The Most Ironic Thing Happened in Berkeley

This story is so amazing that it deserves its own post.

On Saturday we were planning on taking a picnic lunch to Napa Valley and wished to purchase a styrofoam cooler. We went to Trader Joe's to buy the food, but they (in their eco-conscious, organic goodness) do not sell styrofoam in the store. The cashier recommended we that we try the gas station on the corner, but they didn't appear to have one and didn't speak English.

Pushed for time to get to a tasting, we decided to try to stop at a store Chelle was familiar with on the way to get Bud. Chelle called ahead to see if they did have cooler before we wasted more time playing the parking game. The nice man on the phone assured us they did have styrofoam coolers.

During the checkout process, there were two open lines. Our cashier was a nice Asian man, and behind us was an African American male cashier. Chelle was almost done paying and Nicole was helping to bag. We were chatting and the other cashier noted our cooler and said, "You ladies were the ones who called about the cooler."

I replied that we were indeed, and that we realized we were in Berkeley and styrofoam coolers were hard to come by, so I thanked him for having them. He said that, actually, they like styrofoam in Berkeley because styrofoam is an oil-based product, and there is a lot of Big Oil money in Berkeley. Chelle was half listening to the conversation, but engrossed in paying her cashier and not really following along.

I looked at the other cashier for a second and said in shock, "Are you a REPUBLICAN in BERKELEY?!" He grinned from ear to ear and I could tell I hit the nail on the head!

I paused for a second more and said, "Are you a BLACK REPUBLICAN in BERKELEY?!!!?!!! The man's grin on his face was priceless!

At this point a vortex of slow-motion engulfed the scene and everything came to a screeching halt. Everybody in the checkout lines stopped and stared and Michelle had a mortified 'Oh no, she didn't!' expression on her face.

The cashier said, "This day is off to a very good start." We finished our transaction and I told him to have an excellent day.

He was still chuckling when we left.