3 short conversations in the Beyond department of Bed, Bath, & Beyond...

~Friday~ This evening I went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond at Crossroads Plaza where I bought 3 gifts from my friend Courtney's registry for her bridal shower, which is tomorrow afternoon.

After paying for the items, I was directed to the Do-It-Yourself Gift Wrapping station in one corner of the store, where I was greeted with:

• 2 huge rolls of wrapping paper to chose from (although they both held the same pattern of paper)


• Some purplish, lacy ribbon


• Various sized white gift boxes


• White tissue paper


• 2 tape dispensers (albeit one was empty)


• 2 pair of scissors

Oh yeah, and four other people already at work. One was a (man-woman) married couple, and the other two were guys who were there together, but not a couple.

Here are snippets of conversations I overheard, since we were all there within a 6x6-foot shared space:

1. The married couple:
   
   She: "Make sure you wrap it like this one." (indicating the one she was wrapping)
   
   He (returning after a few minutes of wrapping at the other end of the table): "Here you go."
   
   She: "Why'd you wrap it that way? I told you to make sure it matched this one."  <Heavy sigh.> "I just don't understand why you wrapped it that way when I told you to wrap it like this one."

 

2. The two men after about two minutes of not speaking, with one guy wrapping and the other guy just watching him:
   
   Guy wrapping: "Whew. I just never thought I'd be here in Raleigh wrapping a gift after working all day."
   
   Guy watching: "Yeah, it's amazing what they'll make you do." (Presumably talking about wives.)
   
   Guy wrapping (after a little silence): "You see that State game against Georgia Southern?"
   
   Guy watching: "Yeah, that was sumpin', wadn't it?"
   
   Guy watching (after a little silence): "This friend of mine's getting married. He wants his color to be gray."
   
   Guy wrapping: "You mean for the tuxes?"
   
   Guy watching: "Yeah."

 

3. My conversation, which I started right after the tux comments:
   
   Me: "I'm going to a wedding where the groom wants gray tuxes, too."
   
   Guy watching looks up at me and nods in acknowledgement.
   
   Me: But the other groom wants a very light brown.
   
   Guy wrapping looks up.
   
   Married couple scurries off.

Okay, only two of those three conversations took place out loud. The other one was just in my head.
 
The Finished Product