Foiled yet again . . .
So, I got up this morning with an urge to ride my bike to the bank. After dusting the house like I was supposed to, I got ready and stepped outside to get my bike when I noticed the tires were flat *sigh.* I had just finished downloading some new music to my iPodisaurus last night and was itching to listen to it so I figured, what the hell??? I'll just walk!
I had to cash my pay check anyway and I really didn't want to drive, so with SauriPod in tow, I started to walk down Charleston. A good ten or so minutes after I left the house, I hear a car horn beep behind me -- it was my Dad. "What the hell are you doing??"
I told him that I was walking to the bank -- how far could it be?
He laughed and told me I wasn't even a third of the way there.
I didn't care -- I knew it was going to take me a while but I was enjoying myself. The truth is, I had a feeling that might happen, not the brightest idea for a twenty-one year old female to walk through an unfamiliar neighborhood by herself, but I walk around downtown by myself everyday!
So needless to say, I ended up having to drive to get my paycheck. My Dad drove me home where I awaited my Mother who just laughed and said, "What the hell were you thinking?"
I felt like I was ten!
*sigh* anyway -- when I did finally get to my bank, I cashed my check and desided to do a little toiletry shopping. While I was standing in line, something accurred to me for which I never really realized:
People are always saying how big supermarkets are doing away with cozy little mom and pop stores and it is less intimate. I'd have to agree, but there was something I had never taken into account. Grocery stores can be just as cozy as any Mom and Pop store. Much like a Marrakech market, there are constantly people to talk to up and down the aisles. The familiar smell of bread down the bakery section and the familiar face of the check out clerk. My Mom has become friends with many of the check out clerks through the years and because there is always a supermarket near where ever you live, you constantly see the same people -- either neighbors, friends, locals, for which you can talk to and socialize.
I know my neighborhood Albertsons has become that for me. It's always fun when I run into the secretary at work that happens to live in the same area. Baggage clerks say hello, and the clerks at the full service Starbucks inside always recognize me and make fun of the coupons I bring in every now and then.
In short, I guess for an older generation of people, Supermarkets may seem detached -- cold and anticeptic from the small corner store markets they were used to, but to my generation and even a little older -- they equate to the same close and comfortable second home.
Maybe later, when there is no such thing as a supermarket anymore and all shopping is done through the internet, I will be older and more conservative, complaining that I remembered the days when grocery shopping was sociable. I can see it starting even now as places begin to establish their self checkouts, when now, instead of a cute little mother of two, I get to stare blankly into a touch screen and wait for my money to come shooting out of a small black slot at the side. I'll have to bag my groceries for myself, which is not a big deal, except for the fact that I wouldn't get that small smile from the pipply faced bag boy who asks if I need help out to my car as he works at his small job to save for a little car of his own.
But alas, things change . . . I only hope that it ends up for the best and not just for the best "intentions."
Ciao ragazzi
I had to cash my pay check anyway and I really didn't want to drive, so with SauriPod in tow, I started to walk down Charleston. A good ten or so minutes after I left the house, I hear a car horn beep behind me -- it was my Dad. "What the hell are you doing??"
I told him that I was walking to the bank -- how far could it be?
He laughed and told me I wasn't even a third of the way there.
I didn't care -- I knew it was going to take me a while but I was enjoying myself. The truth is, I had a feeling that might happen, not the brightest idea for a twenty-one year old female to walk through an unfamiliar neighborhood by herself, but I walk around downtown by myself everyday!
So needless to say, I ended up having to drive to get my paycheck. My Dad drove me home where I awaited my Mother who just laughed and said, "What the hell were you thinking?"
I felt like I was ten!
*sigh* anyway -- when I did finally get to my bank, I cashed my check and desided to do a little toiletry shopping. While I was standing in line, something accurred to me for which I never really realized:
People are always saying how big supermarkets are doing away with cozy little mom and pop stores and it is less intimate. I'd have to agree, but there was something I had never taken into account. Grocery stores can be just as cozy as any Mom and Pop store. Much like a Marrakech market, there are constantly people to talk to up and down the aisles. The familiar smell of bread down the bakery section and the familiar face of the check out clerk. My Mom has become friends with many of the check out clerks through the years and because there is always a supermarket near where ever you live, you constantly see the same people -- either neighbors, friends, locals, for which you can talk to and socialize.
I know my neighborhood Albertsons has become that for me. It's always fun when I run into the secretary at work that happens to live in the same area. Baggage clerks say hello, and the clerks at the full service Starbucks inside always recognize me and make fun of the coupons I bring in every now and then.
In short, I guess for an older generation of people, Supermarkets may seem detached -- cold and anticeptic from the small corner store markets they were used to, but to my generation and even a little older -- they equate to the same close and comfortable second home.
Maybe later, when there is no such thing as a supermarket anymore and all shopping is done through the internet, I will be older and more conservative, complaining that I remembered the days when grocery shopping was sociable. I can see it starting even now as places begin to establish their self checkouts, when now, instead of a cute little mother of two, I get to stare blankly into a touch screen and wait for my money to come shooting out of a small black slot at the side. I'll have to bag my groceries for myself, which is not a big deal, except for the fact that I wouldn't get that small smile from the pipply faced bag boy who asks if I need help out to my car as he works at his small job to save for a little car of his own.
But alas, things change . . . I only hope that it ends up for the best and not just for the best "intentions."
Ciao ragazzi