brusha, brusha, brusha.

this evening i had to pop into duane reade on my way to the gym. as i was turning the corner to enter the store, i noticed a slightly disheveled-looking man ambling towards the entrance as well. as i'm the polite sort, i held the door open for him. he shuffled closer, looking slightly confused - up close i realized his eyes were somewhat glazed over and he looked rather worse for wear, but really who am i to judge? he could very well be a fellow unemployed - and he waddled into the store behind me. i went off to the dental care aisle to purchase a toothbrush (more to come), and promptly forgot all about him.

as i walked back up to the front of the store a few minutes later, i noticed disheveled man being hauled across the register area by the manager, who was announcing that this was the "last time [he] would be taking something from this store" and that the "police were on the way."

i feel vaguely responsible for this shoplifting incident. i should have just left disheveled man outside near the bus stop, where he probably belonged.

******

have any of you dear readers purchased a toothbrush lately? did you find it a completely overwhelming experience?

ok, maybe i'm exaggerating a tad. but the truth is, as silly as this may sound, i rarely buy my own toothbrushes. i see the dentist twice a year, and receive a new brush with every visit. i also am blessed with wonderful parents who live relatively near and keep their linen closet stocked with excess toiletry items - one being the family pack of toothbrushes from Costco - and so we steal them from their house whenever we are in need. there is usually always an extra toothbrush accessible to me, and so i never find myself in the drugstore attempting to purchase one.

until this evening. as luck would have it, i managed to drop my toothbrush in the garbage last night, during a time when there were no surplus brushes in our apartment. as i'm in my new 'being economical' phase, i spent a good three minutes staring into the garbage, wondering how filthy it would be of me to retrieve the thing. i decided very, and let it go.

so as i stood in front of the toothbrush section this evening, i couldn't get over the choices - there had to be at least 100 different toothbrushes. there were new brands i had never even heard of. rocawear makes a toothbrush? i wouldn't be surprised now.

a duane reade worker happened to be stocking the bottom row of brushes, and looked up at me as i hovered behind him. after about a minute, he inquired if i needed any help. i sheepishly explained that i was just trying to figure out which one i wanted. he politely offered to move out of the way so he wouldn't block the bottom rows. as he moved over to stand beside me, i panicked - now i had an actual audience waiting for me to make my decision - so i snatched the nearest blue-green one (my teeth like calming colors), thanked him for being so patient, and ran up to the register (where i was confronted with the disheveled man debacle).

thankfully after all that i picked a winner - the new toothbrush is pretty intense and puts those piddly free ones from the dentist to shame. i seriously feel like my teeth were just cleaned by car wash brushes.