A World of Possibilities

Being the good daughter that I am, when my mother called to say that she was sick and had no food in her house, I said 'of course' when she asked me to pick up some groceries. I usually shop at The Winco, which for those of your who are not local is a big, nasty grocery store where food costs about 40% less than a normal store. Because my mom has some food allergies, I needed to go to a Regular store that has specialty foods, which in this instance was Fred Meyers (Kroger for non Oregonians). I noticed some important differences besides the price of the food:

• There were no fights in the parking lot
• I did not step on any gum in the store
• No children with sippy cups full of soda
• All patrons were sporting both shirts AND shoes
• There was not a traffic jam in the beer cooler
• No urine smell (Bonus!)
• I did not spot one dirty diaper tucked into the shelves behind the Jiffy mix
• There were no visible attempts at bartering at the registers
• No sense that the meat had somehow been repackaged from another store before arriving.

Whoa! It was like a whole new world! I think that after having lived in Mexico for too long I have set the bar really low for food procurement. In fact, the checker told me to have a nice day rather than offering to kick me in the teeth or telling me to duck so as to avoid involvement in a domestic dispute.

A girl could really get used to this.