the poop that saved my blog

So Kroger finally called me back 47 hours after the pooptastrophe.  I didn’t know it when I got the phone call, but no less than four Kroger corporate IP addresses accessed my blog by googling phrases like “Worthington Kroger shit” and “American Family kroger poop story”.

This tells me two things: a) they were doing damage control when they called, rather than actually caring so much about the situation itself and 2) they are not very good googlers.

I mean if you google “Kroger poop” you can find all kinds of little gems like this or this, or my personal favorite this (look at #5 and tell me you don’t think this will become a new part of our family lexicon).  I suppose they were looking for links on other websites, but no one is going to link with those words.  Maybe they should try “Kroger covered in shit and the manager thinks it is funny.”  Also, you can’t see all the facebook links with google. There were quite few local hits in my stats from FB, so who knows what was being passed around there.

Anyway, a very nice kroger lady called me on the phone trying to put my mind at ease, but instead talking about the situation and rehashing my version (manager joking about it, not putting up a sign, etc.) just made me furious all over again.

To be fair, she said the cleaned it up with Pinesol and some other cleaning product whose name I forgot but which did not sound like BLEACH to me.  She said they are going to talk to the manager, but I kind of feel the manager’s job is to have good judgement in a bad situation without needing to be told what to do in each specific instance.  I mean, how hard would it be to put up a sign to keep people from sliding around in piles of feces?  You need someone to TELL you that?

I told the Kroger lady I don’t think there is anything they can say or do to make me feel better about the situation. I am thoroughly squicked out and I don’t know what might make that feeling go away.  Add to that the annoyance of having to drive farther to go to a non-digusting grocery, that bites too.

There were two good things that came out of this situation though:

1) L learned the word “feces” after hearing me on the phone with various friends and the health department.  She very adorably pronounces “feecee”.  She has taken the opportunity to use her new vocabulary word a few times and it always makes me chuckle.

2) I had been planning to close up shop here.  After Poopacalypse, I realized I would have been lost without somewhere to write about it, so I had better keep a blog.  My focus is probably going to shift a little and I might write less than before, but for now, I think I will stick around a bit longer.  I know it isn’t a big deal to anyone but me, but whatever.

So that is the poop on what has been going on around here.

 

Kroger poop HORROR

Warning: This post is thoroughly disgusting.

So tonight, L and I ran to KROGER to pick up a few things for dinner.  L said she had to pee, so I took her to the bathroom, which is right beside the pharmacy.   I stopped to get a drink at the drinking fountain and sent L on ahead to go pee.

A minute later, when I walked into the bathroom, I could tell right away something was terribly wrong.  There was an overwhelming stench of poop that was pretty much unbearable.  I assumed someone didn’t flush.  Yuck.

I walked to the big stall to see if that was where L was.  When I looked inside, it was bad. It took a minute for my brain to register what I was seeing.  There was poop rubbed all over the seat and the outside of the toilet bowl.  LOTS of poop.

Then I realized the mud that was tracked all over the floor of the bathroom was NOT MUD.  It was poop.  Smeared everywhere on the floor.  I started to freak out and discovered L finishing peeing in the middle stall which did not seem to be covered with poop on the actual bowl, but had poop all over the floor.  The final stall also had poop rubbed all over the outside of the toilet.

I grabbed L and carried her to the sink to wash her and douse her in hand sanitizer.  Then I went out to tell the pharmacy people what I found.

Imagine my surprise when they told me they already knew.  Four people knew about this horror (they even told me the woman who did it has very bad Alzheimers) and not ONE OF THEM could be bothered to, I dont’ know, PUT A SIGN ON THE DOOR or maybe stop me from taking my small CHILD into a SHIT COVERED NIGHTMARE!!!!

WHAT THE EFFF????

Since they were clearly not giving a shit (!), I made them call the manager who didn’t know anything about it, even though the pharmacy said they already called him.  I made him go in and look and he came and apologized and headed back to the front of the store.  Again, WITHOUT PUTTING UP A SIGN or anything to stop people from going in.

I walked away stunned. I wandered around the freezer section and then back to the front of the store.  When I got there, the manager was standing there with maybe 10 employees JOKING about the poop.  He had handed a teenage boy a roll of paper towels WITH NO GLOVES and told him to go clean it up.

It then occurred to me that I had probably tracked poop on my shoes all around the store while they were all still sitting there joking about the poop being spread all around the STORE WHERE I BUY FOOD.    Not even caring that my SMALL CHILD was contaminated in unspeakable ways  IN THEIR FOOD STORE.

I mentioned to the woman working at the desk that I probably tracked POOP all around the freezer section and was she going to decontaminated that somehow?   She said, “Oh, we clean the store ever day.”

WHAT THE HELL.

Worthington Ohio Kroger, you are now christened the POOP KROGER.

And Manager man whose name began with J??  You should be ashamed of the way you handled that situation.  Seriously. PEOPLE BUY FOOD THERE.   POOP SMEARING is not a laughing matter!

Sayonara 2011

2011.
Damn.  This was a rough year.  2011 gave me a wicked case of emotional whiplash.

It was a hard year for Mr. A for reasons that were kind of beyond his control.  He struggled mightily to figure out what he wants to do with his life and where he wants to go with his future.

When Mr. A isn’t happy, it is hard for me too.  It was a hard year for our marriage.  Next to the two separate years when we had new babies, this was probably our next hardest year.  Not in a divorce kind of way, but we struggled with each other and with where we are going as a family.

Despite 2011′s struggles, we have had some amazing good fortune this year.  This year we got to take my long-awaited Big Trip.  We spent two months traveling in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.  It was my dream to get to spend such a big chunk of time doing my favorite thing (traveling) with my favorite people (Mr. A and my girls).

This was also the year that we found and met L’s birth family.  The day we met them, all our live were forever changed.  It isn’t easy, but if the rest of the trials of this year were the karmic counterbalance to that good luck, then it was all worth it.

As someone who hates unpredictability, this year kicked my ass. While nothing is ever 100% certain, I am looking forward to smoother sailing for Mr. A and I in the next year.

2012 is going to be a year for us to regroup.  Mr. A is putting his head down and doing what he needs to do.  I am getting my ducks in a row for my next Big Thing (selling this house and then building the new house).  The girls, they are doing great.

Sayonara 2011.  Take your good and your bad and be on your way.  We are ready for 2012.