Sunday, September 7, 2008

Weekend Light

As I begin writing this on Saturday evening, I find I don't have much to write. Even Costco was uneventful today, although in keeping with tradition established the past few weeks, here's some of the stuff I put in the cart today:

Black jeans from Calvin Klein. I hate their commercials but Costco had these on sale for a decent price and my size just happened to be sitting on top of one of the piles (if you've ever bought clothes at Costco you know what a hassle it can be digging through the piles looking for your size since everything is in random order). Being that it was right on top, I figured this was my good luck, good fortune, most auspicious prosperity day so into the cart it went.

Finally I broke down after seeing this week after week and bought the smallest package I could find (each package has a different weight).

And that's it. Everything else was a rerun so I'm not mentioning it again. One thing I do want to say, though, is I am one of those obsessive types who has to place everything in its perfect position within the shopping cart. Refrigerated and frozen items all have to be stacked with each other to preserve their coldness; clothes have to be kept separate from everything else so as not to get anything on them; and the demi-baguettes have to be laid out flat on the cart with nothing on top to smash them. Them's the rules.

Today when I approached the checkout stand, one of the Costco pre-scanners was waiting to greet me. I always hate it when they do that because invariably they disturb the perfect order of the contents of my cart, leaving it in shambles for me to return each item to its proper place.

That's what the guy did today. He even turned my case of 12 individual yogurts upside down!! I was aghast. And he put something on top of my bread. Double aghast.

In the same OCD vein, on hot days I bring an ice chest with me to Costco with little packs of blue ice to keep the refrigerated items cool on the drive back. The box of yogurt is too big to lay flat, so I turn it sideways to make it fit in the cooler.

So, you ask, what is the difference between turning the box upside-down versus turning it sideways? I've pondered that. I've considered laying the cooler on its side to make the yogurt flat but then the top of the cooler won't stay put. I've thought of opening the box and putting the individual cups of yogurt in the cooler but that takes too much time plus the cups might get crushed.

So what I wind up doing is simply leaving it sideways and rationalizing that when I get home and transfer all the little cups to the refrigerator, the yogurt will slide back to the bottom of the cup and all will be well. And it is. At least I'm not doing this with a hot pizza.

Arranging everything in the trunk area of the car also requires careful logistics so that the cooler doesn't slide and smash something else back there.

I know, you're going, hmmm.. there's something wrong with him. Well after all, you're reading something written by a person whose 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Malone, wrote this about him in his student file: "Gets very upset if he gets messy."

As for the rest of Saturday, Julie and I went out to see my mom at her rehab place and she looked a lot better than last week and seems to be improving. It's easier for her to get around and the physical therapy is helping so hopefully she can return home soon.

Then we went out to my sister's new place to help her set up a few things. She moved a week and a half ago and has way too much stuff from her old place to fit in the new. There's boxes all over the place. I think by 2010 she might be completely unpacked but that could be optimistic. Here's a representative picture:

I was looking at that purple thing on the right side. I'm not sure what that is, since I didn't notice it when we were there, but the first thing I thought of was that scary ride at Disneyland (at least it was scary to me when I was little) - it's either the Sleeping Beauty or Snow White ride. I get those two mixed up. It's the one with the faces of the evil characters on the front of the car. That purple thing reminds me of the seats/back of the cars on that ride.

Today Julie tells me the Halloween theme chosen for her office this year is to dress like a Wizard of Oz character. She asked for suggestions. I told her to just wear regular clothes and tell her coworkers she doesn't have a costume and that's why she is looking for the Wizard- so he can give her one. She'll need to sing "If I Only Had a Costume," though. Or, dress up as a member of the California legislature because that way she won't have a heart, courage or brains all at the same time (but unfortunately no wizard could change that).

That all sounded kind of crazy, huh? I think I need a vacation. And that's just what I'll be doing this upcoming week, taking a respite from mi oficina vida loca and being a pinata to just take it easy and also, to try and actually write something of merit. Whether or not that happens, it's time for a break anyway - yippee!

With that, I'll end this entry that turned out to be longer than I expected it to be.

No comments: