over the counter advice at a Best Buy

I was there for a CD, which had $14.99 on the sticker and ran $16.04 at the counter. I paid with a five, a nickel, and eleven ones.

"That's a lot of ones," announced the boy at the register.

"I do a lot of bartending," I rejoined, without a lot of interest. Eleven ones don't seem like very many when you regularly finish a shift with thirty or so of them. Once, serving, I had a table pay me with thirty-five one dollar bills; I came back and asked if they'd knocked over a vending machine on their way over. "Actually, we do own a chain of vending machines in the area." "Oh," I noted. "So, in other words, you did."

"How did you get into that?" asked the boy bagging my CD.

I didn't really have an answer for him. I shrugged and said, "I wanted it."