Well that's a first

I wouldn't call myself a hoarder. I do, however, like to be prepared. I really hate running out of something I need and feeling like I have to run to the grocery store or Target on the way home from work. Instead, I almost always have extras of the products I use daily. I have extra bars of soap, shampoo, lotion, toothpaste, Q-tips, Kleenex... you know, stuff like that.

I recently heard of a toxic household waste drop-off location and went through all of my expired medications to safely get rid of them. I realized that I was low on Tylenol Daytime Cold medication and made a mental note to pick some up. I'm not sick at the moment so why would I need Tylenol cold pills? As I said, I like to be prepared. On an average day I'm not even a big fan of Tylenol, but when I'm achy and coming down with something, Tylenol is the only stuff that seems to help.

Around this time, every year, I make sure I have a few things in stock: Tylenol Cold medication, Puff Plus Kleenex, Halls cough drops and some Healthy Request Tomato soup. Those are the items I need on hand to get through a flu/cold. As bad as shopping after work is, it's even worse when you're feeling sick and have to stop somewhere and stand in the medication aisle with a other miserable, sniffling saps.

This evening I realized I needed to go to Target and figured I may as well stock up for this inevitable swine flu thing that everyone is so excited about. I threw my usual "cold kit" items in a cart and then something strange happened. While checking out, the checker asked to scan my ID, not my debit card, but my ID. Huh? Turns out there is apparently so much drug abuse going on out there that Target needs to scan my ID in order to complete my Tylenol Daytime Cold purchase. I'm assuming some alarms sound or something if they decide I'm buying too much cold medication. I hope it's ok with Target that I buy Tylenol Cold products every 18-24 months. I recently heard that kids at my cousin's school are no longer allowed to bring hand sanitizer to school because too many kids were drinking it for the buzz. Can you imagine?! Revolting! Apparently being an American is now so intolerable, even for our kids, that we can't be trusted to buy cold medications or Purell. I think it's safe to say we're all in for some serious swine flu. Thanks a lot junkies.(Holy crap! They come with Vicks built in them now?! Cool!)