Thursday, February 16, 2012

A Walk Down the Wrong Aisle

I happened to be in London Drugs on my way home late tonight, only to find myself embroiled in a teenage conversation about the birds and the bees. Everyone that knows me well knows that I am always happy to talk to anyone, anytime, anyplace. As you can imagine, that philosophy can do wonders for creating adventures and some seriously funny stories, or, as I like to call them, “incidents”. And sometimes, you can’t just help but overhear something that makes you snicker or smirk, unbeknownst to the group it’s referenced to.

In this case, I was waiting at the pharmacy to pick a prescription for my daughter, when four teenagers (three girls and a guy) came over with bountiful presence (as teenagers normally do) to the cold medicine section. One of them quickly picked out what was needed and then they just couldn’t help themselves as they found their way to the pregnancy tests. Not two seconds later did I feel absolutely sorry for the guy that was with them, as there was no way he could keep up with the conversation around all the “feminine products” that were so openly displayed on the shelf in front of them. They heard me give a little laugh, and that just exasperated the situation given they loved the attention. I watched them move on and I paid my bill and started to head down one of the aisles.

Of course, it was the aisle where not only the teenagers were hanging out but it was also the condom aisle. All I was going to do was walk by, but I just “couldn’t help myself” (that phrase is for my friend Todd who says that about me all the time). They were engrossed in a conversation about the g-spot, and were seriously misinformed from the sounds of it. I’m not sure why I felt the need to stop and correct what I heard. And I’m not sure why 15 minutes later we were still all talking, but for a split second, I felt that I could most certainly teach some kind of sex education class, and so did they for that matter. They seemed pretty stoked about this new information...that was a bit concerning to me upon reflection. I must say though, that I was quite impressed with my knowledge level, and coupled with my public speaking skills, I started to attract the attention of other shoppers that seemed interested in the subject matter.

When the announcement came on that the store was closing, I tried to bid them farewell, only to be invited to a house party on the weekend...yikes. Now it was getting a little uncomfortable, so I wished them well, reiterated a few key points before we parted, and got the hell out of there before the undercover police showed up.

Did I just help shape the potential sex lives of these four young people for the better...or did I just create a disaster for their parents? You might be wondering if this incident will deter me in the future from talking to a group of teenagers looking at condoms in a drug store--absolutely not. Will it make me think if I should be looking at a new career choice--most definitely.

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