I just sold my soul for a box of Girl Scout cookies. Well, actually five boxes. Mormons (of which I am one) usually take the Sabbath day holy thing seriously. We don’t eschew driving or turning on/off lights like Orthodox Jews might, but we do try to avoid many non-Sabbathy activities and instead use the day for family and church. How exactly this is defined will vary from person to person, but unless there’s an urgent reason (and cookies don’t count), shopping is out.

A couple friends are out of town for a long weekend and asked me to take care of their cats. I thus found myself driving home this afternoon after dropping by their house to give the kitties food and water. I took a roundabout route because I thought, “Hmm, I drive this road all the time up to this point, but where does it go if I keep going?” Sometimes you just need to check out some roads to fill in the gray areas in your mental map. As I crossed an intersection I saw a girl sitting at a table on the sidewalk. I thought of lemonade, but that didn’t seem to be what she was selling. I didn’t give her much attention, though, since she was sitting and thus unlikely to dart into the road and thus not something I needed to pay attention to. As I drove past, she raised a box and shouted, “Girl Scout cookies!”

I registered what she said half a second later and slammed on the brakes. No parking and not a good spot to stop. I thought briefly about the Sabbath, but figured I could justify that this was a good cause (okay, not the cookies, but supporting Girl Scouts) and looped around the block and stopped illegally on the corner (not a high traffic area; it was okay). I got out of my car and said, “I was just thinking, I need to find me a Girl Scout!” Seriously, earlier this weekend, I was indeed thinking that. Her mom was a couple doors down and said, “Well I’m glad you found us then!” I gave them a twenty and they gave me five boxes. Mmmm… thin mints and samoas….

So that is the tale of how I sold my soul for Girl Scout cookies. It was a good trade, don’t you think?