I was standing behind the counter at the customer service desk at Albertsons when she came in.  Her hair is short and curly and always in a ponytail.  Her clothes are plain and always a pastel color.  She looks to be in her fifties with a stature around 5'4" with a rather large physique, but I wouldn't call her obese.  She's a regular here, or at least now that she's allowed back in the store.  We had a restraining order aginst her for a year.  We were free of her for one glorious year, but now she's back.  All of us employees have so nicely dubbed her "The Insane Lady."  I'm not sure if anyone knows her real name, but the name we call her is rather self-explanatory and fitting.  We had a restraining order against her for harassing other customers.  she was in line at the self-check out machines when she starts talking to a little girl telling her in detail how she was raped.  The little girl of course was frightened.  Then The Insane Lady goes berserk and starts yelling and hitting anything near her.  You know what actions were done against her, so there is no use in repeating myself.

The Insane Lady has a husband.  Yes, shocking isn't it? Well, I was surprised to say the least.  He comes into the store with her sometimes.  He's very quiet and doesn't speak much.  He blatantly ignored her when she started looking through our movies talking to herself.  At the time we had a movie for sale called "Never Been Kissed."  Once she sees the movie she yells out, "I've never been kissed! Does anyone want to kiss me?"

she, of course, is ignored.  As employees we have to be nice to all customers; including her.  Which means we have to hold in our laughter until she's gone.  I know I shouldn't be laughing at her, but I just can't help it.  Alhtough, I'm not the only one that laughs at her; we all do.  It still doesn't make it right, but knowing i'm not the only one that laughs at her makes me feel a little better.

 

Above all, I think I feel sorry for her and her husband.  I feel sorry for her husband for having to put up with her, but I guess someone has to take care of her.  One day, she stopped in the middle of the aisle and yelled out, "Red light! Green light! Yellow light!" while waving her arms.  I could tell she did it on impulse, and at the moment I just felt sorry for her.  Her husband was just standing ther looking at her with a look of pity on his face.

She was at my counter asking me to exchange some money for her.  She wanted two dollars in brand new quarters and fifteen cents in pennies.  She told me she wanted fifteen cents in pennies because she was raped at the age of fifteen.  Then she asks me, "Who's David?"

"He's the Grocery Manager" I reply.  She proceeded to say something that I didn't quite catch.  She continues talking saying, "I don't like gay fish.  I like ocean fish though.  I don't like catfish because i'm scared of cats.  That's why I like ocean fish.  You need to get some more of those."

I just nod my head and say, "okay."

After she's gone I turn to Claudia and ask her, "Did you hear what she just said?"

"Yeah, about the fish" she replies.

"Yeah, I didn't know fish could be gay, did you?" I jokingly question.  She shakes her head no and we laugh about The Insane Ladies statement for a little bit then we each had to get back to work.