A fairly embarrassing moment, for your Friday pleasure.

I stepped into a Bath & Body Works last Saturday in between trips to the craft and hardware stores for VBS errands. The sign on the Bath & Body works window advertised a 50% off sale, and since I love their hand soap I'm always looking for a chance to stock up.

It was a tiny store with one (visible) staffer working the busy counter. As I walked in, she called out rather loudly, "HI! Can I help you?" I shook my head and smiled. As I made my way around I noticed, to my dismay, that the sale wasn't a 'deep discount' sale but instead a 50% off new fragrances sale. (That's pretty good, I guess, if you're looking for the latest and greatest fashion in the scent world, but I was just looking for some super-cheap soap to stick on my bathroom counter. We haven't been washing our hands at all since I've run out. It's been months!)

As I began to leave I saw a display that looked to be debuting a new summer fragrance. At the top sat (what I thought was) an antibacterial hand-sanitizer. Its bright red "TRY ME" sticker reminded me of all the places I'd been that morning - and what a good idea it'd be to clean my hands. So I picked up the bottle and gave a generous squeeze. After only seconds of wondering at its strange, sticky texture did I notice that the tester was a bottle of hand soap.

Six thoughts raced through my mind:
1. Crap! I have soap all over my hands!
2. Crap! This isn't one of those Bath & Body Works that has a sink!
3. What the heck? Don't hand soaps have a pump top?! Why the squeeze bottle?
4. Who would put the tester sticker on a thing of SOAP?
5. Who's the dummy here? Bath & Body Works or me?
6. Did anyone see me do that?

As if in answer to my last panicked thought, the cheery sales clerk yelled, "CAN I HELP YOU FIND SOMETHING IN PARTICULAR?" Several heads turned my way and I felt as though I'd been caught stealing a body spray. Wiping the sticky mess from hand to hand I said, "No thank you!" and as quickly as I could I pushed my way out of the store leaving quite a sticky door-handle behind me.

One thing I can attest to is that that soap does not need water to make your hands smell great. Mine were sticky and fragrant for the rest of the afternoon.