Not everyone loves babies ...

Having Jonas attached to my chest while wandering around grocery stores and bookstores has won us lots of goodwill. Strange women, and creepy men, love to tickle his feet and wish him hello. We even managed to snare a free pound of shrimp from a baby-loving fish seller at Whole Foods.

So, yesterday I went to Wal-Mart to get the oil changed in the Subaru, figuring we could browse through the aisles while the oil was being changed. There was a crowd of three sort of milling around the counter, but not really in any sort of line, when we arrived. After a short wait, the clerk said, "OK, who's next?" Nobody moved. So, after a few seconds, we stepped up and said we were ready. Before we could get started, another clerk interrupted, pointed at a guy glaring at me, yet still not moving, and said, "I think this customer was next."

I said, "Sorry, I didn't know whether you were waiting."
He said, "Why do you think I'm standing here?"
I said, "I have no idea why you're standing there."

At this point, I thought the guy might hit me. There was a lot of tension in the room, partly becuse Jonas was dangling out there in between us. Coming to my defense, the Wal-Mart clerk backed me up (maybe he just did this to save me), saying, "Look, sir, I asked who was next and nobody stepped up." Then they got into it. And Jonas and I got out of there.

We ended up going to Goodyear, which is conveniently located next to Babies R Us. I bought Jonas some long underwear for our upcoming camping trip. Everyone smiled at us there.