Shopping for Two

I found myself at the grocery store yesterday, completely baffled. Only I wasn’t baffled because I was at the grocery store. I had a list with food items on it, so I was where I needed to be. No, the confusion came because of the oddity of the moment. Let me explain.

All of the kids are gone to the grandparents for a couple of weeks. This magical phenomenon happens a couple of times a year. After waving them goodbye, I always run maniacally through the house cleaning up. Every room gets a good, solid hit. All trash cans are emptied, all sheets are changed, all clothes are washed, and all toys are picked up. I scan the recent movies out in the theatre. I schedule appointments that just aren’t convenient to take kids to. And I go through all of my “sometime when the kids are gone” recipes searching for things that I want to cook.

I’m not a huge fan of the short-order supper cooking. Oh, sometimes I do it. But mostly I try to plan meals that include multiple items so everyone can find at least one thing that they will eat. That means processed chicken products, macaroni and cheese, rolls with butter and red-hot applesauce grace our table frequently. But when the kids are gone? Those menus take a momentary hiatus.

Which leads me back to the grocery store confusion. I wasn’t at the Wal-mart Supercenter, which was the first thing that was wacky. (Good thing it wasn’t Wednesday, or I might have gone right over the edge, you know?) Second, I was alone and taking my time. And third, the things on my list and going into my cart were strange and unrecognizable.

I was in the produce section. I looked into my cart and realized that half of my list came from the produce section. Ok, that NEVER happens. I had things like red and green peppers, zucchini, green onions, tomatoes and fruit. The dairy section is usually pretty lengthy on my list. But today, I only had 1 gallon of milk in my cart, not 4. I had ricotta cheese, vanilla yogurt and honey butter biscuits. And the cheese? Not processed yellow squares. I had 5 Blend Italian and Muenster. I don’t even know how to pronounce that! The bread in my cart was croissants and English muffins. I looked down and saw raw shrimp and sirloin steaks and real ham in there. Where were the Pop-tarts? And the cereal? And the chips? Strangely missing. But oh, wait…there’s a box of crackers! But not cheese-its or goldfish. Nope, these crackers were the expensive large multi-grain kind. Faaaancy.

The bewilderment passed, but the odd feeling that I was temporarily living someone else’s life made me smile. I found my way to the checkout. Halfway through the process, the bored girl asked me how I was doing. For once I didn’t lie when I said I was doing great.