As is the case for just about all of my family holiday get-togethers, I volunteer to bring the beverages. I usually bring a couple of cases of beer, a variety of soda, water, and wine. For Easter, I only brought one case of beer. I picked up a 30-pack brought it to my sister's house and put it on ice. After dinner was over and we started playing board games, I realized we're running low on beer. So I got in my car and went to a grocery store in my hometown. The grocery store changed hands a couple of times since I moved out of Carbondale, and it was the first time I've been in the store since they received their liquor license. You would think getting a case of beer would be a quick trip. But, in the life of Jim Free, nothing comes easy.

I walked in the store and immediately started heading to the right side of the store. I walked past every aisle and got to the far wall of the store. I could not find the beer. I walked to the back of the store and still no beer. I turned left walked past all the aisles again and still didn't see any beer. I finally looked to my left, right up over the door I came in and saw all the neon beer signs. So I make my way towards the beer signs and sure enough on the far wall was their cooler with the beer. I grabbed a case of beer and started my making my way back to the register. I got to a self-checkout line and ask the clerk at the end if I could pay for the beer by going through there. He informed me I could not and mumbled something about paying over there and pointed towards the other registers. So I grab my case of beer went to the only open register and stood in line. The person in front of me was getting a week's worth of groceries. It just so happened that the scale they use to weigh the vegetables broke while this woman was checking out. I had to wait for a manager to come and fix that. After they fix that and they finished checking out the woman that was in front of me, it was my turn. The woman working the register noticed I had beer. She informed me I couldn't pay for beer at that register either, that I had to go back to where I picked up the beer, look to the right, there's a register at the deli, I had pay for it there. So I pick up my case of beer and walked back over there to pay for the beer. The woman asked for my ID so I opened my wallet. She informed me that I would have to remove my license from my wallet for her. It didn't come out of the wallet easily, I almost ripped the plastic compartment that holds it. She had to scan my license to make sure it was legit. Then I finally, got to pay for the beer and leave the store. What should have taken five minutes ended up taking almost 40. Why does everything have to be so hard in Pennsylvania?

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