she didn't know what to do! she found my wallet, complete with the $6 cash in it, didn't know it was safe to give it to kohl's, finished her shopping, went home and called the police.
and this is where i believe in karma. i was so glad i had already called the cashier BEFORE my wallet was found so i could clear my conscience. and then my wallet came back to me. THANK GOODNESS. now i just have to wait for all my new credit cards to come in. oh jeez.