Confusion at the Supermarket

I was writing in my journal this morning when I got a call from Rose. Did I want to go to Wegman's in Cherry Hill with her and Khai? She had to make a small grocery shopping run. Sure. It was better than going grocery shopping after work or running out in the heat on my bike.

It was still hot, sunny, and muggy when Rose finally picked me up and we headed to Cherry Hill. Wegman's is a huge, high-end grocery store in the same box store shopping center that also features Panera Bread, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, the Christmas Tree Shop, and the Cherry Hill Barnes & Noble. Despite its huge size and location in the middle of nowhere, it's extremely popular, especially with people looking for organic or gourmet food that the other local supermarket chains don't carry.

I shouldn't have left Rose. We separated when we came in because we needed different things...but I forgot I don't know this store well. The entire front half of the store is nothing but expensive organic food and things like dishes and appliances that really belong a few doors down at Bed, Bath, & Beyond. It took me ten minutes just to find the aisles with the normal food. I never did find brown eggs; ended up with regular white ones.

The trouble with Wegman's is, because they give so much of their store over to the fancy stuff, their selection on normal food isn't that great. They didn't have the French Vanilla mousse mixes I wanted or all of the flavors of Emerald Trail Mix bags that the Acme does. (Although they did have one flavor the Acme doesn't carry, Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana.) On the other hand, their Royal pudding mixes are a scant 29 cents, their regular large white eggs and generic natural peanut butter are pretty cheap, and they had good sales on their generic Cinnamon Life cereal and the Fig Newtons Thins Cookies. I needed laundry detergent; Dynamo turned out to be on a good sale. I found a 7-file folder further down in the same aisle. I've needed to clear out the folder with my old college and high school papers.

I couldn't find the express lanes when I finally made it up front, either. I heard my cell phone ring as I hit a fairly long line. It was a frantic Rose, who was dealing with a crying baby in her car. Where was I? Why hadn't I called her? I hadn't realized I'd been in the store for almost an hour! It hadn't felt that long. I figured I'd be long out before she was. Having to wait for a girl to grab a manager to use the house card didn't help matters. I quickly packed two bags I brought from home and hurried out.

I couldn't find Rose in the parking lot, either. She'd moved the van. She finally found me up in front of the store. I'm still pretty mad at myself, though I think Rose was more annoyed than anything else. I seriously hadn't figured I'd take so long. I didn't know she called three times before I picked up the phone, either. I was paying attention to my shopping. I'm not used to doing things with other people or considering their schedules.

I finally got home around 11:30. I had just enough time to put everything away, rearrange my file folders, go online and check my e-mail, then watch some Stooges while eating a quick seafood and salad lunch. Curly's not saying "I Can Hardly Wait" when Moe tries everything he can to get his younger brother's sore tooth out. In "Dizzy Pilots," Moe's ego isn't the only thing that's inflated when the Stooges try to build their own airplane and stay out of the army. And the trio find themselves in "A Gem of a Jam" when gangsters mistake them for doctors and expect them to operate on one of them who was shot in a robbery.

Work was fairly busy all day. We're getting close to the beginning of the month, and there's still a lot of birthday and graduation parties going on. I was thankfully in and out, with no major problems.

I'm not crazy about my schedule. On one hand, I have two days off, Wednesday and Thursday. Monday and Tuesday are really long days, though - Monday is 8 1/2 hours! And then I work late Friday and Saturday. I'm not looking forward to it at all.

The sky had been darkening for almost an hour when I started home. The wind was whipping around my bike as I hurried down the Black Horse Pike. I know I saw lightening in the distance. I felt the first raindrops as I sped over the ramp into Oaklyn. It wasn't as bad when I was on Kendall, but it picked up when I turned onto Manor. I was soaked when I walked in my door.

I dried off with Limes n' Cream Pudding Pie and some spooky Stooges. Moe and Larry are thrilled when Curly inherits a fortune in "If a Body Meets a Body." They have to spend the night in a spooky mansion and figure out the murder of Curly's uncle...not to mention what's walking around under that skull...in order to find out what he inherits.

The storm continued through the Stooges and my shower. In fact, the thunder and lightening only just ended, though the rain's been gone for a while.