Flabbergasted, befuddled and downright irritated.

So my girlfriend and  I went to this really nifty little bead shop today.  I am looking for some specific charms and dangles for some crafts I am working on and although I've found a few online, the options weren't cost effective (particularly once shipping is added into the equation).  And they had a lot of really fun things there. 

As I am trying to keep my identity general and not too specific, I will not name the store or the city, but I will say that we live in the midwest.  And although I'm from the south, I do love it here for many reasons.  Yet, occasionally I do encounter ways of thinking -- or, in my opinion, lack thereof-- that catch me off-guard. Today was one such time.  This leads me back to my point.

I was looking for some military-themed charms which I knew would be a bit of a long-shot here. Barring that, I had hoped to find some solid Americana to use in conjunction with other materials.  This store had countless charms and dangles of various materials, quality and subject matter.  Yet it took me a few moments to believe that I hadn't entered a parallel universe when it came to my attention that they didn't have ONE single, solitary piece of Americana.   No American flags.  No "God Bless America" or "United We Stand" charms.  Not even so much as a hint of a 4th of July item in their "Holiday" collection.  We're talking about a store that had such obscure charms as lemons, staplers and fertility goddesses for sale.  And not a hint that any of these transactions might be taking place in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.  I could go on, but why bother?