grocery shopping

I have a love-hate relationship with the grocery store. On one hand, I love having a stocked kitchen and a decent selection of what I eat everyday. On the other hand, I HATE going to the grocery store. People tend to stop their carts in the middle of each aisle with no regard to who might be waiting (and waiting and waiting) for them to move to the side or go forward just another few feet. I prefer to get in and out of there as quickly as possible and like to think that I hold the record for the fastest grocery shopper in Ada County--so fast that I really could win big on Supermarket Sweet. When I finally get to the check-out line, I almost always pick the slowest checker who seems to find it fun to strike up a conversation about the weather, making my stay at the store even longer. And finally, when all is said and done, I've spent entirely too much money on food that will last only a short while.

So you guessed it--today I had to go grocery shopping. I usually just shop by the week and pick up whatever is cheapest at the Albertsons just a few miles down the road. Today, in true procrastination practice, I decided to go to WinCo for my grocery shopping and pick up stuff for more than just a week. WinCo, for those who don't know, is the somewhat-ghetto grocery store, where you have to bag your own groceries and nearly everyone is lacking in shopper etiquette that seems to be just a bit more apparent in Albertsons or Fred Meyer. But it's cheap, and I like cheap. To make my excursion even more dramatic, I was in a pretty pissy mood and really was not looking forward to faking a smile and saying, "excuse me" every time I turned a corner. For some reason, I left WinCo today in better spirits than I was in when I entered. Maybe it was the fact that no one was blocking my way when I was bagging my groceries, or the fact that I had all of my groceries bagged by the time the checker started next person's cart, or maybe even the fact that I got a ton of groceries for roughly $70, when it would have cost me $150 at Albertsons. I don't know what it was about, but I do feel better--still irritated, but better. And I have a full kitchen.