we went to target tonight to buy some sprinkles for my october cake and some golf balls. (candle sale! $4.28 impulse buy!) since we only had three items, we decided to use the express lane. we got in line behind three high school aged guys. i always look at what other people are buying, i just do, i can’t help it. just today in fact, we stood behind a guy in kroger who was pretty much exactly my dad in about 15 years. he was probably 80 and bought nothing but 2% milk and bread. i think my dad could live on that. but i digress…

back to target. if i may stereo type for a moment, these weren’t your typical honor students. they just sort of looked like they were trouble. granted, i’m not saying they’re actually bad kids, they just looked like they would be. as we get closer, i noted what they were buying.

1 package of trident gum. gotta have fresh breath for the ladies, right?

1 dvd. i couldn’t see what it was, and probably wouldn’t have recognized it anyway, but this seems like a normal friday night purchase. slow night, buy a cheap dvd. great.

3 - 12 packs of soda. 2 jones soda packs in some sort of berry flavor and a pack of squirt or some other c-brand of soda.

2 bottles of cough syrup.

now, even if these kids had looked like honor students, i’d have raised an eyebrow. TWO bottles of cough syrup? i’ve had the same bottle of nyquil in my cabinet for 4 years, and its still 2/3 full.

now for the educational portion of my evening. the cashier also raised an eyebrow at the very obvious underage jack and coke these kids were planning on going home to create. so she scans the nyquil and - get this - you have to be 18 to buy it! who knew?! these guys didn’t. so they’re fumbling around for IDs, but they’re all 17, so they can’t buy the nyquil and have to leave with just their gum, dvd and 36 cans of pop. at this point i’m doing all i can not to start laughing, but i did stare them down the entire time and the one kid who looked like he maybe didn’t actually want to be there looked right at me and he definitely knew i was wise to their plan because he looked rather embarrassed about the whole situation.

i guess my question is…did these kids not even think about what this would look like to a normal person? hmm..i’m really sick, that’s why i need not one, but two bottles of cough syrup. and since i’m so sick, i’m going to call up my two buddies to go to the store with me, and pick up some drinks and a movie. seriously? i mean, at least act sick, go by yourself, try tissues instead of dvds and just go with one bottle so that instead of laughing at you, we at least feel bad for you not being able to get any cough syrup. kids these days just want everything handed to them.