I spent the dreary, icy day today inside, in front of the computer, working, and once I realized I was going to lose it if I didn't get out of the house for at least a little bit I headed over to the grocery store to pick up some much needed items, like milk and bananas and something for dinner and you'll be very proud of me NOT the latest edition of "People" magazine. Since I only had a small basket of groceries I decided to use the self- checkout lane. I use it a lot when I'm not buying too much. You know, where you, the customer, scan your items and put them into bags and it supposedly is way more efficient and all.

Only recently I've started thinking it's not way more efficient or better in any way than actually going through the regular checkout line - the one where an actual person with feelings helps you, and puts your items into bags. I mean, tonight, as I was trying to figure out the produce code for these organic carrots and a line of people was pooling up behind me, waiting for me to finish up and be on my way, and the machine kept telling me to "please wait for cashier assistance" I got pretty annoyed. The thing is, while it's really great to go through that line when all you've got is, like, a can of peas or something, in general, I think the whole process is kind of ridiculous, almost as if we, the grocery shoppers, are acting like little kids, all excited about a new toy, with a parent (the ever watchful store employee) looking on to make sure we don't mess it all up, but the thing is, some of us - me, for instance - do mess it up consistently, which is upsetting, as it's allegedly a very very simple process. Not to mention, being repremanded by a computer isn't, you know, the best.

Anyway, I realize it might seem crazy to have such strong feelings about something like the self-checkout line at the grocery store, but the point is I don't think I'm going to use it anymore, and I hope none of you feel pressured to use it either if you don't want to. It's hard, I know, what with the ever-changing technology available to us, but sometimes it's alright to stick with what we're used to. Except, I mean, when I was still using an old Discman at the gym and everyone else had an iPod, that wasn't too cool, but this, this is a whole different story.