Yesterday I went grocery shopping.

I arrived at 8:00 p.m. at a Farmers Market which is a grocery store that has a lot of good produce and organic goods. My plan was to hit this store for some produce and meat and then hit Trader Joe’s, located in the same shopping center, for the rest of what I needed.

Both stores closed at 9:00 p.m. so I needed to get in and out of there as fast as possible.

I raced around, throwing flax seed oil and chocolate-covered peanuts into my basket. In the produce aisle, I bagged some tomatoes and some parsley, threw them into my shopping cart and hustled over to the meat section. I was so focused on my shopping list and what I needed to get in the meat section that it took me a while to hear a voice calling, “Hey! Excuse me!”

In retrospect, I do vaguely remember hearing that “Hey! Excuse me!” more than a few times as I raced over to fondle the poultry. It wasn’t until I arrived, however, that I realized that person was talking to me.

“Yes?” I reply when I turn to see a guy almost running to catch up to me.

“Um,” he says, pointing to the shopping cart that I’m still clutching in my hands, “You took my cart.”

I glance down and see a whole array of food that aren’t mine – except for the tomatoes and parsley. Those are mine.

“Oh. Sorry!” I say as I quickly hand the cart over. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Embarrassed, I look for my own cart and go and retrieve it in the produce section. My plan is to get out of the grocery store so I don’t have to face the guy and his wife whose cart I stole. It is then that I realize my parsley and tomatoes are still in the cart.

My mind, for a moment, wants to just leave it and go get more. I don’t do this, however, and I go and retrieve the items from the guy’s cart.

I leave before I get arrested.