Go Navy? Thanks, James.

1. I love the redbox.

Mr. redbox, you are a genius.

2. Typically I love going to Harris Teeter because I almost always see someone I know. But this unfortunately slipped my mind lately as my usual time to hit up Harris Teeter in recent weeks is around 9pm when the store is nearly empty.

3. I wish I had remembered what Harris Teeter is like at 6pm on a weeknight. Lots of foot-traffic.

4. I played soccer in high school. I kind of forget this was ever true. Not trying to block it out, just not on my day-to-day life radar.

5. I discovered a certain pair of long basketball shorts at my parents' house in August '08 - just in time to take "appropriate knee-length shorts" to Ethiopia and have been quietly obsessed ever since.

You know those times when you're in a hurry and you debate whether or not to enter public in the clothes you're wearing because they're sort of awful, but prudence trumps pride and off you go hoping you won't see anyone you know?

Monday evening I scrambled off the beach at 6:05pm needing to blitz through Harris Teeter to return an overdue Benjamin Button to the redbox] and also pick up some salad goodies for Monday Night Family Dinner at Aunt Brenda's in Kempsville at 6:30pm.

I careened into the parking lot, snatched the DVD and hightailed it into overpriced grocery retailer. I knew it was gonna be bad when I saw the packed parking lot. Immediately I looked at an out-of-control redbox line and figured I'd hit that on my way out. As I was charging to Produce I heard the friendly shout: "Erin Hatcher!" from a familiar female voice in a nearby aisle. Then it was chanted again, this time by the enjoyable male voice of Andrew Breitenberg. I swung my body around and was faced with big, loving, newly-wed Breitenberg grins along with the welcome face of a one Ms. Chic Groans. "Oh my gosh I am so embarassed I am wearing this right now," were my first words. Oh vanity. We chatted it up for a bit when a nice-looking mid-30s-ish man pushed his cart past and Chic introduced this man, Tom to the rest of us.

Chic: "These are the newly-weds, Andrew and Mariah Breitenberg and this is Erin Hatcher" (right hand extends for the customary new-friend shake)

Tom: "Erin Hatcher, the soccer player?"

Erin, startled: "Oh. Well.. ehh.. in high school yeah, I guess."

Seriously?

WHAT!

I mean, I was flattered. But come on, that's weird. Tom never identified how he knew this, just continued past with his cart. I found it odd that no one else in our little grocery group commented on how random that was. And I was wearing this!

Of course I dash into Harris Teeter because of my love for the redbox and have run ins with many, in this outfit. Turns out these shorts actually belong to James Ward and are in fact Navy shorts, though I naively denied this truth to Dave McKinney one week ago when biking at Seashore State Park. Anyway, upon a bit more thought, I believe I have placed Tom. It seems to me that he was the girls' soccer coach at Nansemond Suffolk Academy back in the late nineties. Am I right? Well if I am, then I also seem to remember that Tom was on television in competition for the title of "Sexiest Man Alive" when I was a freshman in college, as pointed out by an NSA grad down the hall.

Who are you, Tom?

Shout out to the TCIS. And to Mr. redbox.