Does anyone else think a trip alone to the grocery store qualifies as fun?

Yesterday, I had the day off from work, and a list of chores/ errands/ stuff I needed to do. My saintly mother offered to watch the kids for me for a few hours so I could:

go running, go grocery shopping, do laundry, and catch up with work emails/ clinical messages.

The day was lovely, and I got in a 45-minute “jog” (read: lots of walking) along the shore. This was nice, but I actually had more fun at the grocery store.

It was the first time in ages and ages that I’ve been to the grocery store without at least one child, and it was the first time in a very long while that I went to a real regular old grocery store. Usually we go to BJ’s Wholesale Club, Target, or Wholefoods. Somehow I haven’t been to a regular old grocery store in ages, and I wandered the looong aisles in wonder at the ridiculous variety of pretty reasonably-priced comestibles.

I remember once many years ago, when I was freshly returned from a two month medical missionary-type working trip to the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua. I had been living in a small town with no regular electricity, no running water, and a very busy hospital. We cooked over a little gas stove. We had no refrigeration, all food was bought fresh from a streetside market. We pulled water from a well to dump over ourselves for showers. And that was luxury. When I got back, one of the first things I did was go grocery shopping, and I remember feeling overwhelmed, and even a little disgusted… and yet oddly comforted. I could buy and eat anything at all that I wanted, even if it was totally crazy, like snow crab legs with thai chili sauce and fresh pineapple and Haagen Daz ice cream. I was home.

So yesterday, after a few months of being generally frazzled while shopping, I was kind of like a kid in a candy store. That’s a very close analogy. I had free time, with no screaming baby or grabby toddler. It felt amazing.  I kept picking up silly stuff to try, like individual applesauces, exotic stir-fry sauces, and wacky herbal teas.

AND I even bought a couple of lottery tickets. Not sure why. I think I was inspired by the little old lady who just won 336 million in Powerball.

Anyways, I had a blast, and came home with the milk, eggs and apples on my list, plus a bunch of other things… and I ended up spending close to 100 bucks.

Oops. I’ll definitely bring the kids next time.