Wegmans and Crowds

I made the enormous mistake of going to Wegman's yesterday.

If you are not aware, Wegman's is the best grocery store in the U.S.

Think Whole Foods meets affordable, and throw in Trader Joe's, and then high-quality produce and products at a reasonable price. Well, as reasonable as we have these days under tariffs and the big orange peckerhead.

I had the stupid idea that the grocery store would be slower than normal since everyone is in a food coma or driving/flying home.

Oh, I couldn't have been more wrong.

Traffic getting there was heavy. 

Okay, I'm on the highway, so maybe it's just the Thanksgiving rush home.

Apparently not. All going to Wegmans I swear.

By the time I got a parking space, it was pouring down rain.  I saw that Rick had a baseball cap on the passenger seat, so I grabbed it and walked to the entrance. I was drenched by the time I got inside.  

I grabbed a cart, and a man jumped in front of me and grabbed a cart, making me have to stand there and wait for him or run him over. I seriously contemplated running him over, but I didn't feel like being arrested.

There was no meandering. The aisles, which are so wide, were cramped.  I needed some frozen spinach, so I had to climb. I opened the door to the frozen food and had to step on the ledge because the spinach was on the top shelf.  An employee walked by and said, "Can I help you, ma'am?"  

By this time, I had them in my hand, and I jumped down, smiled, and said, "No, but thank you."  Ooooh, he gave me a look.

Several aisles later, I was attempting to get a couple of tomato pastes on the top shelf and pushed back a bit.  I looked around.  I saw a tall man and asked him if he could reach those for me. He said I can reach them and walked away.

Funny.

I don't think I appreciated it when I was young, and men fell all over me or followed me around a store.  

I am now at an age where I am invisible, and sometimes it sucks.

So just as I put my foot on the bottom shelf, the same damn man came by and said, "Ma'am, please don't climb on that," as he reached for my tomato paste.  

As he does this, I suggest he move those cans left to the front for other shorties so they don't climb.

I got the look. But he did it. 

Damn, is that guy following me?

Then I went to the gluten-free aisle for some soup and bagels.

This time I had to get on the floor.

I got on the floor, reached back for the bagels, and when I got my head out of the shelfing, I realized  - shit, now I have to get up.

So there I am in aisle 27 laughing while on the floor.  

I grabbed the bottom shelf and prayed it would hold me as I used it to help me push myself up. Whew!  It held.  But where the hell was that man now?  

But I do amuse myself.

What should have been a quick trip to Wegman's ended up being a very long time of shopping.  I was finally free, and as I was walking in the rain to my car, I saw a woman just push her cart, and it missed the entire covered shopping cart container.

I mutter some choice words.  Why are people so messy with their carts? 

Yes, some people are paid to go fetch them. 

But you don't need to throw them all about the parking lot for Pete's sake.  

Anyway, after I empty my cart, I walk it back to the little 'hut' for your carts.  I put mine inside the one put in last. I had a smaller cart, and those on the right were all the small ones.  

The other side was a mess. I grabbed the cart that the woman threw, and I put it in the large cart side and straightened them all out.  

I turned around to go to my car, and this gorgeous man was standing there watching me and smiling.   He said, "So you are one of those." 

"So I've been told, I tell him."

He laughed and said, "I have a daughter like you. I didn't bother you, I just let you do what you NEEDED to do."  

He wouldn't stop smiling or perhaps laughing at me. 

I said, "Well, thanks.  Have a great day!  It's crazy in there, you've been warned."

He looks shocked. 

"Really?  I thought it'd be dead today."  

"Well, great minds think alike; I did as well." 

In other great news.

Campbell's Soup has made some soups gluten-free.

I made a casserole last week that Rick likes, and I used a can of Campbell's tomato soup. I just didn't eat any of it. 

But I saw Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom at Wegmans, and I grabbed several.  I will normally make Cream of Mushroom soup from scratch, but seriously, I'm an old broad, I don't wanna. (Did you hear that whine?)

So I'm off to make a casserole like a good 1960s Midwest housewife. 

🤞 hoping this turns out. It's cold, and he wanted comfort food.

It's cold, and I want to be on a sunny, warm beach. 

We are different.