A New Pet Peeve

Today I am having to get some errands done.

Cajun Baby has three teeth that have finally made it through his gums on top, but he's still missing a front tooth - it's coming still. Yes, he has fangs...my top eyeteeth came through first, too. Go figure.

So, most of you know that this does not make for the happiest baby. He's very social and loves getting out of the house, but he'd had enough by the time we had hit the grocery store. He was quietly fussing in his car seat (I am a glutton for punishment and lug the thirty-some pounds into the store because of the flu germs going around right now) and every once in awhile making screeching velociraptor noises (wouldn't Daddy be so proud). I was trying to keep him happy, pick up some essentials, and remember what Cajun Man had requested for dinner.

Unfortunately, I was failing at keeping Cajun Baby happy.

I turned down an aisle looking for some sort of quick lunch things for me when a middle-aged woman I have never seen before stopped me.

"Are you Cajun Man's wife?" she asked.

"Guilty as charged," I answered. I was going for humor at this point. Cajun Baby looked at her expecting her to notice him and talk to him or at least coo a little bit.

"Is he still a deputy?" she asked.

"No," I said. I was expecting her to have some sort of law enforcement related question or complaint for me to pass along - this happens a lot in our small town. "He is working in the nearby metropolis now....."

"Well, I just thought you should know that he gave me a ticket five years ago and I didn't deserve it," she interjected before I could finish my sentence. At this point, Cajun Baby is clearing his throat and fake coughing to get her attention (yeah, my baby thinks the world revolves around him).

"Well, I guess that's subjective, isn't it?" I replied as I tried to squeeze my way around her cart.

She stepped in front of me and asked, "What do you mean by that? I wasn't breaking the law and he gave me a ticket."

"I've never had anyone come up to me in the grocery store and stop me to tell me that they were breaking the law and my husband gave them a ticket." Cajun Baby was staring at her and I could sense the meltdown coming. She wouldn't pay any attention to him and obviously she should have been.

"Don't you think that says something?" she said.

"Yes," I answered. "I think it says that there are two sides to every story and that my husband knows the law better than the average Joe. I also think he was very capable of doing his job or you would have gone to court to fight it and they would have dropped the ticket."

Cajun Baby started to wail.

"Maybe I did," she said.

I started to back up, so that I could turn around...but I wanted the last word. "If you had," I said, "would you really have stopped me here to complain about Cajun Man?"

It would have been the perfect line to leave on...but I got stuck ignoring her in the check out line as I waited for her gazillion groceries to be scanned.

Yeah, she's lucky I didn't throw a tomato at her.

Just a side note for those of you reading who have been given a ticket when you didn't deserve it:

I'm not saying that you deserved it. I will say that I have felt that way in the past, too. I learned a lot once I started dating Cajun Man. I was amazed at the people that would complain to me and then once I asked Cajun Man about it, they were very clearly breaking the law (ie going fifteen or twenty miles over the speed limit). The other thing that shocked me were people's reactions to getting a ticket....really, people? Name calling, spitting, racing him back to the police station to complain about a ticket because obviously your speedometer that has never been calibrated is much more accurate than the thousands of dollars of equipment that is calibrated often.

I've learned that really, it is not worth the paperwork they have to do, to make up nit picky ways you are breaking the law and then chase you down for it.

The only time I have ever heard complaints about police is when the complainer has been caught breaking the law.

I probably shouldn't have entered in that conversation with that woman, but the fact is she brought up a ticket my hubby wrote five years ago...five years ago. Really? It just made me want to make a point and stand up for my husband who did a great job as a cop....and being a cop is really not all fun and games.

Which I made and then had to endure her dirty looks as her next month's groceries were scanned through the check out line. FUN!

I still say that the four minute conversation was totally worth it.