rebel with a shopping cart

over the weekend, the hubby and i went to the commissary to do some grocery shopping. while i grabbed a shopping cart and pulled out my list, the hubby went next door to get a spiffy haircut. this definitely wasn't my first time shopping at the commissary, but it was the first time that i noticed something about the patrons in the store. because of the way the store is setup, everyone has to start out going up the same aisle, in the same direction. as people crossed off items from their grocery lists, they continued to walk down every single aisle. and because everyone started out on the same aisle and in the same direction, every aisle became like a one-way street, with everyone just trudging along the route that was planned for them by a military architect with a sick sense of humor. while deciding if the hubby would like kix or life cereal better, i looked around the cereal aisle and realized that i was with the same people that i had been shopping next to in the canned fruit & veggies aisle. immediately, i tossed the box of kix cereal in my shopping cart and did a u-turn. i spent the rest of my time trying to go against traffic. when my hubby finally caught up with me, i told him the story about how everyone was stuck in a rut and following each other down every aisle and he just looked at me with, "yeah, so? it's the military!" and that was the end of that discussion. but just between you and me, next time i go to the commissary, i'll be going down every aisle against the flow of traffic with a smile on my face. someone has to shake things up around this place and keep these military folk on their toes =)