Sexist Pepboys

I had a flat tire today. Such things are odd stoppages in the blur of life. Although the ten thousand things you should be doing just get worse, they also somehow fade to the background. Now you must do one thing: get the car fixed and moving again. It's a strange twist on Kierkegaard. I don't think it's what he had in mind, though, when he said that purity of heart is to will one thing.

I'm now safe at home, though my car isn't yet. But I want to continue my exploration of my life as Paul's sister.

One of the moments in today's adventure, which of course involved Paul, had the two of us in a Pepboys store looking for an Allen wrench, aka a "hex key," that would get my special extra-cool hubcabs off so that we could change the tire. So I walk up to a Pepboy guy, probably 20 years old, and Paul is trailing 5 feet behind me listening to my iPod. I speak in complete sentences, something to the effect of "Hello, can you direct me to the Allen wrenches? I can't find the hex-key that came with my hubcaps and I need to change a tire." Pep-guy looks at me and says something like "Uhh... I don't know if we...." Then Paul pipes up, shouting because he is listening to an iPod at a higher volume than any human should, "Allen wrench! Hubcap!" Then Pep-guy looks right past me to Paul and says to him, "Oh, okay, aisle 11. Do you know what size? Blah blah blah."

So, part of me was irate. Are you seriously going to talk to the guy under any circumstances? You sexist pig! But part of me was sort of happy. Maybe Paul doesn't seem as off to strangers as he does to me. But mostly I was irritated with the sexist peppy pig....