Just went out to pick up a few things...

Today the boys took a short morning nap - half an hour tops. They got up around 10:30, lunch at 11, played for a while and around 1pm I loaded them into the car for a quick trip to the grocery store, thinking we'd be back within the hour, and then they could take a decent afternoon nap.

We arrived at the grocery store and there were a couple cop cars parked outside - a small voice of worry in my head, but I figured if it was unsafe, they'd have diverted people from entering. Guessing that it was some simply a kid trying to snag some smokes or booze - or a drunken slot machine player (yep, all the grocery stores have slots - crazy town we live in), I plopped the boys into a cart (one in front, one in the basket - picture warnings thrown to the wind, yikes!) and headed inside. This was my first time at this grocery store, there's another one a block closer, but I thought I'd check this one out, to see if there were better deals/selection. So I was shopping a little slower than usual, wandering and then zig-zagging across the store to find the items on my list. There were a few overhead announcements about moving cars and they rattled off license plate numbers, I didn't here 'saturn vue' so I just figured someone had left the engine running, or left a dog in a closed car or something...

When I'd been there about 20 minutes and was almost through my list, a loud and clear announcement said "All cars must be removed from the parking lot immediately - everyone proceed to the exit" - hmmm - definitely something fishy going on (duh!), so I make my way to the front of the store, and a woman with her cart is headed toward me, I looked at her inquisitively and she told me that she had been told that she could not leave because of where her car was parked, nor could she move her car. I asked if she knew what was happening, and she told me she'd heard they'd found an attache case in the lot...

So I went up to the doors and asked one of the group of staff if I was supposed to move my car and she said as she pointed "if you're on that side, then you must leave, but if you're on that side, you have to stay" - I was in the middle, and said so, but toward the 'staying' side of the middle - so I said "so I should just continue shopping?" and she said yes -

So I just went back to my list which only had 'olives' and 'desitin' left on it - I found these 2 items, and then had just started making my way to the check out when the same shopper I had met before told me that "they want us all at the back of the store" so we all went back by the cheese to wait it out. Thankfully there was an endcap with some cheesy crackers - which kept the boys happy for a little while. The staff brought chairs from the patio/seasonal section and there was an empty cart, so I was able to have them both buckled in and facing me.

After 10 minutes or so they brought out some bakery items and fruit and bottled water - then later some fried chicken from the deli - after one bite of pound cake the boys refused anything else and devoured several pieces.

Placated by the pound cake, the boys were extremely well behaved for 2 guys who normally hate to be contained - many people commented on what good kids they were and how happy they were despite being stuck. I smiled and said thank-you giving off an air of superb mothering, but inside I knew it had much less to do with my talent at parenthood and much more to do with butter-induced moistness...

It was 3:30 and we'd been at the store nearly 2 hours and we finally heard through the grapevine that 'the robot was about to open the briefcase' about 20 minutes after that a police officer came back and simply said 'all clear, you are free to leave' - no news on the robot's findings or anything...

And so I went and paid for my groceries - though I insisted they not charge me for the cheesy crackers I would not have grabbed without the circumstances, and they willingly obliged. I put the boys in the car and then loaded the bags in - I pulled out a few feet before I realized I hadn't actually buckled the boys in, they were just sitting in the seats. That's when it hit me - I was suddenly quite overwhelmed and had to take several deep breaths and drinks of my bottled-water hand-out before I could leave.

The incident has not so far been reported on any internet news sites that I can find - but I guess I'm assuming that it was simply a left behind run of the mill briefcase with no bomb or other dangerous/illegal contents - because it seems like there would have been more questioning or further detainment after opening if it had been 'something' rather than 'nothing'

So that was my day - we came home and I let the boys have some more of the cheese-food crackers before we all laid down for a nap - and we slept till Dan got home at 6.