Eating My Words - and Choking on Them

Once we knew that we would be moving back to Miami, I celebrated the fact that we would become reacquainted with an ocean that one can actually swim in and seeing our good friends again. Then I started thinking about all the annoying aspects of the place; customer service, traffic, road rage, the heat, the humidity, the mosquitos. After describing Miami to my friend's Egyptian mother (who has never been here), she asked, "So why are you going back?" Good question. Miami has a pull on our family. What can I say? So I did complain in advance to everyone that I talked to in the Bay Area about how horrible the customer service in Miami is. So here comes the eating my words part. Since we arrived we have had the normal level of service that I have come to expect and then some superb service to boot. Hmmm... Maybe MIA is going for a new image? So I feel a bit guilty about having spread such a negative vibe about Miami so I wanted to spread the good word too.

Oh, but then today I set down my Sally purchase (Buy 2 hair goo products and get the third free) in the self-checkout lane at Winn-Dixie and forgot it. I realized my mistake an hour later. That bag was gone. I don't know whether to suspect another customer or an employee, but I am confident that in Mountain View I would have easily recovered my $16 purchase.