There I was, at the meat counter at our neighborhood grocery store. All I wanted was to pick up two salmon fillets to grill for dinner. We have had problems with a particular butcher at that meat counter before. You see, we don’t like contributing to the waste in the landfill, so we do what we can not to. In this case, instead of purchasing the prepackaged salmon fillet which comes wrapped in plastic on a Styrofoam tray, we wait in line to pick out our meal selections which come to us wrapped in paper.

The woman in line in front of me walked away silently. There I stood waiting… Silently. There were people standing behind me, waiting, silently… did the butcher walk to the back? Silence… I waited… And waited… Silence. Then I finally said, “Hello? Can I please have your two larges salmon fillets?” His answer came from directly in front of me. How long had he been standing there? I just had to laugh. And then when he handed me a tiny wrapped piece of salmon in butcher paper, I laughed even more. At that moment, my husband walked up to the cart and I handed him what had just been handed to me. “here you go babe. This is what your favorite butcher thought I wanted when I asked for two large pieces of salmon.” Together, we turn back around and encountered a fresh person behind the glass, who was able to give us exactly what we wanted.

That silent stand off is pretty common. I wait for the person behind the counter to say something, while that person waits for me to say something. Hmm… “Hello?”

In yesterday’s case, it was just too comical not to share.