{shopping...and not the good kind}

I’ve got a question to put out into the void: Does anybody like grocery shopping? As fun as it is to drop 100 bucks every so often at the grocery store, I think I would much rather have my kitchen cupboards magically replenish themselves, and take that 100 dollars to Nordstrom to buy a new outfit. But, maybe that's just me. Something about the whole experience just doesn't sit well with me. It’s a pain looking for the best bargain; or not being able to cross something of my list because they are out (now what’s for dinner?); or watching the screen as they ring up my items and the numbers quickly bypass the amount I thought I would be spending; or walking past the bakery section and drooling all over those donuts I definitely want to buy, but won’t. Anyway, you get the idea…I find the whole experience to be miserable.

Due to my dislike of grocery shopping, I try to do everything I can to make the experience as painless as possible. For example…

1. Meal-plan and make a list. This will greatly shorten the amount of time I spend in said grocery store, and will also ensure I come home with every ingredient I need for the weeks meals.

2. Eat a filling meal before entering food zone. Going to the store on an empty stomach is the worst thing EVER!! When I am at the store hungry, everything looks delicious and it is a 100% guarantee I will come home having bought some random food item that looked good at the time, but is actually no bueno. Like those weird sugar coated pineapple things I bought once…

3. Grab the wallet lanyard and ditch the purse. I hate walking around the store with a cart or basket, plus a purse, plus my list, plus a phone, etc. Its waaaay too much to handle.

4. Use the mantra from one of my favorite movies (“Confessions of a Shopaholic”) “Do I need these?” most likely I don't need the M&M’s, or the Coconut Oreos, or the Sour Patch Kids. Unfortunately.

This past week I made my way to the grocery store and zipped into the closest parking spot I could find. It wasn’t my best park job—of that I was fully aware. I wasn't quite centered and was a little too close to the car on my right side. But honestly it wasn’t that bad. It just needed a little straightening out! I planned on re-parking just as soon as I texted Rob back and put my phone away. But, moments before putting my car into reverse, I looked out my window to see a very ticked off chick squeezing out of her car, giving me the death glare. Right as I was about to mouth “sorry” she angrily put her face to my passenger window, gave me the bird, and sneered “nice park job” (with at-ti-tuuuude) and stomped off. Sheesh!! The last thing I expected to happen at the grocery store was to be flipped off! So I re-parked faaaaar away lest I come back to my car to find that it had been keyed, and headed into the grocery store. So much for a painless experience!

Moral of the story: Someone out there dislikes grocery shopping more than I do.

Fate must have brought us together.